Magnus Carlsen Wants Changes In World Chess Championship Format

#chess #FIDECandidates #carlsen

[sidenote]

There biggest problem with this cycle is the opportunity cost. As fun as candidates is, it's yet another tournament we miss with Magnus in it. Not to mention that most of the players took breaks of some sort leading up to the tourney, so we have a lot of tournaments lacking in names simply because candidates is too frequent for how important it is. Then leading up to the actual world championship match, both players take about a 6 month break to prep, so again, we're missing the top two players from any meaningful tournament for a long time. To me an a world chess championship should be closer to a world cup or olympics; set aside an entire year to qualify and decide the winner, then for the next 3 years we get to see normal tournament play. Chess isn't the sorta game that needs a new champ every other year, which is evidenced by the fact that there are only 16 world champions across nearly a 100 years of the title being around. Doing this so often is just unnecessary.

[BlanBlan]

I wish chess players would exert their power like this more often. Without these top level players, there are no organizations to govern them.

[driedpancake]

Magnus is more important to chess than FIDE

[ramachandra]

Well in this case FIDE will stand firm with their idea if history is anything to go by . They may increase the number of classical matches but that's about it .

[skriabinfly]

"Fide Director"... That is GM Emil Sutovsky, 2700+ ELO and one of the most powerful and dangerous attacking masters of his era. 😲 He is not a nameless functionary bureaucrat but a legend in his own right!

[xyzmirror]

honestly it would be fun if either through rule change or by him forfeiting his title he would be able to participate in the candidate's tournament again and (most likely) crush everyone and regain/keep his title

[Cowtymsmiesznego]

In a way, Candidates is much "harder" to win than the World Championship match - in the sense that you need to perform the best of 8 players, and not merely beat one. So maybe there is something to it. Magnus has lost (i.e. failed to get 1st) in tournaments before.

On the other hand, having a long match like the WCC is the much preferred way to conclude which of the players is actually stronger - you need many games, out of all sports you don't want the chess World Champion to be decided by a fluke. It's a difficult problem to balance.

[TheMatheus]

I think a grand slam format would be great for chess. We already have some tournaments that weigh more than others, in a way.

[perpersson]

The candidates is a very serious tournament with the strongest players playing except the strongest of them all, lol. So it is understandable that magnus would want to participate and win something that is more similar to the candidates.

[pushingyourownagenda]

In my opinion as Hikaru stated the world championship should be held after 1 month of the candidates

[ynwajft]

Magnus wants alcohol served during games by scantily clad models and rap music in the background... I for one am all for it.

[EternalBreton]

It would make more sense if they hold a candidates like tournament of all the highest ranking players including the reigning world champion, then the two highest scoring players against all of the best face off in a best of 12 or 7 or whatever. That way the conditions are the same for all and the world champion gets to take part of the fund also.

[nikn]

If Magnus doesn’t agree to play, FIDE loses not Magnus. What would the chess world be like if Magnus wasn’t there? And I don’t understand why people don’t like changes in the format that much. Magnus hardly offers something crazy.

[miroslavstankov]

An annual tournament (either round-robin or eliminations), where a larger pool of players contests the title along with the reigning champion seems like a mixed bag proposal. It is more egalitarian, but it drastically reduces the weight and significance of the title of the world champion. The entire thing will be almost indistinguishable from the world cup, grand swiss, and other similar tournaments.

Or, we could keep this biannual cycle, but the candidates tournament (with the current qualifications system) becomes the actual world championship. The winner doesn't get the guaranteed spot in the next one. No wild cards, no fide president spots, no freebies, only a major tournament victory during the qualifications cycle grants you a spot.

[darpanpatel]

Imagine if chess had championships like tennis does. 4 major championships every year and open to all top players. Imagine seeing Magnus and other top players play 4 times in a major tournament every year. Like how we see Federer, Nadal, etc play [almost] every year.

[lebronjamesharden]

He wants 3-way round robin match against Nepo and Hikaru for the WCC title. Lets gooo!

[aleksandrjaworski]

I think the idea is not to have one player winning another all the time for multiple rounds as happened last time, it frustrates both in this case.

[quest]

This oddly seems heading the Kasparov way of Split engineered in the 90's. Hope for Lesser Draws or Round Robin or something more competitive.

[dannygjk]

12 classical games is ridiculously low for a world championship. That definitely needs to change.

[elijahrose]

It's the Bobby Fisher opening strategy