Defending champion Ding Liren of China on Monday ended a long winless run to beat teenage challenger Gukesh Dommaraju of India in the opening game of their World Chess Championship match.

At just 18 years old, Gukesh is setting out on an ambitious journey to become the youngest world chess champion in history. He faces Ding Liren at Singapore's Resorts World Sentosa in a championship that traces its roots back to 1886.

Ding Liren was written off in some quarters -- though at no point by D Gukesh or his team -- but the doubters have been silenced emphatically. A solid win, the first time in 14 years a World Championship match has seen a result,