China's Ding Liren beat teenager Gukesh Dommaraju of India in the opening round of the world chess championship in a major confidence boost for the title holder on Monday.

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.

Indian grandmaster D Gukesh is currently playing the biggest tournament of his chess career as he lock horns against China's Ding Liren in a series of matches for the World Chess Championship title. The Indian is the youngest challenger for the world title.

The battle for the chess crown had an explosive start as Chinese star Ding Liren forced Indian challenger Gukesh Dommaraju to resign.

Ding Liren of China beat Indian teenager Gukesh in the opening game of the World Chess Championship, taking an early lead. Liren, with black pieces, overcame form issues, exploiting Gukesh's middle game complications.

This year’s World Chess Championship is expected to draw an audience of 200 million viewers across more than 80 countries, with an estimated 40 million viewing hours.

Playing with black pieces, Gukesh made a comeback of sorts, having lost to Liren in the opener of the 14-game showdown.

India Chess Grandmaster Gukesh managed to secure a spectacular win against Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship to stay on level terms.

With 40 moves to make in the first 120 allotted minutes without any increment, the complicated middle game had the desired impact on Liren and Gukesh was relentless in finding out some difficult yet perfect moves to increase the pressure.