World Chess C’ship: Russia sees red as Poland celebrates Gukesh’s win

When Gukesh D seized his moment on Thursday night and shut the door on Ding Liren in game 14 of the World Chess Championship at Singapore, a collective cheer erupted in the hall adjoining the proverbial ‘glass box’.

The fans, who had stayed put for over five hours, were now on their feet, soaking in history as it unfolded before their eyes.

In the midst of the applause, a rather unique celebratory cheer was heard supposedly - 'Polskaaaaaa'.

Gukesh’s Polish allies

The cheer was an unmissable reference to Poland.

And when the new world champion revealed the names of his seconds, it all added up.

Grzrgorz Gajewski has been working with Gukesh for a while now. With him, the teenager had roped in Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Jan Klimkowski and Jan Krzysztof Duda – all Polish grand masters.

While Poland, India and the rest of the chess world celebrated, early reactions coming out of Russia bore a stark contradiction.

Soon after Liren blundered and Gukesh closed out game 14, Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik, the 14th World Champion, was quick to label the moment “the end of chess” on social media.

“No comment. Sad. End of chess as we know it,” he said in a post on X.

Thanks everyone for showing such attention to my X
That is very helpfull for me, promoting my fight for integrity and dignity of chess to the wide audience
Sorry cant answer all of you, but thanks again. Will keep you informed 🫶 pic.twitter.com/P8Y309Ph8Q

— Vladimir Kramnik (@VBkramnik) December 13, 2024

The post has since gone viral and has received over 2.5 million views.

That comment from Kramnik, drew sharp criticism.

GM Anish Giri led the way by citing a blunder from the 1892 world championship that proved to be decisive, an indication that a game-changing error at this stage had transpired historically.

Interestingly, at the Chess Olympiad in September this year, Kramink, as the coach of Uzbekistan, had lodged a complaint against India for the presence of mobile phone on a board that featured a game between Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Kramnik’s claim at the time was that the usage of a recording mode on a phone could facilitate the transmission of footage to an external source, who could then perhaps offer aid to the player.

The FIDE Fair Play Commission had ruled out foul play after investigating the phones in question.

Why the animosity?

On Thursday, even as the world soaked in the crowing of a new world champion, there was another salvo fired from Russia, this time from the President of the Chess Federation of Russia, Andrei Filatov, who went as far as accusing Ding Liren of deliberately losing the World Chess Championship match.

“Losing the position in which Ding Liren was is difficult even for a first-class player,” Filatov was quoted as having said to Russian news agency TASS, while calling for an investigation by FIDE.

But one wonders why these repeated accusations appear to emanate from Russian.

Remember, the nation once dominated international chess.

Mikhail Botvinnik enjoyed success in the sport for two decades from the late 1940s. Thereafter, the baton was passed to Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov and the legendary Garry Kasparov.

Notably, Russia hasn’t had a world chess champion since 2006 when Kramnik was beaten by countryman Veselin Topalov.

Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi did come close last years before being pipped at the post by Ding Liren.

And now, with India emerging as a new force in world chess, is Russia launching a smear campaign?

Or is this unabashed expression of displeasure a taunt at Poland, for their players having aided Gukesh’s ascent.

Regardless, the comments are unsavory to say the least.

Relations between Russian and Poland have been extremely frosty over the past two years and accordingly to opinion polls, just 2% of Poles view Russia in a positive manner.

Weather the remarks possess geo-political motivations or quiet simply, are aimed at disparaging the emergence of a new powerhouse in chess, the verdict is out in the open - an Indian has reclaimed the world chess crown and given his age, he's here to stay, for sometime at least.