Indian chess Schism: A north versus south battle to host the World Championship match

This article originally appeared in The Field’s newsletter, Game Points, on June 5, 2024. Sign up here to get the newsletter directly delivered to your inbox every week.

Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju has been the toast of the nation since he became the youngest person to win the FIDE Candidates in April. He was 17 at the time.

Now a year older, Gukesh is widely regarded as the candidate most likely to help India regain the lost glory of Viswanathan Anand’s reign. There’s a good chance this could happen, given that the reigning world champion Ding Liren of China has been grappling with mental health issues like depression and struggling to produce results at the chess board.

Against this backdrop, there seems to be a bigger battle brewing behind the scenes in the ever-growing Indian chess market.

On Saturday, FIDE, the International Chess Federation that governs the sport around the world, announced that it has received three bids to host the World Championship match between Ding and Gukesh. Singapore – a country with a sizeable population of both ethnic Chinese and Indians – has expressed interest in providing a neutral battleground for the big-ticket clash. But the two other bids raised some eyebrows: Chennai and New Delhi.

The two Indian cities, located on opposite...

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