Gukesh and Ding receive support from Kasparov, Anand amid criticism over World Chess Championship

Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh made history on Thursday after defeating China’s Ding Liren in Game 14 of the FIDE World Chess Championship in Singapore. The 18-year-old not only became only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to be crowned world champion , he also became the youngest to achieve the feat, breaking the record set by Garry Kasparov in 1985 .

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Gukesh became the toast of the nation and was inundated with praises after fulfilling his childhood dream and capping off an incredible year with his triumph in the World Championship. However, there were those who criticised the quality of the event in Singapore and questioned whether it was even worth being called a World Championship match, especially after the manner in which Chinese GM Ding had lost Games 11 and 14.

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Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, for one, described the manner in which Gukesh had been crowned the 18th world champion as the "end of chess as we know it" , adding that the showpiece event in the sport had never before been decided by a “by childish one move blunder”.

Both Gukesh and Ding, however, received words of support from Kasparov and Anand, who are among the greatest players in the history of the sport. Kasparov admitted he has had his share of blunders and also recalled one during Anand’s 2014 rematch against Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen in 2014.

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“Gukesh impressively surmounted every obstacle and opponent in his path, especially considering his age, and nothing more can be asked. My thoughts on the historical world championship lineage with Magnus outside are known, but that is not the story today.

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“The level of play was quite high, at least equal to the previous match. Ding showed great resistance. As for the blunders, which world championship, or world champion, was without them? I had my share, and recall the double blunder in Carlsen-Anand 2014, g6. Matches take a toll,” Kasparov wrote in a thread on X following Gukesh’s victory.

Anand urges Gukesh to “ignore” criticism

Anand, who had become the first Indian to be crowned world champion after defeating Spanish GM Alexei Shirov in 2000, joined Kasparov in defending the quality of the World Championship in Singapore by urging his protege to turn a deaf ear to the harsh comments.

“I feel very happy. I was literally watching history being made yesterday. It (criticism) comes with every match. To be honest, I think it just comes with the territory. You ignore it and that’s all. You know Gukesh’s achievement, the whole qualification, everything and his concomitant rise. I mean if you look at the Olympiad, he showed that he’s actually become a much stronger player.

“He won the Candidates this year, so many good results in Toronto and he’s here. So this stuff (criticism) just comes with it. You cannot expect to become world champion and not face some random criticism,” Anand told PTI on Friday.

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Gukesh had been heavily tipped to be crowned world champion after his red-hot form, which was in direct contrast to that of Ding – who had not won a game in the Classical format since January. Ding, to his credit, managed to defy expectations of being steamrolled by the individual who had become the youngest champion in Candidates history and had also starred in India’s historic Chess Olympiad campaign in Budapest.

Not only did the 32-year-old Chinese GM catch Gukesh by surprise in Game 1, defeating him in 42 moves to go 1-0 up, he would later go level with the Indian at 6-6 with a 39-move victory in Game 12.

Ding was on the verge of securing a second consecutive draw in Game 14 on Thursday and taking the World Championship to the tie-breaks, where he would had the advantage over his opponent in the Rapid and Blitz formats, when a blunder in the 55th move resulted in the title slipping out of his grasp.