Carlsen contra mundum

Magnus Carlsen, who has famously resigned his Classical world championship, has compensated by capturing the titles recently at stake at the close of December in the world Rapid and Blitz championships, held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

In these columns I have frequently maintained that chess mirrors general cultural and social trends. Such changes are indeed afoot, though perhaps less hair-raising than some trumpeted by certain transatlantic survivalists. I have, on the wilder shores of alarmist speculation, observed predictions of the absolute death of cash, government control of how one uses one’s credit card, advice to move into rural areas and how to stock up on beans and ammunition.

Indeed, one of my favourite local restaurant chains in London no longer accepts cash, while Oxford City Council is introducing regulations concerning how often it is possible to drive from one part of the City to the other. Most alarmingly, within the context of various top down driven changes, is the decision by the Scottish Parliament to recognise gender self identification without the necessity for any messy operations or physical adjustments of the Sporus category.

And what of chess? Power and influence now seem to be passing ineluctably from FIDÉ (the world chess federation and governing body) to Magnus Carlsen and the moguls of Chess.com. In the past I have compared the roles of President of FIDÉ and World Champion with those of medieval Popes and Emperors. When they saw eye to eye, all was well, but there were moments of tension. Now it would appear that the new Norwegian Stupor Mundi is redefining the parameters of world chess, in a way which deprives FIDÉ of its Crown Jewels, the world championship itself.

For those that missed the current triple World Champion predict the fall of chess as a game that required brain rather than dexterity, I recommend they hear it from the former golden boy himself. He seems to be taking both pride and profit from this ungainly commodification of the game that gave him everything.

In his last game at the recently concluded world Blitz championship , he was victorious, if not totally convincing, against the new Uzbek wunderkind , Nodibirek Abdusattorov, the outgoing World Rapidplay champion. In his interview (above), Carlsen, with a single named exception, ungraciously fails to credit any of the new generation, of whom Abdusattorov was a leading exemplar in 2022.

The one exception to the champion’s disdain was for Alireza Firouzja, the winner of the Sinquefield Cup event, from which Carlsen so infamously defaulted. Firouzja was conspicuous by his absence in this quickplay event.

There is some speculation that he is most likely preparing to meet Carlsen in a breakaway Classical World Title match that would undermine the FIDÉ match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi — a match that has yet to confirm sponsorship, date or venue.

The following report is from the FIDÉ press release of the Rapidplay/Blitz event.

Magnus Carlsen and Tan Zhongyi are the World Champions in Rapid 

The World Rapid Chess Championships concluded with another world title for Carlsen. Tan Zhongyi is first among women after winning a tiebreaker.

After three days of play, the World Rapid Chess Championships ended in Almaty. Following 13 rounds in the Open section, Magnus Carlsen came out on top, with 10/13. It is his fourth chess crown in the rapid. He had already triumphed in 2014, 2015 and 2019. Magnus also was second in 2012 (in Astana) and third in 2016 and 2021.

Carlsen’s road to victory

The outgoing world champion in classical chess has just clinched another world crown – his fourth title in rapid.

The Norwegian was the leader from the very beginning of the tournament and maintained his dominance throughout. Not everything was smooth, however. The third and final day of play started well for Carlsen as he scored against the young German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer. Then misfortune struck.

In Round 11, Carlsen stumbled in the game vs. Vladimir Artemiev. Playing with black pieces, Magnus committed a fatal blunder in a dead-equal position and ended up in a lost endgame down an exchange. The game was relatively short, and the Norwegian swiftly left the playing hall, clearly angry at himself.

In the following 12th round, Carlsen was up against his old nemesis on the chess board – Fabiano Caruana, who had a slower start in the tournament but picked up steam and reached the top boards in the final rounds. Caruana equalised as black, and neither side had enough of an advantage to play for a win, so they decided to split a point. In the final – 13th – game of the Rapid, Carlsen crushed the former World Junior Champion Parham Maghsoodloo.

By this point, however, Carlsen’s destiny was not entirely in his hands. The rising chess star from Germany, Vincent Keymer, was playing a tense endgame against the world Blitz Champion Maxime-Vachier Lagrave. Carlsen was following the game closely. Had Keymer won – then he and Magnus would have played a tiebreaker. Both Maxime and Vincent were pushing, trying to pull out a victory, but neither player gave way. To Carlsen’s delight, the game ended in a draw, and he clinched his fourth title as World Champion in rapid chess.

“I’ll stop when somebody stops me”

In the press conference following his victory in the Rapid, Carlsen was asked “when will he stop winning world titles”. His response? “I’ll stop when somebody stops me”.

Commenting on the event, Carlsen noted that this was “a really tough tournament” and that it’s “really hard to win on demand”.

“I ran the risk of having zero world championship titles at the end of this tournament, so it was important to me to try and do well here, and it means the world to me right now,” said Carlsen.

In summary, Carlsen has clearly renounced the classical world title, prefers the world Blitz accolade, and has predicted the death of the traditional classical tournament, in favour of online and rapid events. Mikhail Botvinnik, the Red Czar of Soviet Chess, will doubtless be revolving in his Kremlin-appointed sarcophagus.

Raymond Keene’s latest book “Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus”, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from  Blackwell’s . His 206th book, Chess in the Year of the King, with a foreword by The Article contributor Patrick Heren, and written in collaboration with former Reuters chess correspondent, Adam Black, is in preparation. It will be published later this year.  

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