CHENNAI: World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, on Wednesday, made it official that he will not be defending the World title. In a podcast chat with Magnus Barstad, the 31-year-old announced his decision to not be part of the World championship clash.
The Norwegian, however, made it clear that he isn’t retiring from the sport. Magnus’ decision means that Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren --- the top-2 finishers at the recently-concluded Candidates tournament --- will get to fight for the next World title.
“Ultimately the conclusion stands, one that I’m pretty comfortable with, one that I’ve thought a lot about for a long time now, I would say more than a year, probably a year and a half almost, since long before the last match. I am not motivated to play another match. I simply feel that I don’t have a lot to gain. Although I’m sure a match would be interesting for historical reasons and all of that, but I don’t have any inclination to play and I will simply not play the match,” Magnus mentioned. He added that the decision was communicated to his team. “I’ve spoken to people in my team. I’ve spoken to FIDE (the game’s governing body) and to Ian (Nepomniachtchi) as well,” Magnus said.
On meeting FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich and FIDE General Director Emil Sutovsky during the Candidates tournament in Madrid, Magnus said, “I did not have any demands or suggestions for that meeting. They did have a couple of suggestions but the gist of it is that I was there to tell them that I would not defend my title in the next world championship match. We had a small discussion. They had some suggestions --- some of them I liked and some of them I did not.”
Magnus conceded that the drive earlier was to win the World championship once. “I don’t think I had any other goals than to win it once. Then I thought I’ll try and keep it as long as I’m motivated, that’s fine. To be honest, in 2016 I was not very motivated. I feel like I mostly played that match because other people sort of relied on it which was fine. It was not their fault, it was all on me for feeling that responsibility,” Magnus revealed.
Peter Heine Nielsen, a long-time trainer of Magnus, hailed the Norwegian’s decision. “I fully support him and I’m proud that he takes such decisions,” Peter told TOI.
