Legendary chess player Viswanathan Anand on Friday asked D. Gukesh to ignore those questioning the standard of the World Championship title showdown with China’s Ding Liren, saying criticism always comes with success.
Indian Grandmaster Gukesh made history on Thursday, becoming the youngest-ever to win the world title defeating Liren in the 14th and final game of the championship in Singapore.
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.”
Kramnik expressed his frustration over the game’s quality, calling a critical blunder by Ding Liren “childish”.
In his reaction, Kramnik wrote on ‘X’, “No comment. Sad. End of chess as we know it.”
In another tweet, he said, “Never yet has a WC title been decided by such a childish one-move blunder.”
Five-time world champion, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen too has been critical of the quality on display in earlier rounds, saying, “This does not look like a game between two World Championship contenders. It just looks like maybe the second round or third round of an open tournament.”
However, Anand, the five-time world champion and Gukesh’s mentor, said he saw “history being made by Gukesh”.
“I feel very happy. I was literally watching history being made yesterday,” Anand told PTI Videos.
“It (criticism) comes with every match. To be honest, I think it just comes with the territory. You ignore it and that’s all. You know Gukesh’s achievement, the whole qualification, everything and his concomitant rise. I mean if you look at the Olympiad, he showed that he’s actually become a much stronger player.
“He won the Candidates this year, so many good results in Toronto and he’s here. So this stuff (criticism) just comes with it. You cannot expect to become world champion and not face some random criticism,” added Anand.