A World Championship match will be held again this year. From 24 November to 12 December, defending champion Gukesh Dommaraju (20, India) and his challenger Javokhir Sindarov (21, Uzbekistan) will face each other in a 14-game match to determine the new world champion.
The World Championship match will take place in Geneva, more precisely in Cologny, a suburb of Geneva. The games will be played there at the Fondation Martin Bodmer. The prize fund is 2.5 million US dollars, provided by software company Salesforce as the main sponsor and Timur Turlov's Freedom Holding as co-sponsor.
Behind every world champion stands a strong team
The two young players will, of course, try to show their best chess. To make that possible, a team of helpers works in the background. It is the "hour of the seconds" (Stunde der Sekundanten), as Alexei Suetin once described his work for Tigran Petrosian.
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.When Gukesh played his World Championship match against Ding Liren two years ago, he was able to count on the support of his compatriot Viswanathan Anand. The former world champion had played several World Championship matches during his career and was able to share his wealth of experience with Gukesh. He knows how important a good team of seconds is for such a match. Anand himself was certainly not involved in Gukesh's concrete preparation, but he passed on some of his own former helpers to his successor.
Grzegorz Gajewski and Radoslaw Wojtaszek, among others, were part of Gukesh's team. Gajewski had been Anand's helper in more recent years. Wojtaszek assisted Anand in several World Championship matches. The two Polish grandmasters also brought the strong Jan-Krzysztof Duda into the team. In Germany in particular, Vincent Keymer's involvement attracted attention. During the match, Keymer was based in Spain together with Wojtaszek and Pentala Harikrishna and supported Gukesh remotely.
Gukesh Dommaraju | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase
Remote control
As is well known, the World Championship match between Gukesh and Ding took place in Singapore, and for successful work by the seconds during a match, it is not necessarily a disadvantage if at least some of them are in a completely different time zone. While the game is in progress, there is nothing to do and the helpers can go to sleep. And when the players themselves are sleeping after the game, the seconds can do their work during the daytime in their own time zone.
It is quite natural for a player to hire mainly compatriots as seconds for his team. In the legendary Spassky-Fischer match, for example, the best Soviet players were part of Spassky's team and several Americans were on Fischer's team, even though Fischer did not listen to his people at all when it came to chess matters.
Compatriots preferred
It therefore comes as no surprise that Javokhir Sindarov will be supported, among others, by Nodirbek Abdusattorov as a second. Abdusattorov recently revealed this in an Uzbek podcast. These days, however, almost nothing remains undiscovered. Sindarov himself had already revealed that he is also preparing for the match against Gukesh with his regular coach, the Ukrainian Roman Vidonyak. Mukhiddin Madaminov will also almost certainly be part of Sindarov's team. He already helped him during the successful Candidates Tournament.
In Gukesh's case, all that is known is that Grzegorz Gajewski will again be on board. It would not be surprising if several others from Gukesh's 2024 team will be also involved again.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
The Benoni family of openings has toppled world champions, decided match games under the highest pressure, and rewarded those brave enough to play them with some of the most electrifying chess imaginable. In this Fritztrainer, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov - continuing his successful series "Understanding Middlegame Structures" - takes you deep inside the complexities of the Colour-Reversed Benoni, the Colour-Reversed Benko Gambit, and the Colour-Reversed Blumenfeld Gambit.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Colour Reversed Banoni - Game 1
There has always been a certain amount of secrecy surrounding seconds, because their names can offer clues about the openings being prepared. Before the Anand-Kramnik World Championship match in Bonn in 2008, Kramnik had housed his seconds in a hotel somewhere in Germany and prepared with them there. By chance, someone close to Anand saw the group having lunch and passed the names on to Anand. At the opening press conference in Bonn, Kramnik was then asked about his seconds. Kramnik gave a few names in an attempt to create a smokescreen. Anand was sitting next to him, listened to what Kramnik said and then remarked that he was surprised by those names. He had expected the following people instead: Anand then named the correct players.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov on their way to victory for Uzbekistan at the recent Chess Olympiad in Samarkand | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase
Sindarov is the favourite
After winning the World Championship title, Gukesh fell into a slump in form. In November 2024, his Elo rating was 2794. Two years later, it is only 2710. The world champion is now only number 28 in the world rankings. By contrast, Javokhir Sindarov's trajectory is upwards. With an Elo rating of 2782, the Uzbek is number 4 in the world. With a convincing victory over Gukesh, Sindarov might be able to overtake Caruana and Nakamura and would then be number 2 behind Carlsen. The Norwegian former world champion will probably not be caught before he eventually announces his complete retirement.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov is not the only one who sees his compatriot as the favourite in this World Championship match. Abdusattorov assesses the chances at 80:20. Of their three direct encounters in classical chess, Sindarov has won two games, while one ended in a draw.
But who knows? Gukesh proved to be a very resilient opponent against Ding, and as the saying goes, the truth is on the board.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
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