Theirs is one of the most exclusive clubs in sport. So exclusive, only 16 members have been added to it in 136 years. Becoming the undisputed World chess champion is indeed among the most difficult things to achieve in sport, or in any other sphere of human endeavour. And yet, the club’s most recent member, Magnus Carlsen, has chosen to abdicate his crown, which had been sitting firmly on his head since 2013.
But when he announced his decision, on a podcast recently, pieces did not jump off chessboards. Carlsen had given hints about his abdication last December; there was no motivation for him to contest another title match. He, however, had said that he would play if his opponent was Alireza Firouzja, the Iran-born prodigy who became a French citizen last year.
Firouzja fails to make it
For Firouzja to earn the privilege of challenging Carlsen, he had to win the Candidates tournament, held at Madrid recently. But he fared badly, finishing sixth in a field of eight.
The event was won by Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi. He had won the previous edition of the Candidates too, but was decimated by Carlsen in the World title match at Dubai last year. The Norwegian won 7.5-3.5, with three games to spare.
It was after the match that Carslen spoke of the possibility of not defending his crown. “It’s been clear to me for most of the year that this World Championship should be the last,” he said then. “It doesn’t mean as much as it once did. I haven’t felt that the positive outweighs the negative.”
But not everyone believed that he would actually keep his word. After all, a World title is a World title. And he had just turned 31 at the time.
He was 22 when he won his first World title. He scored a crushing victory over Viswanathan Anand at Chennai, the five-time World champion’s hometown, in 2013.
Stronger fight, but...
A year later Carlsen faced Anand yet again in the World title match at Sochi. The Indian, after winning the Candidates with a superb show when most people had written him off, put up a stronger fight but that wasn’t enough to stop Carlsen.
The World No. 1 went on to defend his title in 2016 against Russia’s Sergey Karjakin and then against American Fabiano Caruana in 2018. When he outwitted Nepomniachtchi, it was his fifth World title in a row — in classical chess alone (the game is also played in the rapid and blitz variations). We don’t know for sure whether he will return to the World Championship, but even if he doesn’t, he will remain perhaps the greatest World champion for quite some time.
“I believe Carlsen is indeed the greatest of them all, even greater than Garry Kasparov,” Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay told The Hindu over phone. “If he were to continue playing in the World Championship, I don’t see anyone threatening him for the next few years. His decision not to defend his title is understandable. His personality is different, say, from someone like Anatoly Karpov, who kept on playing for the World Championship for a long time.”
Karpov became the World champion for the first time in 1975 because Bobby Fischer, the maverick American genius who turned chess into a truly global sport, refused to defend his title. Carlsen has now become the second World champion to withdraw from a title match (he was scheduled to face Nepomniachtchi next year).
After retaining his World title in 1990, Kasparov had broken away from world chess governing body FIDE and conducted rival World Championships. The Russian great won two titles when the chess world was thus split, against Nigel Short of England (1993) and Anand (1995), before being dethroned by compatriot Vladimir Kramnik (2000).
Not many expect Carlsen to do something like that. He had a discussion with the FIDE top brass about the scheduled World title match towards the end of the Candidates at Madrid. He was also given a deadline — July 20 — by FIDE to make a decision on defending his title.
“I did not have any demands or suggestions for that meeting,” Carlsen said on the podcast. “They did have a couple of suggestions, but the gist of it was that I was there to tell them that I would not defend my title in the next World Championship match, and we had a small discussion. They had some suggestions, some of them I liked, some of them I did not.”
It is not as if Carlsen is thinking about the format of the World Championship only now. He had many years ago spoken against the World champion getting the privilege to defend the title.
Anand’s opinion
Anand, who played Karpov in the 1998 title match just a couple of days after qualifying from a demanding set of knockout matches (thankfully nothing of the sort has happened since), said he could understand Carlsen’s decision.
“I was also getting tired of playing matches every year or two years several times in a row,” Anand told chess.com. “In a sense, because I lost, this problem solved itself. Magnus’ problem is a little bit that he isn’t losing.”
Now that Carlsen has opted out, FIDE is set to conduct a World title match between Nepomniachtchi and China’s Ding Liren, who finished behind him at the Candidates. Neither can claim to be the world’s best chess player after winning the match, though. When players like Alexander Khalifman and Rustam Kasimdzhanov won World titles, during the sport’s split (1993-2006), they were called the FIDE World champion, not the World champion.
“Surely the World title will lose some of its prestige after the abdication of Carlsen,” Thipsay said. “I can understand Carlsen’s concerns about the format, but I believe the system of identifying the challenger has some merit, too. It is the format that gave players from various countries and regions across the world the opportunity to compete for the World title.”
Could come back
He thinks Carlsen could come back to the World Championship at some point. “I won’t be surprised if he chooses to play in the Candidates tournament and challenge the World champion,” he said.
Grandmaster R.B. Ramesh thinks there is a possibility of FIDE coming up with changes to the World Championship’s format. “The FIDE elections are coming up and there is a possibility of Anand becoming part of the administration at FIDE,” he said. “Some new ideas could emerge about the conduct of the World Championship.”
With Carlsen pulling out, FIDE might consider some options. Maybe something like making the champion play before the title match? The Candidates could be expanded and the top three could join the World champion for a round of four before the title match. “I think FIDE could consider options like that,” Thipsay said. “But chess needs the World title match to continue. You will find some of the greatest games played in history were played at World title matches. And the huge media attention those matches attract also helps the game greatly.”
Carlsen had earlier advocated for a knockout format (which FIDE has tried in the past). But there is no denying the fact that there is drama, excitement and intensity in a World title match, like in a well-fought Test series between two strong cricket teams. Just as there is space for both the T20 World Cup and bilateral Test series, chess could also have multiple ways to test players at the highest level.
