Carlsen romps to victory again, Nepo trips up
Let’s first get the least surprising bit out of the way. The past week saw the world’s top chess players gather to fight for second and third place. Terminator Magnus Carlsen, unsurprisingly, had dibs on the gold at the World Rapid and Blitz competitions in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He’s already won them far too often – Blitz six times and Rapid five times in 11 editions. Adding his five classical wins, that’s 16 world titles. At this point, it’s easier to call him ‘superhuman’ and move on than try to unpeel his genius.
The tournament’s draw of lots ceremony had the Uzbek organisers helping the top seeded Norwegian into a traditional white Chapan and Tubeteika – quilted robe and yurt-like cap – in a room full of dark suits.
The tournament began with female Dutch player Anna-Maja Kazarian being fined 100 euros for violating the Fide dress code in what seemed like a fashionable pair of Burberry shoes. According to her, the arbiter found her shoes ‘strange’. ‘Make this make sense’ should be on a poster somewhere.
Fabiano Caruana revealed on his podcast that he had to endure an “awkward” photo shoot for Fide merchandise along with three other players, including India’s Vidit Gujrathi, since the governing body required it of him in exchange for allowing him to wear his sponsors’ logo at the 2022 Candidates.
The Indian players, in their pressed blazers, steered clear of any sartorial rule-breaking. Two of them did particularly well in Rapid till suffering heartbreak. The 2017 Rapid champion Koneru Humpy’s nervy blitz playoff against Anastasia Bodnaruk for the Rapid title went down to the wire, to sudden death. Humpy couldn’t get out alive. Vidit was in contention for first place before 47. Bxg4?? blunder against Vladimir Fedoseev robbed him of hope and left him frozen in his chair.
The setting seemed perfect for Nihal Sarin’s place in the sun, especially with his peers R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh making this year’s Candidates. A monster in online Blitz, the 19-year-old woefully landed outside the top 20 after sharing the lead at the end of the Blitz opening day. His buddy Arjun Erigaisi managed to finish sixth. In the end, Gukesh with his Candidates spot confirmation stole the headlines.
Last year’s World Championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi stirred chatter with his post on X claiming that Carlsen has access to his laptop in his private lounge between rounds at the tournament. It was assuaged once Carlsen’s father Henrik refuted the allegation. It must be said that giving the best players superior starting conditions than others – higher appearance fee, paid flights and hotel – seems like a reasonable incentive. Once the tournament starts though, it’s only fair that the playing conditions are the same for all.
Nepo also ended up perhaps finding his place in YouTube immortality. Pre-arranged draws have been around in chess forever but what unfolded in Round 11 of Blitz between Nepo and Daniil Dubov ended with both docked the 0.5 point from the game. The Russian Super GMs discussed the move order at the board before the start, exchanged smiles, had their knights do the tango, and reached the starting position of the board by Move 12 before they shook hands on a draw.
Chief arbiter of the Blitz Championship, Ivan Syrovy, leaned on Article 11.1 of Fide laws and penalised both for “bringing the game to disrepute”. Dubov later said the quick draw was a protest against the chief arbiter. (Context: dispute over whether a clock malfunctioned in another game had delayed the start of Round 7 play by an hour).
A day earlier, Lei Tingjie offered Anastasia Bodnaruk a draw after three moves in the women’s Rapid final round. What’s puzzling is Lei was the third seed tied for the lead going into the final round. She was in with a shot at gold but chose to throw it away against an opponent who was playing Black and was rated roughly 200 Elo below her. Lei ended up missing a spot in the playoffs. An explanation for the bizarre decision could be that perhaps she wasn’t aware of the playoff rules (unlike in the Open section, it’s a two-player playoff for women). That somehow makes the story even sadder.
Nepo featured in more than just the draw of the tournament. Former world champion Viswanathan Anand went “Bd8! Bd8! Bd8! Bd8!” in animated counsel directed at him on Fide live commentary and cackled in disbelief as the Russian overlooked an obvious rook capture in the Blitz final round. The White rook sat there untouched. Peter Svidler looked on in the background, shaking his head.
Of course, no tournament featuring Carlsen is complete without questions about his possible return to the Classical World Championship cycle. Not unless there’s a format change, remains his answer. Can’t blame the questions. We’re contending with an absentee reigning world champion in Ding Liren, who we last remember seeing happy and weepy at his title win in April last year. He did resurface briefly in the odd tournament later, but that was pretty much it. To go from Carlsen’s decade-long flamboyant, game-changing run as world champion to a reclusive Ding is a hard switch. But it’s a new year with a fresh World Championship cycle and an exciting bunch of Candidates. Who knows what it holds?
