Introduction
Chess, regarded by hobbyists as just a board game, but to professional players, very well a gentleman's sport. I sit down on the beige-coloured plastic chair and cross my arms after donning my jacket. Surrounding me are around a thousand more chairs, the hustle and bustle, music to my ears, perhaps I'm too used to such a big open tournament already. Just then, my opponent arrives and I stand up to shake his hand 15 minutes before the round is slated to start and then we both take a seat. I make sure once again that my pieces are exactly in the centre of the squares on the chessboard before we exchange our scoresheets to write each other's names. I open my mouth and ask "How long have you been playing chess?", he mutters "2 years or so...", exhibiting slight anxiety. I smirked and nodded my head. 15 minutes later, the game starts and within 1 hour of the 60+30 game, I force him to resign in a dead-lost endgame.
So, why did I give this small anecdote of my experience in a classical tournament? It is because the feeling of the World Chess Championship is obviously different. Not taking into account the audience, it is simply two players, playing over a wooden board, wooden pieces on a table that probably would already cost 2 grand, on a stage, just like performers. I can definitely assure you, there will be little to no noise and definitely no 1 hour game, the game would likely last 6 times longer, and I assure you, even though the players are only playing one game a day, it is mentally torturous, calculations, tactics, strategy, everything is important, yet a gruelling 6 hour game can simply end in a draw, instead of anything decisive. Now you know, it's high level chess you are looking at, not Scholar's mate, which you probably blunder on a daily basis.
How a World Championship Game would look like - 2021 World Chess Championship between Magnus Carlsen & Ian Nepomniachtchi
Background of the World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is highly regarded as the most prestigious tournament of likely all-time, the second likely being the Candidates tournament in modern day as it is the only way to qualify for the World Chess Championship as a challenger to the title, at least since its first edition in 1886, between Steinitz and Zukertort, in which Steinitz duly won.
A famous photo of the 1st World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz
Over the years, the world championship has seen many legendary players, like Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Bobby Fischer, Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen win the coveted title. It's not all just about the games, although the championships have of course produced many immortal and phenomenal chess games over the many decades and centuries. It is also about the cities that have hosted the World Chess Championship, some notable ones being Moscow, New York City and the most recent one in 2023 was hosted in Astana, Kazakhstan, with both Ian Nepomniachtchi, the winner of the Candidates 2022 and Ding Liren, the runner-up of the Candidates 2022 battling it out for the title of World Champion following the withdrawal of then reigning world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen. Nepomniachtchi, having challenged, but lost to Carlsen in 2021, had a chance to redeem himself that he would at least be Carlsen's second after winning the Candidates two years in a row, in both 2020-2021 and in 2022. The classical portion ended with a 7-7 tie despite quite the rollercoaster ride for both players and it was eventually Ding who edged out Nepomniachtchi in that one game to win the World Chess Championship 2023 with a 2.5-1.5 in the rapid tiebreaks.
Ding Liren getting emotional after winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2023 as Nepomniachtchi leaves the playing hall
World Chess Championship 2024: A New Era
The Candidates 2024, was eventful to say the least. To sum up everything, Nepomniachtchi, despite managing to not lose a game at all, drew with US-grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, which led to them only both getting 8.5 points, half a point behind Dommaraju Gukesh, who had 9 points after drawing Hikaru Nakamura, who needed a win to keep his World Championship dreams alive. In the end, Gukesh edged over the whole pool of elite grandmasters and at the age of 17, became the youngest player to win the Candidates and play in the World Chess Championship.
The match between Gukesh and Hikaru in the last round of the Candidates 2024, which he drew and eventually allowed him to win the whole tournament
In recent years, there have also been many rumours about Ding's declining mental health and his absence in many high-level tournaments following his World Championship win. According to a Hindustan Times news article, Ding says him being emotional and out of sorts during last year’s World Championship was a “different story” from the mental health issues he fought after the title. “Earlier, I wasn’t emotional. After some things happened in life, I’ve become more emotional. Now after each loss…how do I put it.. I’m very sad, very upset.” and he also said that he battled depression following the win. His most recent performance in Norway Chess 2024 held from late May to early June says it all.
Ding Liren finishing Norway Chess 2024 in last place, without winning a single Classical game and barely scraping some wins in the Armageddon games
So what is the best way to put it, a mentally-battered 31-year-old Chinese Ding Liren against a lively 18-year-old Indian Dommaraju Gukesh likely at his peak now, it really looks like the odds are in the Indian's favour, but it is up for debate for sure.
Singapore’s Chess Scene
Recently, Singapore's chess community has expanded greatly, likely from the Netflix series "The Queen's Gambit", content creators like "GothamChess" (a.k.a Levy Rozman), GM Hikaru Nakamura and also because people are bored at home at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, stuck at home and thinking, why don't I just pull up chess.com and see how much rating I can gain since I'm so bored and done with doing my homework. (totally not me). In 2022, the Singapore Chess Federation hosted its largest and most prestigious chess event (or should I say festival) up to date, the SG Chess Festival 2022, which took place at the 5-star Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore, sponsored by chessable and FIDE. In addition to fringe rapid, blitz and team rapid events, the festival also featured the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel Prof. Lim Kok Ann Grandmaster tournament, an 8-player single round robin GM norm tournament which featured IMs and GMs like GM B "The Beast" Adhiban from India, IM James Morris from Australia and more. We can see, even at the height of the pandemic, the Singapore Chess Federation never fails to disappoint with large successful events like the SG Chess Festival. Also, for anyone interested, here's the playlist for the SG Chess Fest Blitz with the Stars event, just some games that were video recorded! Other than these events, there are also of course other events like the National Schools' Individuals and National Schools' Teams, which encourage competition between different primary and secondary schools, and involve those in tertiary institutions as well. The 75th National Schools' Individual Chess Championship achieved a record-breaking participation of 1606 students, 1200 of them were competing at Overseas Family School, while the others were stationed at Senja Cashew Community Club. It was a historical sight, we couldn't have imagined such a huge number of students and best of which, I arbitrated for the event in order to obtain my National Arbiter norm, which I will likely cover in my next blog with more details. The video produced by Overseas Family School of the 75th NSI 2024 is linked here!
I am spotted in the video (red circle) calling another arbiter to attend to someone else who was raising their hands!
Other than just events, let's talk about the masters in Singapore. Singapore has a total of 6 grandmasters, the highest title one can achieve in chess. The first 2 were Zhang Zhong and Wu Shaobin, both of whom had already gotten their GM title in China before moving to Singapore. The first local-born GM was Wong Meng Kong, who achieved this feat in 1999, followed by Goh Wei Ming, Kevin, after 21 years in 2020, then Tin Jingyao in 2022, at 21 years old and the most recent of whom, Siddharth Jagadeesh, who secured his last GM norm after his win over Russian GM Andrey Esipenko in the recent Sharjah Masters 2024, at just 17 years old. Now, you might be thinking, I've never heard of these names before, how good are they even? Well, I'm glad you asked, because now I'm going to dive deeper into GM Tin Jingyao.
Singapore's GM Tin Jingyao facing World No. 13 Super GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the FIDE World Chess Cup 2024
In Round 2 of the FIDE World Chess Cup 2024, Singapore's GM Tin Jingyao was paired against Azerbaijani super GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Given that Mamedyarov was World No. 13 in then and was also playing with home country advantage since the event was being held in Baku, Azerbaijan. After a peaceful draw in Game 1, Tin struck first against Mamedyarov on move 17 with pawn to g5, which evolved into a "risky, complicated and double-edged position", as described by Tin after the game. Eventually there were many back-and-forth mistakes but Tin capitalised on the last mistake despite both players being under time trouble and eventually upset Mamedyarov, stunning many by actually winning an elite grandmaster 1.5-0.5, advancing to the 3rd round of the World Cup. He was eventually knocked out by GM Rasmus Svane in the third round for taking a risk that backfired on him but he had made it the furthest a Singaporean chess player has ever had and it was a great achievement. Before this, Tin Jingyao claimed his most notorious scalp when he defeated American Hans Moke Niemann at the III Elllobregat Open Chess tournament in Barcelona, Spain, eventually finishing joint first with 7 points alongside GMs Amin M. Tabatabaei and Aditya Mittal, achieving a phenomenal performance rating of 2767 in that tournament. It is also good to note that Tin has also scored wins against top grandmasters like Richard Rapport, Aryan Tari and many more!
Singapore’s Bid for Hosting the Championship
On June 1 2024, FIDE published a short but official article, announcing that the host city bids have been submitted. The 3 cities were namely, New Delhi (India), Chennai (India), which was also the challenger, Gukesh's hometown, and last but not least, Singapore (Singapore). What a shock it was, wasn't it? The hosting budget for the WCC 2024 is a whopping USD $8.5 million. Given that the bid was successfully submitted, it is more than clear that the government and Sport Singapore would be going all in on this event if the most prestigious, high-level tournament was hosted here in Singapore. FIDE will be discussing with the 3 competing host cities in the FIDE Council meeting and claims to be able to come to a decision by the end of this month. (hopefully!) If Singapore were to really host the World Chess Championship, candidate locations would likely include the 5-star Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, which I have mentioned earlier, collaborated with the local chess federation to hold the biggest Singapore Chess Festival to date in 2022. Another option would definitely be the also 5-star Shangri-La Hotel, which most recently hosted the 22nd edition of Shangri-La Dialogue just a few days ago, featuring President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, and it's definitely a luxurious hotel for such a large event!
Benefits of Hosting the Championship in Singapore
1. Economic Benefits
This first benefit is pretty self-explanatory if you ask me, many chess officials, players and enthusiasts flying over to Singapore, generates more money as they will all live in hotels blah blah blah, nothing much...
2. Cultivation of Chess Culture
Everyone knows Singapore is a small country and obviously the number of grandmasters we have cannot compare to a big nation like the USA, even so, the chess community is not actually not that big, other than 'clubs' like Bishan Chess Club, Asia Square Tower Chess Meetup (Famous Chess Streamer 'Nemo' Zhou Qiyu played there during her time in SG) and perhaps the few tournaments in Singapore, I just sort of realised, I meet the same people again and again, despite having new people entering (and sadly exiting) the chess community occasionally. Imagine how the World Chess Championship would have an influence over Singaporeans, I predict, it would definitely spark an interest in the already extremely popular sport or board game, whatever you call it and that is what we need, more people to get rid of the stereotype that chess players are nerds or that chess is a lame game people with no friends play and is in fact, very much a gentleman's sport.
3. A Big Step for Chess in Asia
What do Gukesh, Ding, and Singapore have in common...? If you answered that they are in Asia, you're right! A young Indian superstar, a Chinese reigning world chess champion, and an economically prospering nation, all of which are in Asia. Not everything chess is about Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura or Alireza Firouzja from Europe or the USA, Asia has finally found its time to shine again (let's not take into account Russia) but this is simply the perfect combination, a wonderful World Chess Championship if it really was held in Singapore!
Singapore’s Strengths as a Host City
1. Strategic Location
Singapore has lots of connections, and also likely friends with every country in the world, I would not be surprised if they manage to invite both India and China's leaders to Singapore to watch proudly as their chess players make history in the small island of Singapore. The geographical advantage of a country at the equator, although it may be a little hot sometimes as it is almost always summer (stop! air-conditioning solves all of the problems 
) but it is also not susceptible to natural disasters! No need to worry about an earthquake during the World Championship match of course!
2. World-Class Infrastructure
Singapore is a first-world nation, I mean most people quite well off to say the least. The food, infrastructure, transport systems and accommodation options are also quite amazing as well. There's not much need to worry about not having a roof over your head and Singapore's title as a food haven and Garden in a City, everything is worth exploring in Singapore and of course, there's no single thing this island nation lacks, which leads me on to the next point.
Hawker Culture (along with its tasty food) has recently, in 2020, been included in UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage, maybe Gukesh would want a roti prata at one of these hawker centers?
3. Health and Safety
Singapore is also famed for its low crime rates and strict laws, earning itself the ironic oxymoronic nickname of 'fine' city. (get it? like as in fine city and city that gives out a lot of fines, HAHA, oh you didn't laugh, awh man, now I'm sad) That's besides the point, but you know that the safety in Singapore is mad crazy when the Trump-Kim Summit occurred in Singapore in 2018, well, everything went well! Other than that, there have been concerns in some Indian cities about the air quality, CLASSIC, who isn't a victim of air pollution? Even Singapore had it's haze phase (PUN!) when it's neighbouring country decided to just allow farmers to burn down whole forests! Well, I'm lucky to be alive to say, the forest is done burning already and it will likely never ever happen again for at least, the next few years. (or will it)
Overall, Singapore is quite an optimal country for hosting events, large or small, anything that benefits the community, (and its economy) we'll take it and if we do, we'll always do it to the best we can, and I'm 200% sure that's what Singapore can promise!
Challenges & Counterarguments
Singapore, is after all still a small country and there may be logistical complexities, one of which would be coordination of the safe travel of our fellow players and other accompanying person(s), and also whether there is even enough accommodation for everyone? (there is most definitely enough) However, we have to keep one thing in mind, Singapore doesn't just give up, they have hosted enormous events before, like the Youth Olympic Games and it is definitely not a country to be looked down on.
Competition with Chennai and New Delhi may be another challenge, but I am confident and the local chess federation has my full trust (not that it really matters??) that this event will be held successfully if hosted in Singapore.
Conclusion & Reflections
In a nutshell, Singapore has made it's bold move in the game, whether it is a brilliant move, or maybe an inaccuracy, we will never know, but one thing's for sure, its not a double-question mark blunder! On a serious note, Singapore is very capable to host such an event and am I surprised about this bid, well not really, it was more of like, I have been waiting for this to happen kind of feeling. However in the end, what matters is the enormous chess community in the world, the spirit of the game and in essence, the goal is simply to encourage (not force 
) more people to try chess and who knows, are we going to have a much larger scale 2nd chess boom nearing the end of 2024?
Well, in the end, I hope that this post has made everyone learn more about Singapore's bold bid to host the World Chess Championship 2024 and now, all that has to be done is to wait for the results of the host city to come out! Thank you to all for reading this post! 
