India to propose Delhi as host for Gukesh-Ding world chess championship match (UPDATE: Singapore wins bid, 2.5 million $ prize fund)

[Gollum]

‘Yashobhoomi’ centre in Delhi to be pitched as venue for the World Chess Championship scheduled later this year

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India is set to propose Delhi as host for the World Chess Championship later this year between reigning world champion Ding Liren and 18-year Indian challenger, D Gukesh, it is learnt.

The India International Convention and Expo Centre, ‘Yashobhoomi’ in Dwarka, on the Delhi-Gurgaon border, is being pitched as the venue for the match by India in its bid.

According to government officials, a No Objection Certificate (NOC) has been granted to the All India Chess Federation to host the match. While it was believed that Gukesh’s hometown and India's chess hub, Chennai might be a natural choice, it is understood that a ‘central location’ was preferred by authorities.

The last date for bid submission to the international chess federation, Fide, is May 31. Fide is expected to make a decision on the host in June.

Inaugurated in September 2023 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ‘Yashobhoomi’ is among the world’s largest MICE (meetings, incentives, conference and exhibitions) facilities. The complex’s first phase covers a total area of 1.07 lakh sq.m. out of the planned 8.90 lakh sq.m.making it bigger than Bharat Mandapam, the venue for the G20 Summit in 2023.

'Yashobhoomi' was originally slated to be the G20 venue before construction delays forced a shift to Bharat Mandapam, another swanky, new convention centre in Delhi. The total cost of the ‘Yashobhoomi’ centre was announced to be ₹25,700 crore and Phase 1 is said to have been developed at a cost of ₹5400 crore, according to the PM’s office. The convention centre (73,000 square metres) comprises 15 convention rooms, including the main auditorium, the grand ballroom, and 13 meeting rooms and can house 11,000 delegates.

Fide is keen to have the match hosted at a state-of-the-art world class venue and has spoken of it being 'unacceptable' to conduct it in just another hotel room. “The financial aspect is of course important and so is the status of the venue proposed,” Fide director general Emil Sutovsky told HT earlier, when asked about the factors that would go into picking a host.

After the Candidates tournament in April this year, Fide issued a call for bids setting a minimum total budget of $8.5 million which includes a prize fund of at least $2.5 million and a Fide fee of $1.1 million. Fide justified the remaining $4.9 million that doesn’t fall under an expressly defined head as costs towards securing anti-cheating measures, broadcast and technological upgrades. Provisionally scheduled to be held between November 20 and December 15 this year, it will be a best of 14-game affair with the first to reach 7.5 points being declared winner.

India hosted the first six rounds of the 2000 World Championship in New Delhi and the final half was played in Tehran, Iran. It led to Viswanathan Anand being crowned world champion for the first time.

In the past two decades, India has hosted a World Chess Championship match only once, in 2013. The match between Magnus Carlsen and Anand was organised in Anand’s hometown Chennai at a cost of ₹29 crores. In 2011, then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa had met Fide president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and offered to host the 2012 match between Boris Gelfand and Anand in Chennai at a cost of ₹20 crores. The match, however, ended up being held in Moscow and the following year, the Carlsen-Anand World Championship was awarded to Chennai without bidding.

Singapore too has expressed interest to host the Gukesh-Ding match, in light of the country’s burgeoning chess scene. The South East Asian country sees itself as an ideal neutral venue with Chinese and Indian cultures being weaved into its society. They did, however, earlier touch upon the hosting costs being somewhat prohibitive.

Earlier this year, Singapore struck a deal with concert organisers to be the exclusive South East Asian stop for American pop superstar Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour – a hugely successful, multi-continent extravaganza. While it earned the annoyance of neighbouring countries, Singapore made a windfall out of it – tourists poured in and in-bound flight prices skyrocketed.

 

 

Edited July 1, 2024 by Gollum

[Gollum]

2000 FIDE WCC was jointly held by Tehran and New Delhi, which Anand won.

 

Anand subsequently won in 2007 (Mexico), 2008 (Bonn), 2010 (Sofia), 2012 (Moscow) before losing in 2013 Chennai. 

 

Hope Delhi is lucky for Gukesh as it was for Anand 24 years ago. 

 

@randomGuy you'll go to the match if it is held in Delhi? Other ICFers based in NCR?

[Gollum]

Ding's latest interview LINK Has a point, Carlsen never wanted WCC to be held in Norway either, Anand lost in Chennai in 2013, Topalov lost in Sofia (Bulgaria) against Anand in 2010. Chess is no cricket or football where vociferous fans can intimidate opponents and infuse energy to home side.

 

DING LIREN: "I don’t think there’s an advantage to playing the World Chess Championship at home. I prefer to play away from home. Be it in India or any other country, rather than China. If you play in your home country, there will be so many people who will come to meet you and give you a lot of pressure. It’s hard to deal with it."

 

 

Edited May 31, 2024 by Gollum

[randomGuy]

55 minutes ago, Gollum said:

2000 FIDE WCC was jointly held by Tehran and New Delhi, which Anand won.

 

Anand subsequently won in 2007 (Mexico), 2008 (Bonn), 2010 (Sofia), 2012 (Moscow) before losing in 2013 Chennai. 

 

Hope Delhi is lucky for Gukesh as it was for Anand 24 years ago. 

 

@randomGuy you'll go to the match if it is held in Delhi? Other ICFers based in NCR?

If it is played in November, then I will pray that Delhi doesn't win the bid because that's the same Parali burning time every year, it will be a PR disaster. Otherwise I would love to go if I am in the city and root for Gukesh.

[Gollum]

14 minutes ago, randomGuy said:

If it is played in November, then I will pray that Delhi doesn't win the bid because that's the same Parali burning time every year, it will be a PR disaster. Otherwise I would love to go if I am in the city and root for Gukesh.

Yeah man, India will get very bad PR if smog situation is bad, there will be a lot of coverage for an event like this. Singapore looked like a good choice, because of the huge Chinese and Indian population there, world class infrastructure, time zone for India/China etc. 

 

FIDE would like to wrap it up by mid December. Because we have world rapid and blitz around Christmas time and FIDE would want both Ding and Gukesh to play there as well. 

[randomGuy]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

Ding's latest interview LINK Has a point, Carlsen never wanted WCC to be held in Norway either, Anand lost in Chennai in 2013, Topalov lost in Sofia (Bulgaria) against Anand in 2010. Chess is no cricket or football where vociferous fans can intimidate opponents and infuse energy to home side.

 

DING LIREN: "I don’t think there’s an advantage to playing the World Chess Championship at home. I prefer to play away from home. Be it in India or any other country, rather than China. If you play in your home country, there will be so many people who will come to meet you and give you a lot of pressure. It’s hard to deal with it."

 

 

Indians do dominate the Tata steel events held in India but WCC is a different level of pressure but still I would love if it happens in Delhi at the right time (September - October the latest) ... Delhiites are quite outgoing people, would flood the venue for the prestigious event and the buzz would be amazing, prospects of another Indian world champion and the youngest ever!!

[Lone Wolf]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

Ding's latest interview LINK Has a point, Carlsen never wanted WCC to be held in Norway either, Anand lost in Chennai in 2013, Topalov lost in Sofia (Bulgaria) against Anand in 2010. Chess is no cricket or football where vociferous fans can intimidate opponents and infuse energy to home side.

 

DING LIREN: "I don’t think there’s an advantage to playing the World Chess Championship at home. I prefer to play away from home. Be it in India or any other country, rather than China. If you play in your home country, there will be so many people who will come to meet you and give you a lot of pressure. It’s hard to deal with it."

 

 

Wish it happens in China... No to India... Our media will put enormous pressure on young Gukesh.

Worst possible venue is Delhi & its jaahil media ecosystem.

Winning in China in front of Hans will be a different pleasure & a enormous achievement in Indian sports history.

[randomGuy]

19 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

Wish it happens in China... No to India... Our media will put enormous pressure on young Gukesh.

Worst possible venue is Delhi & its jaahil media ecosystem.

Winning in China in front of Hans will be a different pleasure & a enormous achievement in Indian sports history.

In china there'll be a good chance of foul play. If you could never find out if hans Neiman cheated on his own, then how you would be sure that ding didn't cheat with the CCP behind him? And multiple other possibilities, such as adding something in food of Gukesh?

[Lone Wolf]

1 hour ago, randomGuy said:

In china there'll be a good chance of foul play. If you could never find out if hans Neiman cheated on his own, then how you would be sure that ding didn't cheat with the CCP behind him? And multiple other possibilities, such as adding something in food of Gukesh?

Happens in movies only... This is sports & friggin Chess.

Chinese hold far more sporting events than us where Indians participate...

Edited May 31, 2024 by Lone Wolf

[randomGuy]

1 minute ago, Lone Wolf said:

Happens in movies only... This is sports & friggin Chess.

Chinese hold far more sporting events than us.

Haan Bhai it's chess that is why it is easier to cheat for fraud entity like CCP....they cheated in track and field (Asian games) , chess is much easier to cheat.

[Lone Wolf]

2 minutes ago, randomGuy said:

Haan Bhai it's chess that is why it is easier to cheat for fraud entity like CCP....they cheated in track and field (Asian games) , chess is much easier to cheat.

They are a sporting superpower... Even if they lose kuch nahi hoga.  

Why carry Pakistani mentality like that Raa Hindoo ki saazish everytime?

Kuch nahi hota.

Indians don't handle pressure of expectations that well anyway so it is better if it happens away or on a neutral venue... Looks like even Ding doesn't wants to play the finals at home.

[randomGuy]

3 minutes ago, Lone Wolf said:

They are a sporting superpower... Even if they lose kuch nahi hoga.  

Why carry Pakistani mentality like that Raa Hindoo ki saazish everytime?

Kuch nahi hota.

Indians don't handle pressure of expectations that well anyway so it is better if it happens away or on a neutral venue... Looks like even Ding doesn't wants to play the finals at home.

CCP is a special case. I don't say this for Russia USA japan Australia etc. who are also sporting powers. They(CCP)  didn't give their population data (people used to guess new born babies thru bcg vaccine, population on basis of salt consumption - when CCP realised this , they stopped publishing salt consumption data ..think how childish!!) , wrong GDP data. Obsession with pointless d*ck measuring contests to look good on international stage.

 

 

[Gollum]

4 hours ago, randomGuy said:

Indians do dominate the Tata steel events held in India but WCC is a different level of pressure but still I would love if it happens in Delhi at the right time (September - October the latest) ... Delhiites are quite outgoing people, would flood the venue for the prestigious event and the buzz would be amazing, prospects of another Indian world champion and the youngest ever!!

For Grand Prix events and other FIDE opens, rather low turnout in Delhi. Zhansaya Abdumalik withdrew because no one received her at the airport late night, it was an organizational mess. There was an incident with Humpy also a few years ago, and when Caruana and a few others played there some 15 years ago, they complained about the organization. 

 

Hope Modi cracks a whip on the chess federation, local administration and makes it a spectacle. Still this isn't an Olympiad with 190+ countries participating, organization shouldn't be that tough, chances of CWG like circus are less. At least playing venue looks state of the art, unlike Kotla in cricket. Also, Modi hai toh mumkin hai.......this government knows how to organize big events as they showed in last G20. 

 

Best of luck to Delhi if it hosts, pollution remains the main hindrance at that time of the year. 

Edited May 31, 2024 by Gollum

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, Lone Wolf said:

Happens in movies only... This is sports & friggin Chess.

Chinese hold far more sporting events than us where Indians participate...

Still WCC has a different level of privilege man, based on 150 years history of succession, from one champion to the next, 17 world champions till date going back to 1886. No other game/sport has this kind of legacy and aura of world champion. 

 

Chinese will be desperate to win, especially against an Indian, and foul play can't be ruled out. Anyway I think they can do their dirty tricks even outside China. Ding may be a nice guy, their ruling party is downright evil. 

[Vijy]

10 hours ago, Gollum said:

Still WCC has a different level of privilege man, based on 150 years history of succession, from one champion to the next, 17 world champions till date going back to 1886. No other game/sport has this kind of legacy and aura of world champion. 

 

Chinese will be desperate to win, especially against an Indian, and foul play can't be ruled out. Anyway I think they can do their dirty tricks even outside China. Ding may be a nice guy, their ruling party is downright evil. 

dirty tricks will happen. Gukesh (and India) has only two choices: (1) either block such tricks; or (2) use similar tricks.

[Gollum]

53 minutes ago, Vijy said:

dirty tricks will happen. Gukesh (and India) has only two choices: (1) either block such tricks; or (2) use similar tricks.

Indians are too bhola bala. 

[Lord]

Why not Chennai? its hub of our Chess greats.

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, Lord said:

Why not Chennai? its hub of our Chess greats.

Chennai hosted the last Olympiad, the biggest event in the chess world. Before that 2013 title match. Kolkata has Tata Steel rapid/blitz. Not a bad idea to rotate among other venues, generate more interest in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru etc. 

[Vijy]

15 hours ago, Gollum said:

Chennai hosted the last Olympiad, the biggest event in the chess world. Before that 2013 title match. Kolkata has Tata Steel rapid/blitz. Not a bad idea to rotate among other venues, generate more interest in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru etc. 

yeah, we should rotate

[Gollum]

Singapore to host 2024 FIDE World Championship between D Gukesh and Ding Liren

 

The Match, which boasts a sensational prize fund of 2.5 million USD, is set to take place between November 20 and December 15, 2024.

 

 

Singapore will host the 2024 FIDE World Championship Match

The defending World Champion, Ding Liren, will battle it out against the Challenger, Gukesh D. The Match, which boasts a sensational prize fund of 2.5 million USD, is set to take place between pic.twitter.com/2fL93Gpq6J

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 1, 2024