How much did Gukesh D and Ding Liren earn in prize money at FIDE World Chess Championship 2024?

Gukesh will now defend his title in the 2026 edition of the tournament.

Dommaraju Gukesh was crowned the youngest FIDE Chess World Champion after beating China’s Ding Liren in Round 14 of the FIDE World Chess Championship final match on Thursday. The final round of the event seemed to be heading towards a draw before a fatal error by the Chinese Grandmaster handed Gukesh the opportunity to steal a win from an unlikely position.

The win in Round 14 was the third and deciding win for the Indian youngster after he finished on top in the third and 11th Rounds. Ding Liren finished the tournament with two wins, one each in the first Round and the 12th Round.

Gukesh D is WORLD CHESS CHAMPION!! ♟🇮🇳He defeats Ding Liren of China to become the youngest-ever classical World Chess Champion! 🏆📸 @FIDE_chess#Chess #GukeshDing pic.twitter.com/XtyXsFvLrA

— Khel Now (@KhelNow) December 12, 2024

In the end, the 18-year-old Gukesh finished the World Championship with 7.5 points opposed to the 6.5 points won by the reigning World Champion.

With the win, Gukesh became only the fourth Asian and the second Indian Grandmaster ever to have been crowned as the undisputed Chess World Champion. Vishwanathan Anand is the only other Indian to have achieved the feat while competitor Ding Liren and Uzbekistan’s Rustam Kastimdzhanov are the only other Asian former undisputed Chess World Champions.

Also Read: Top five greatest Indian chess players of all-time

How are the earnings calculated for the FIDE World Chess Championship?

For the 2024 edition of the FIDE World Chess Championship, the total prize pool was $2.5m. Since there were 14 rounds in the final, for every round, the finalist who won the round would collect approximately $200k. The losing finalist of the round wouldn’t be awarded anything from the prize pool for that particular round. In case of draws, the finalists would split the round’s prize money equally.

What were the winnings of Gukesh D and Ding Liren from the Chess World Championship 2024?

So how much did the two finalists win in total? Simple math. Gukesh had wins in three separate rounds whereas he lost two rounds. He finished the rest nine rounds on equal terms with Ding Liren. So, Gukesh won approximately $600k through wins in three rounds.

Ding Liren, similarly, won two rounds and hence, collected $400k through his wins. His $400k and Gukesh’s $600k account for $1m of the total $2.5m prize pool. The remaining pool is split equally between the two players for playing out the nine draws.

So, Dommaraju Gukesh finished the tournament with approximately $1.35m whereas Ding Liren finished the tournament with $1.15m.

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