THE BEST OF CHESS AND MORE

S,pore world c'ship's side events include fan zones with grandmasters and exhibitions

- Melvyn Teoh

It will be a super few weeks of chess in Singapore as the country stages the World Chess Championship from Nov 25 to Dec 13 at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).

China's defending champion Ding Liren will face India's challenger Gukesh Dommaraju in the best-of-14-games main event.

Each player will earn US$200,000 (S$268,500) for each game he wins.

The event, which has tech giant Google as the title sponsor, has a total prize purse of US$2.5 million, with the winner bagging US$1.3 million if the match goes to tiebreaks.

Ding's mental state ahead of his upcoming clash with the youngestever challenger has drawn significant interest within the chess community, with many experts tipping Gukesh to win.

The reigning champion, who opened up on his mental struggles in September, told Chess Base: "At the end of the day, a match is a match. It's between two players.

"When one player starts to hit his stride, how the opponent reacts depends on their experience and how they handle the situation at the moment."