Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren spoke last week about his loss to India’s D Gukesh at the 2024 World Chess Championship in Singapore. Ding, the defending champion, made a costly mistake in the deciding game 14, making Gukesh the youngest ever world champion. After his loss to Gukesh, Ding was accused by Russian Chess Federation head Andrei Filatov of intentionally losing the game. Russian news agency TASS quoted Filatov as asking the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to open an investigation and examine the outcome.

Former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik also questioned the quality of the chess on display during the 14-game duel between Ding and Gukesh.

Despite the criticism, Ding has defended himself and Gukesh, insisting that the quality of the games isn’t that bad.

“Yes, I gave my best in the game and you could see how much time I used. I used a lot of time in the opening phase when I was unfamiliar with the position. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on. Or.” What is the idea behind the novelty? And sometimes I did a good job and sometimes I didn’t find a clear path to develop,” Ding told ChessBase India.

“But in every game his (Gukesh) time caught up with my time after thinking about it for a long time. So I can say that I played some quality moves despite spending a lot of time on it. The quality of the game wasn’t the case.” “Even when I had little time, I made some good moves even in less time,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gukesh secured the required 7.5 points to his Chinese rival’s 6.5 points after winning the 14th and final classic time control game of the match, which largely appeared to be headed for a draw. As the winner, he will receive a whopping $1.3 million (approximately Rs. 11.03 million) out of the 2.5 million prize money.