'Which world championship was without blunder?': Kasparov defends Ding, hails Gukesh for 'summitting highest peak'

Former world champion Garry Kasparov cannot stop praising Indian grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju, who recently became the youngest world chess champion.

Former world champion Garry Kasparov cannot stop praising Indian grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju, who recently became the youngest world chess champion in the history of the sport. Gukesh achieved the feat as he defeated defending champion Ding Liren. Interestingly, the 18-year-old became the youngest to scale this peak by surpassing Russia's Kasparov, who had won the crown aged 22 in 1985.

D Gukesh became the youngest world champion on Thursday

Garry Kasparov, in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), said that the Indian star has scaled the highest peak in his career. He also lauded Gukesh's grit and determination in the high-profile contest.

“My congratulations to @DGukesh on his victory today. He has summitted the highest peak of all: making his mother happy,” Kasparov wrote on X.

In another post, Garry wrote, "Gukesh impressively surmounted every obstacle and opponent in his path, especially considering his age, and nothing more can be asked. My thoughts on the historical world championship lineage with Magnus outside are known, but that is not the story today."

'Which world championship was without blunders?'

The former world champion also did not make much fuss about the blunder committed by Ding Liren in Game 14, saying which world championship has ever gone ahead without someone committing one blunder or the other.

Earlier, former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik had hit out at Ding Liren after the latter's blunder cost him big time against Gukesh. After Gukesh won with a final score of 7.5-6.5, Kramnik took to social media, calling it "the End of chess as we know it."

“The level of play was quite high, at least equal to the previous match. Ding showed great resistance. As for the blunders, which world championship, or world champion, was without them? I had my share, and recall the double blunder in Carlsen-Anand 2014, g6. Matches take a toll," said Kasparov.

“Gukesh was well-prepared and the player who played the best won the match. His victory caps a phenomenal year for India. Combined with Olympiad dominance, chess has returned to its cradle, and the era of “Vishy’s children” is truly upon us! India is a nation with an unlimited pool of human talent, combined with the freedom to explore and develop it. The future is bright not only in chess. The summit has been reached and now the goal must be to raise it even higher for the next ascent. Congratulations again. Upward," he added.

For the uninitiated, Garry Kasparov had earlier defeated Anatoly Karpov in 1985 to become the youngest world check champion. The record stood for almost 40 years, however, India's Gukesh has now made the feat his own.

“By the way, just noticed a coincidence that 12/12, today is the 40th anniversary of one of my world championship milestones, winning my first game against Karpov in our first match in 1984, game 32! First step in salvaging my dignity in that one,” Garry said.