Grandmaster Richard Rapport, who was Ding Liren’s second at the chess World Championship, has said that the Chinese Grandmaster played better quality of chess than his opponent, D Gukesh, during the 14-game title match.
Speaking to Chinese Chess Association’s social media channel, the Hungarian said: “I think he played overall better chess than the opponent (Gukesh). It’s painful from him to lose last game this way. I can only imagine how he feels”.
Ahead of the final game, the scores were tied at 6.5 each with both players winning two games each. Game 14 was headed for an easy draw with tie-breaks looming before Ding, who was playing with white pieces, made a fatal error in the endgame that saw 18-year-old Gukesh become the youngest-ever world chess champion. Mind you, Ding was rated as the favourite had the match gone into the shorter-format tiebreaks.
Thoughts by @rjrapport on the #DingGukesh match:
“Of course it’s very painful to lose the last game this way. I can only imagine how [Ding] feels…I’m very happy he gave me the trust.” pic.twitter.com/xgYpqlNMNU
— Mike Klein (@ChessMike) December 14, 2024
“I’m proud of him and the way he played. He had two wins which is difficult to achieve (at the World Championships). Those two wins were at a very high level, completely outplaying the opponent in both games.
“Experts were skeptical based on his performances (in the lead-up to the event). We (his team) managed to put him in good shape where he had many good fighting chances till the very end,” Rapport, who was Ding’s second at the 2023 World Championship too, said.
After winning the title in 2023 against Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding struggled to deal with the pressure of being a world champion. His performances throughout the year had dropped and in the classical format, Gukesh was picked as the favourite. Ding, however, showed great character to fight back against Gukesh, even when the chips were down. After losing Game 11, excerpts had written him off, but he came back with a surreal performance to win the next game in commanding fashion.
“It’s a bit of mixed feeling. He played better than he played in the previous tournament. The quality was better this time, but the result was worse,” Rapport said.
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