World Chess Championship 2024

The World Chess Championship 2024 will be a chess match between the reigning world champion Ding Liren and the challenger Gukesh D to determine the World Chess Champion. The match is provisionally scheduled between November 20 and December 15, 2024, with Singapore hosting the match. It will be played to a best of 14 games, with tiebreaks if required.

Defending champion
Ding Liren became World Chess Champion in April 2023, after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 championship match. After acquiring the title, Ding did not appear in professional tournaments for months, an absence which was later revealed to be due to an unspecified illness. Ding withdrew from tournaments including the 2023 Asian Games and did not enter the first four events of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour. He returned to classical chess in January 2024 at the 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament and announced that he still intended to defend his world title.

Candidates Tournament
The challenger, Gukesh D, qualified by winning the Candidates Tournament 2024 in Toronto, Canada, which was an eight-player double round-robin tournament. It took place from April 3 to April 22, 2024. Fabiano Caruana won the 2023 FIDE Circuit, albeit Caruana became ineligible to qualify via the FIDE Circuit, having already qualified for the Candidates through the Chess World Cup 2023. Hence, Gukesh qualified for the Candidates via the FIDE Circuit, after overtaking Anish Giri with a win at the Chennai Grand Masters tournament.

The eight players who competed were:

Match regulations and format
The regulations and format of the world championship remain the same of that in the 2023 edition.

The time control for each game in the classical portion of the match is 120 minutes per side for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting with move 61.

The match will be best of 14 games; a score of at least 7½ would win the world championship. If the score is equal after 14 games, tiebreak games with faster time controls will be played:


 * A match consisting of 4 rapid games with 25 minutes per side and a 10-second increment starting with move 1 would be played. If a player scores 2½ points or more, he would win the championship.
 * If the score is equal after the rapid portion, a mini-match of two blitz games would be played, with a time control of 5 minutes per side and a 3-second increment starting with move 1. If a player scored 1½ points or more, he would win the championship. If the blitz mini-match is tied, another mini-match with the same conditions would be played to decide the winner of the championship. A drawing of lots would take place before each mini-match to decide which player plays with the white pieces.
 * If both blitz mini-matches are tied, a single blitz game with a time control of 3 minutes per side and a 2-second increment starting with move 1 would be played, and the winner would win the championship. A drawing of lots would decide which player plays with the white pieces. If this game was drawn, another blitz game with reversed colours would be played with the same time control, and the winner would win the championship. This process is repeated until either player wins a game.

Players are not allowed to agree to a draw before Black's 40th move. A draw claim before then is only permitted if a threefold repetition or stalemate has occurred.

Location
Bids were originally to be presented to FIDE no later than 31 May 2024. Early interest was expressed in June 2023 by Argentina, India, and Singapore.

In June 2024, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky announced that FIDE had received three bids to host the championship, two from India (Chennai and New Delhi), and one from Singapore. In July 2024, FIDE announced that the match would take place in Singapore from 20 November to 15 December 2024, with four venues being considered.