Magnus Carlsen issued a passionate defence of himself early on Thursday morning after the chess world slammed him and mentioned he was attempting to arm-twist FIDE into accepting his will.
Earlier than FIDE agreed to let Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi share the World Blitz Championship title, the 2 gamers performed out 4 video games within the ultimate, successful two every. Then three tiebreak video games had been drawn earlier than Magnus Carlsen advised the thought to share the title.
A video confirmed Magnus Carlsen joking with Ian Nepomniachtchi that if FIDE didn’t conform to allow them to cut up the World Blitz title, they might simply hold “enjoying out quick attracts till FIDE quit.”
The joke raised temperatures on social media with gamers like Hans Niemann and Srinath Narayanan and chess legend Susan Polgar calling it out for impropriety. There have been comparisons made to Nepo and Daniil Dubov enjoying out a brief draw final yr on the identical occasion and getting penalised for it.
“I’ve by no means prearranged a attract my profession. Within the video I’m joking with Ian in a state of affairs the place there’s a lack of decisive tiebreak guidelines. This was clearly not an try and affect FIDE. It was mentioned within the spirit that I believed FIDE would conform to our proposal. If something it was a foul joke given the gravity of the state of affairs,” Magnus Carlsen mentioned on Twitter.
“I feel the match itself confirmed two gamers enjoying excessive stage chess, equally matched and each deserving of a win.”
Hans Niemann, who has had an advanced historical past with Magnus Carlsen, posted: “That is trigger for an investigation by the FIDE Ethics committee. I can’t imagine that two gamers who maliciously accused me and tried to smash my profession are brazenly breaking the principles. The irony merely can’t get any worse.”
Magnus : “In the event that they like refuse, we will simply play quick attracts till they provide up.”
Is not this match-fixing, @FIDE_chess? Dubov & Nepo had been double forfeited final yr for pre-arranging a draw, why wasn’t comparable motion taken this time round? pic.twitter.com/WjyteaztLi
— Abhiraj (@mytywarriorking) January 1, 2025
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India’s Srinath Narayanan mentioned: “Criticism of the rules and utilizing it as an excuse is nonsense right here. The Wimbledon 2019 ultimate lasted 4 hours and 57 minutes. Novak Djokovic gained the fifth set 13-12 and gained Wimbledon 2019. They didn’t make a pact to share the trophy or ‘hold shedding one level every till they provide up’”.
Speaking concerning the dialog the place Magnus is telling Nepo about enjoying out attracts till “FIDE provides up”, Srinath later added: “It’s improper, in fact, at many ranges. It additionally exhibits Magnus’s intuition to resort to blackmail if FIDE insists on following the rules… The place does energy reside within the chess world, in 2024 or 2025?”
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