Gukesh and Liren will fight to become world champion from today, winner will get so many crores

Grandmaster D Gukesh has less burden of expectations and when he faces China's Ding Liren in the World Championship starting in Singapore from today, Monday, he will aim to become the first Indian to win this prestigious title after Vishwanathan Anand. Most of the chess world supports Gukesh because this 18-year-old Indian player has shown the patience to become a champion. Now it remains to be seen how he deals with the pressure of a big occasion during this fortnight-long tournament.

This year's tournament, for the first time in 138 years, will see two Asian players in contention. The prize money for the event is a whopping USD 2.5 million. Certainly, nobody would have predicted a possible clash between Gukesh and Liren as exactly a year ago, the Chinese player was already the defending champion while the Indian had to cross huge hurdles.

Gukesh would be seeking to break India's title famine now running for a decade ever since five-time winner Viswanathan Anand had lost his title to Norwegian genius Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Anand is the solitary Indian winner of the event and is desperately waiting for Gukesh to join him on the list of winners after having played a significant role in grooming him at his chess academy in Chennai.