While India is still celebrating D Gukesh becoming the youngest world chess champion in history after beating Ding Liren of China on Thursday, a fresh controversy has erupted. Russian Chess Federation president Andrei Filatov has accused the Chinese maestro of deliberately yielding to his 18-year-old rival.
Andrei Filatov wants the World Chess Federation (FIDE) to probe Ding Liren as he found the blunder the Chinese made unbelievably naive for a player of his standards. Liren lost the final game of the best of 14 World Chess Championship to Gukesh from a very safe position, the Russian Chess Federation president said.
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According to Ukrainian chess coach Peter Heine Nielsen, who cited Russian news agency TASS while sharing Andrei Filatov's thoughts about Ding Liren, Gukesh's triumph was a matter of bewilderment for the chess fraternity. Accusing the Chinese Grandmaster of giving up the match on purpose, the Russian said, “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. 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.”
Is Russia concerned about Gukesh's world title?
Interstingly, ahead of Gukesh's historic win in Singapore on Thursday, Russian great Garry Kasparov held the record for being the youngest world chess champion in history. When Kasparov became the world champion for the first time in 1985, he was 22 years, six months and 27 days old.
How Gukesh D defeat Ding Liren?
The teenager secured the requisite 7.5 points as against 6.5 of Liren after winning the last classical time control game of the 14-game match that seemed headed for a draw for most part. He won the 14th game against Liren after 58 moves in four hours. If Thursday's game was also drawn, winner was to be decided in shorter duration tie-breaks on Friday.
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Gukesh had won the third and 11th rounds before Thursday's decisive game, while the 32-year-old Liren emerged victorious in the opening and 12th games. All other games were drawn in the match.
Gukesh had entered the match as the youngest ever challenger to the world crown after winning the Candidates tournament earlier this year. He is the second Indian after the great Viswanathan Anand to win the global title. Anand, a five-time world champion, had last held the title in 2013 before going down to Magnus Carlsen