The International Chess Federation, or Fide, announced on Saturday that the sports governing body has received three bids for hosting rights of the men’s World Chess Championship match that is scheduled to take place later this year.
Fide announced that it has received bids from Singapore and Indian cities New Delhi and Chennai to host the title match between defending champion Grandmaster Ding Liren of China and Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju. The 14-round match is provisionally scheduled to take place between November 20 to December 15, 2014.
Gukesh became the youngest player in the history of the sport to win the prestigious Fide Candidates event in April, earning a spot as the challenger to Ding’s title.
With Gukesh, an 18-year-old from Chennai, winning the Candidates, there was an expectation that the All India Chess Federation, or AICF, would make a bid to host World Championships match. However, AICF opted to send New Delhi as their bid for host city to Fide.
According to a report published in The Hindustan Times however, the Tamil Nadu state government sent an independent bid for Chennai to Fide.
The Tamil Nadu capital has a long history with chess in the country, as a majority of the Grandmasters India has produced come from the state – including Gukesh and the country’s only World Championship winner Viswanathan Anand.
The city has also hosted the 2013 World Championships and recently organised the Chess Olympiad in 2022.
Fide is expected to make its decision on host city later this month.
