Carlsen’s latest controversy: the most controversial Chess World Cup of the century ends with the broken crown

2023 was the year of (fake) anal beads and the demand for Hans Niemann contra Magnus Carlsen for calling him a cheater without proving it. The season seemed impossible to overcome, but the series of intrigue that world chess has become, not without touches of comedy, has stretched the limits of what is possible. In the World Cup of blitz games that ended in New York just a few hours ago, just after the bells for the Spanish fans, two chess players have shared the crown for the first time in history. What happened left commentators, grandmasters and spectators stunned and was the idea of ​​the current champion. After seven games without being able to defeat Ian Nepomniachtchi although he was two points ahead, Magnus Carlsen had the idea of ​​sharing the title with the Russian. FIDE, still chastened by the jeans scandal, could not refuse.

There are precedents in the high jump and pole vault, but nothing like this has ever been seen in chess, even though the boards have witnessed great dramas in the past: Florencio Campomanes suspended the 1985 World Cup between Karpov y Kasparov for health reasons and Bobby Fischer after not showing up for a game in 1972, agreed to return after convincing FIDE and his rival, Boris Spassky to play in a room without an audience or cameras. Magnus’ move can be compared to these two yet unexplained antecedents. The Norwegian made Nepo happy, finally world champion, but he frustrated tens of thousands of fans and aroused criticism from prominent grandmasters.

Niemann himself was one of the most aggressive. “The world of chess is officially a joke,” he wrote. “This has never been done in history. I can’t believe that the official chess body is controlled by a player for the second time this week. There can only be one world champion!” The American was alluding to the change in regulations applied to the dress code after Carlsen was punished for wearing jeans in the World Rapid Championship. Thanks to this modification of the rules, and intense negotiations in which the sponsor participated, the Norwegian agreed to return to play the blitz championship. It didn’t matter that 24 hours earlier he had insulted the FIDE officials: “Fuck you,” he told them, minutes after leaving the tournament.

The subsequent negotiation was seen as a positive reconciliation, but letting the number one put an end to the final by breaking the regulations has been a more controversial decision, although there is no shortage of enthusiastic defenders of this demonstration of sportsmanship at Christmas time. The well-known American referee Chris Bird for example, considers it “the most appropriate ending”, “taking into account everything that has happened this week.” The German chess player Elisabeth Paehtz however, is with the critics: “So does Carlsen decide on the format, dress code and rules for the title?”

“We were tired and nervous”

Magnus himself explained his position without much enthusiasm: “People understand that we were tired and nervous. Some will like it, others won’t. That’s the way it is.” Other participants, like the American Daniel Naroditskywho was left out of the eight-way final despite having tied on points with the qualifiers, expressed his disagreement: “If I had known that the rules were flexible, I would have pushed for the 10 players who tied for first place to be included. If we can have two co-champions, why not 10?”

The truth is that the final phase of the Blitz World Cup was very hard for the number one. In the quarterfinals, he suffered unspeakably to beat Niemann, the only player who seems capable of making him nervous. The American moved forward and had the champion on the ropes, who gave his best to overcome the tie. Then he swept the Pole Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the semifinals and experienced a carousel of emotions in the final against Nepo. He won the first two games, lost the next two against all imaginable odds and that was when three heart-stopping draws arrived in sudden death. Exhausted and on the brink of the abyss, it occurred to him to propose to his rival to split the crown. For the audience, which was vibrating with the duel and fight to the death between two geniuses, this abrupt ending was an immense disappointment.

The result also contrasts with what happened in the Women’s World Cup, in which the Chinese Ju Wenjun and her friend and compatriot Lei Tingjie They made six draws in a row, before the first one was finally scored in the seventh game. If they had imagined it was possible, they would surely have shared the title as well. And they had certainly been criticized by the rest of the chess universe.