Gukesh on criticism from Carlsen and Kramnik: 'Matches are decided not purely by chess, but by who has better character'

New chess world champion D Gukesh of India has played down the criticism from former champions Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, who have constantly questioned the quality of the World Chess Championship 2024. Gukesh became the chess world champion by beating Ding Liren of China in the World Championship 2024 which finished on Thursday at the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.

Gukesh won the 24-game series 7.5-6.5 to become the youngest chess world champion of all time at 18.

Russian Grandmaster Kramnik has been quite critical after a last-ditch blunder from Ding in Game 14 resulted in Gukesh winning the World Chess Championship 2024. “No comment. Sad. End of chess as we know it,” Kramnik wrote on X.

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‘Character also decides world championship matches’

Asked about the questions over the quality of chess in the World Chess Championship 2024, Gukesh said he is “not really” hurt by Carlsen and Kramnik’s comments as world titles are not won just by high-quality matches but also by willpower.

“I get that maybe in some of the games, the quality was not high but I think the world championship matches are decided not purely by chess but by who has the better character and who has the better willpower. And I think those qualities, I did show quite well,” he told BBC.

The Indian chess Grandmaster also added that it was his first World Chess Championship and it took time for him to adjust to the competition, but he managed to capitalise in the “critical” moments.

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“And the pure chess part, it was not at a very high level as I would have liked it to be because it’s a new experience for me. So the workload was different, the pressure was different,” Gukesh said.

“It’s understandable that I was a bit off but I managed to strike at the critical moments, which I am happy about,” he added.

As a result of winning the World Chess Championship 2024, Gukesh took prize money worth $1.35 million (Rs 11.34 crore approximately) while Ding won $ 1.15 million (Rs 9.66 crore approximately).