CHENNAI: Three cities, including Chennai, are in the running to host the chess World Championship final between Ding Liren and D Gukesh. Singapore and New Delhi are the two cities in the reckoning.
"Three bids to host the FIDE World Championship Match-2024," Emil Sutovsky, CEO of the world governing body, FIDE, posted on X on Friday.
"Chennai, Singapore and New Delhi. All meet the criteria. Next week, FIDE Council to discuss it -- representatives of the bidders invited to share details and take questions. Final decision in June." May 31 was the deadline to send the bids.
Going by Sutovsky's post, Chennai was the first to submit the bid before New Delhi and Singapore in that order. Out of the three, both Chennai (2013) and New Delhi (part-hosted in 2000) have previously hosted the final.
Gukesh, who won the Candidates in Canada in April, does like playing at Chennai, his home turf. In 2022, he won individual gold at the Olympiad. In December 2023, he won the Chennai Grandmasters event, the competition that helped him qualify to the Candidates as FIDE Circuit Leader.
Interestingly, the Chennai bid was made via the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu while the Delhi one was submitted via the All India Chess Federation. "FIDE wrote to the honourable chief minister of Tamil Nadu about entering the bid process," a representative of the TN government told this daily. "After deliberations and discussions including with FIDE and taking clearance from the highest level of Government, SDAT submitted the bid representing the Tamil Nadu government," confirmed SDAT member secretary Meghanatha Reddy.
The final is slated to be held in a 20-day period from the third week of November to the second week of December.