• Ding wins Game 1 when Gukesh resigns after 42 moves
• Explainer: all your pre-match questions, answered
• Bluesky Bryan at @BryanAGraham or email him

Our Leonard Barden has filed his final dispatch ahead of today’s opening game. Barden, who’s written the Guardian’s chess column every week since September 1955, doesn’t divert from the general consensus in his assessment of the match.

The preliminaries are nearly over: who will win? I expect Gukesh to be cautious in the first few games, then to probe and push hard in the middle of the match. Ding’s 2024 form has been so wretched that it is difficult to see how he can keep his title. A 7.5-4.5 margin for Gukesh looks about right.