Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren has addressed the controversy following his loss to India’s D. Gukesh at the 2024 World Chess Championship in Singapore. Ding, the defending champion, made a significant error in Game 14, which allowed Gukesh to become the youngest-ever world champion. Following the defeat, Ding was accused of deliberately losing by Andrei Filatov, head of the Russian Chess Federation, who urged the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to investigate the outcome.
Amid the criticism, Ding defended both himself and Gukesh, asserting that the quality of the games was not poor. “I tried my best in the match, as you can see from how I used my time. I spent a lot of time in the opening phase, trying to understand the position, the idea behind the novelty, and how to play my pieces. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I didn’t find a clear way to develop,” Ding said in an interview with ChessBase India.
He continued, “Even when I was low on time, I still made good moves, and Gukesh, after his own long thoughts, eventually caught up with my time. The quality of the games was not as low as some people suggested.”
Gukesh won the match with a total of 7.5 points, compared to Ding’s 6.5, after securing victory in the final classical game. As the new world champion, Gukesh takes home a prize of USD 1.3 million (approximately Rs 11.03 crore) from the total prize pool of 2.5 million dollars.