New Delhi: Amid heavy criticism from former World Champions over the quality of the D Guksh vs Ding Liren World Championship final in Singapore, International Chess Federation (FIDE) president Arkady Dvorkovich on Friday said mistakes in sports are part and parcel of the game and fingers should not be pointed at players of this calibre for an error in a high-pressure situation.
In the dying stages of the last game (14th), defending champion Ding committed a blunder that allowed the 18-year-old Indian challenger to turn the tables in the final, which seemed like it was heading towards an inevitable tiebreak. Ding’s mistake was slammed by former champion Vladimir Kramnik, who termed it “childish”. The Russian Chess Federation chief went to the extent of calling Ding’s mistake “deliberate” and demanded an investigation.
The FIDE president, however, downplayed the criticism surrounding the quality of the final, which Gukesh won, making him the youngest-ever world champion in the history of chess.
“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 closing ceremony of the championship.
He congratulated Gukesh and Liren for their performance in the showpiece.
Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik was not impressed with the quality of chess on display during the match, calling it the “end of chess as we know it.”
In his reaction, Kramnik wrote on ‘X’, “No comment. Sad. End of chess as we know it. Never yet has a WC title been decided by such a childish one-move blunder.”
