Magnus Carlsen, the global No 1, will compete in today’s World Blitz Championship on Wall Street after all. The Norwegian, 34, was fined and defaulted during the Rapid on Friday for refusing to change his jeans in accordance with the world body Fide’s dress code.
Carlsen had scored 5/8 at the time, with little prospect of retaining his title from 2022 and 2023 but with chances for a strong finish in the three-day 13-round event. He accepted a $200 fine, but was denied his request to complete the day’s play before returning to his hotel.
The arbiters excluded Carlsen from the round nine pairings, and Carlsen then declared that he would not play the Blitz and would leave New York.
Personal intervention by Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich brought about a change of heart. The potential fallout from the Carlsen incident would have been significantly negative for Fide’s hopes that staging its popular World Rapid and Blitz Championships on Wall Street would open a route to major corporate US sponsors. Without the Norwegian legend, the publicity impact of chess events is sharply diminished.
On Sunday, Fide stated: “Fide is pleased to confirm that Magnus Carlsen will participate in the Fide World Blitz Championship.”
Speaking to Levy Rozman at the playing venue on Wall Street, Carlsen said: “I am playing at least one more day here in New York and, if I do well, another day after that. We had a lot of discussions yesterday and we have a good relationship with Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich . . . Speaking to Dvorkovich and the main sponsor Timur Turlov, of Freedom Holding, it did feel we could have some fruitful discussions and at the end of the day I decided to play.” Carlsen will be wearing jeans at the Blitz.
The final result of the World Rapid on Saturday was a blow to Fide’s hopes of downplaying its long-standing Moscow connections, as a trio of Russians, competing under the neutral Fide flag, made a clean sweep of the medals. In Fide’s extensive press release with the final results, the word Russia is conspicuously absent.
Russia’s rising talent Volodar Murzin, 18, won gold with an unbeaten 10/13, a victory highlighted in the penultimate round by his spectacular black king march into the heart of the white defences. White’s losing move was 34 R1b2+. Earlier, Murzin defeated the world No 2 and US champion Fabiano Caruana.
The veteran Blitz specialist Alexander Grischuk was second and Carlsen’s former challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi third, while Kateryna Lagno, Grischuk’s wife, won bronze in the Women’s World Rapid behind India’s Humpy Koneru, who also won in 2019, and China’s reigning world woman champion Ju Wenjun.
The two-day World Blitz on Monday and Tuesday has a time limit of three minutes per player per game, plus a two-seconds-per-move increment, guaranteeing nonstop action. To watch the World Blitz free with computer commentary, log on to lichess.org. Play starts at 7pm GMT today, December 30.
The Wall Street Gambit, a conference exploring the synergies between chess and business decision-making, took place on December 29. Fide issued this report on the proceedings.
Puzzle 2605
Murali Karthikeyan vs Edgar Mamedov, Tashkent 2024. White to move and win.
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