Picture Credit: X
Indian GM Dommaraju Gukesh became the new world champion of chess after defeating his Chinese counterpart Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024 match with a scoreline of 7.5-6.5 in Singapore a couple of days ago. Shortly after, multi-time former world chess champion Magnus Carlsen wasn’t quite pleased with the quality of Dommaraju Gukesh’s title match, to which the 18-year-old responded, stating that he isn’t hurt by the Norwegian’s sentiment.
Notably, in the Game 14 of the World Chess Championship 2024 match, Dommaraju Gukesh, who had the black pieces, pushed Ding Liren to his absolute limit with the tie-breaker looming large, and ultimately the Chinese crumbled under pressure. A sudden blunder in the latter stages of the Game 14 from Ding Liren allowed Gukesh to capitalise on the situation to win the title match in his very first attempt, becoming the youngest world champion in the history of chess.
I get that maybe in some of the games, the quality was not high: Dommaraju Gukesh
In the aftermath of Dommaraju Gukesh title win, Magnus Carlsen went on to remark that the World Chess Championship 2024 match was like “a second or third-round match of an open tournament,” wherein the blunders were the deciding factor, while Vladimir Kramnik called Ding Liren’s mistakes in key moments as “childish.” When Gukesh was asked about whether he was hurt by comments made by Carlsen about his title match against Liren, he was quoted as saying, during his interview to the BBC World, “Not really.”
Dommaraju Gukesh also explained that the quality of some of the games in the World Chess Championship 2024 match wasn’t quite high, but at the same time, he reminded everyone about how these long and arduous contests are often won and lost due to the player's character. He remarked, “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.”
