The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has reacted to the claims of China’s Ding Liren losing to India’s D Gukesh on purpose during the recently-concluded 2024 World Chess Championship match in Singapore. In the aftermath of Gukesh’s history success, Ding was accused of deliberately losing the match by Russian Chess Federation chief Andrei Filatov. Russian news agency TASS quoted Filatov asking the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to open a probe and investigate the result. For the unversed, Ding made a huge blunder in the decisive Game 14, moving the Rook adjacent to his King, which allowed Gukesh to become the youngest-ever world chess champion.
“The 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,” Filatov told TASS.
“Losing the position in which Ding Liren was is difficult even for a first-class player. The defeat of the Chinese chess player in today’s game raises a lot of questions and looks like a deliberate one,” he added.
However, FIDE chief Arkady Dvorkovich has rubbished the claims of Ding possibly throwing away the game deliberately.
Dvorkovich insisted that sports is all about making mistakes and bouncing back after that.
“Sports is about mistakes, without mistakes, there would be no goals in football. Every sportsman makes mistakes but that’s what we are excited about, whether the opponent can find the way to use a mistake,” Dvorkovich said during the tournament’ closing ceremony recently.
Meanwhile, Gukesh secured the requisite 7.5 points as against 6.5 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 1.3 million (approx Rs 11.03 crore) from the 2.5 million prize purse.
