Ding Lost Deliberately: Russia

'The match,' asserted FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, 'has been played at the highest standards of fair play, no investigation is required.'

Top officials of the International Chess Federation, commonly known as FIDE, have dismissed Russian Chess Federation President Andrei Filatov's demand of investigation into D Gukesh winning the decisive 14th game against China's Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship.

Gukesh, 18, became the youngest and the 18th World Chess Champion on Thursday, defeating World Champion Ding.

Soon after game 14 of the World Chess Championship, Filatov, in an interaction with the Russian news agency TASS, accused Ding of losing the game deliberately and demanded FIDE investigate the matter.

Filatov was reported saying that losing from a position that Ding was in was difficult even for a first class player. He accused Ding of losing the game deliberately.

When contacted about Filatov's charge, FIDE CEO Grandmaster Emil Sutovsky said: "Sounds like nonsense."

"The match," asserted FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, "has been played at the highest standards of fair play, no investigation is required."

Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com