Key events
Preamble
Hello and welcome to day one of the World Chess Championship. Over the next few weeks, second-ranked Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and third-ranked Ding Liren of China will compete in a scheduled best-of-14-games match at the St Regis Astana Hotel for the winner’s share of a €2m ($2.2m) prize fund and the sport’s most prestigious title.
The legitimacy of that title, of course, is an open question. While this year’s championship match features two of the world’s top three, it’s the absence of the third which has threatened to overshadow the whole affair and largely neutered the stakes of the sport’s showcase event.
Magnus Carlsen, who was regarded as the world’s greatest player even before rising to the No 1 ranking more than a decade ago, has decided against defending his world title for a fifth time, citing a lack of motivation as the primary factor in a podcast finally confirming his abdication last summer. It marks only the second time in the 137-year history of world championship matchplay that a holder has opted not to defend his crown – after American grandmaster Bobby Fischer controversially forfeited the belt in 1975.
What’s left is a delicious matchup between Nepomniachtchi and Ding, even if critics including longtime world champion Garry Kasparov have branded it as an “amputated” event without the world’s best player involved.
Nepomniachtchi, 32, bounced back admirably from his demoralizing defeat to Carlsen in the 2021 world title match by winning the eight-man candidates tournament last summer in Madrid with a record 9½/14 score. He will start with the white pieces in today’s opening game after Friday’s drawing of lots and play under a neutral Fide flag, having signed an open letter last year condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 30-year-old Ding, who favors a more solid, methodical approach, rallied for second place in the candidates with a dramatic final-round win over the American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, clinching his spot in the world title match thanks to Carlsen’s withdrawal.
We’re roughly an hour away from the ceremonial first move, which will be made by Askhat Oralov, Kazakhstan’s minister of culture and sports, along with Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich. Plenty more to come between now and then.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s his lookahead to the world title match starting today in Kazakhstan’s capital.
