The world champion has left the door open to give up his title due to lack of desire. As he commented, only the young Firouzja interests him. The money or the format also play into his position.
A few months ago, the Norwegian Grand Master Jonathan Tisdall interviewed his compatriot Magnus Carlsen for Chess.com and I asked him if his greatest advantage over his rivals was his experience in the long, long, long games of a World Cup.
No, my biggest advantage is that I play better chess, answered the world champion.
Carlsen observes the Candidates Tournament in Madrid that begins this Friday from above: he knows he is superior, he is superior. The title has been his since 2013 and even before, since 2011, he is number one in the ranking. Recently, he chained more than two years without losing and touched 2,900 ELO points, an outrage. Right now it’s untouchable. No one can take the crown from him in a 14-game World Cup. For that to happen, the rest need to evolve a lot or lose their motivation, explains the Spanish Grand Master Miguel Illescas. And therein lies the matter: Carlsen is getting bored.
Firouzja’s challenge
In recent years, even before his 2021 title defense, he has dropped the possibility of giving up his title and this time it seems that he means business. The chances that he will disappoint those who expect him to play in the next World Cup are very high, he proclaimed after his last victory, although he quickly expressed hope. As he said, it will depend on his rival. If he wins the Candidates Tournament the Iranian nationalized French Alireza Firouzja, play against him; if anyone else wins, supposedly they won’t even sit at the table.
Firouzja is a challenge for him, a motivation, because he is very young [tiene 18 aos] and there is a lot of talk about it. Somehow, before him he could show that he is capable of defeating the new generation as well. And there would be some media expectation, Carlsen would not be given champion before even competing. With the others nobody knows what he will do. If he wins the Candidates Tournament [el estadounidense Fabiano] Caruana, for example, cost a lot to convince him. In the 2018 World Cup they already faced each other, signed 12 tables and the Norwegian found it very, very uncomfortable. It would be necessary to put a lot of money on the table for him to play, analyzes Illescas, and he is not without reason with the economic issue -many have pointed out that Carlsen only plays hard to increase his cache-, but there is another issue in the air: the Format.
A format change
Carlsen has long demanded that the World Cup not be confined to classical chess and that traditional rhythm games be combined with semi-fast and fast games. According to him, the format with which the best in the world is decided rewards defensive players, like Caruana, and cancels the show. The International Chess Federation (FIDE), which has introduced many novelties in its tournaments, does not seem to be in the mood to play its World Cup, but if Carlsen is not…
If he pushes too hard, perhaps the leaders will consider a change. Either way, they should do something. For me the best idea is to play a tiebreaker every day. That is, if the game of classical chess ends in a draw, then play a tiebreaker, so that there is always a winner. There are many ways to streamline the tournament, explains Illescas who, like all the experts, does not see a clear candidate for victory these days in Madrid. According to a survey of 500 readers of Pen de Rey, the chess magazine he edits himself, the options are almost 33% divided between the Chinese Ding LirenCaruana y Firouzja.
For chess it is important that the best man wins and, at the same time, that someone wins who forces Carlsen to rise from his throne.
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