'Extremely suspicious': Ding Liren accused of ‘deliberate' loss to D Gukesh, Russian chess head demands inquiry

Defending World Chess Champion Ding Liren found himself regretting a critical mistake during the 14th and final game of the FIDE World Chess Championship on Thursday which eventually handed Indias D Gukesh the title of the youngestever world chess champion Lirens blunder proved costly allowing the 18yearold Gukesh to seize the opportunity and make history While the chess community has largely celebrated Gukeshs remarkable achievement Russian Chess Federation president Andrei Filatov has cast doubt on the legitimacy of Lirens loss accusing the Chinese grandmaster of deliberately throwing the gameThe President of the Chess Federation of Russia FIDE honorary member Andrei Filatov accuses Ding Liren of losing on purpose and asks FIDE_chess to start an investigationFIDE_chess tassagency_en httpstcomPpSjwj2xK pictwittercomSANqHdhVEImdash Peter Heine Nielsen PHChess December 12 2024In comments to Russian news agency TASS Filatov called on the International Chess Federation FIDE to investigate the outcome of the final gameThe result of the last game caused bewilderment among professionals and chess fans The actions of the Chinese chess player in the decisive segment are extremely suspicious and require a separate investigation by FIDE he saidThe emotional moment that 18yearold Gukesh Dommaraju became the 18th world chess champion pictwittercomjRIZrYeyCFmdash Chesscom chesscom December 12 2024Filatov further expressed disbelief at Lirens performance arguing that losing from such a position was almost unthinkable for a player of his caliber Losing the position in which Ding Liren was is difficult even for a firstclass player The defeat of the Chinese chess player in todays game raises a lot of questions and looks like a deliberate one he remarkedAlso ReadIN PHOTOS Unseen childhood pictures of World Champion D Gukesh show early chess geniusGukesh secured the requisite 75 points as against 65 of his Chinese rival after winning the 14th and last classical time control game of the match that seemed headed for a draw for most part As winner he will walk away with a whopping USD 13 million approx Rs 1103 crore from the 25 million prize purseI was dreaming this moment for the last 10 years I am happy that I realised the dream and made it into reality the softspoken Chennailad told reporters after the historic triumphAlso Read Cricketrsquos mental guru Upton now chess champion Gukeshrsquos secret weaponI got a bit emotional because I was not expecting to win But then I got a chance to press on he addedThe triumph was expectedly hailed across India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailing it as historic and exemplary This is the result of his unparalleled talent hard work and unwavering determination Modi posted on XThe reticent teenager grinned widely and raised his arms in celebration after the victory a stark contrast from the poker face he usually sports while playing Even on Thursday when the analysts had proclaimed that the match in all likelihood would go into a tiebreaker Gukeshs face hardly gave anything away as he gained the upperhandIt was a momentary lapse of concentration by Liren in what seemed a drawn endgame and as it happened the entire chess world was left in a state of shock The players were just left with a rook and a bishop and Gukesh had two pawns against one trying to make a foray without much success However the ability to keep pushing for more gave Gukesh a distinct advantage over the Chinese and the latter simply collapsed to give the title to GukeshBefore Gukeshs feat on Thursday the legendary Garry Kasparov of Russia was the youngest world champion when he won the title at the age of 22 dethroning Anatoly Karpov in 1985Gukesh had entered the match as the youngestever challenger to the world crown after winning the Candidates tournament earlier this yearWith inputs from PTI