Carlsen to participate in the next World Championship
Magnus Carlsen has decided to participate in the next World Championship cycle. He is stopping the boycott that began in May 2010 and is back in the hunt for the highest title in chess.
The Norwegian prodigy annouced his decision right after winning Bilbao Grand Slam in an interview for the Norwegian VG. Carlsen admits to have come to the decision after FIDE announced that the next Candidates Tournament will be a round robin event.
Magnus Carlsen shared, “If the changes that are predicted come true, I am ready to fight for the World Championship title.”
Besides the change to tournament format, Carlsen will also have as a requirement a “waterproof contract”.
More info by Eirik Gullaksen at bergensjakk.no
World Championship 2012
The World Chess Championship 2012 between the defending World Champion Viswanathan Anand and the challenger from the Candidates Matches Boris Gelfand will take place in May 2012 in Moscow, Russia. The runner-up of the World Championship in Moscow will be one of the participants in the Candidates tournament.
The next Candidates Tournament 2012-2013
FIDE has published the official Rules & regulations for the Candidates Tournament of the FIDE World Championship cycle 2011-2013. According to the regulations the 3 top players from the World Cup 2011 qualify (Svidler, Grischuk, and Ivanchuk), the player who loses the World Chess Championship 2012, three players on rating from the average FIDE Rating List of July 2011 & January 2012, and one nominated player by the organizer.
The total prize fund of the event is 420 000 eur and the format is double round robin. The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.
A kind of a Sofia rule will be implemented. The players cannot draw a game by agreement. A claim for a draw is permitted only through the Chief Arbiter (or his Deputy) in the cases of perpetual check, stalemate, threefold repetition, the 50-move rule or insufficient material. Other kinds of theoretical drawn positions are allowed to be claimed by one or both players through the Chief Arbiter (or his Deputy). The Chief Arbiter can then declare it, or not, as a drawn game after consulting his/her Technical Advisor.
Read more about the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2012 regulations
Good to know that Carlsen will participate in the next cycle. H’ever he seems to be afraid of one on one match ups,a bogey that he can only get rid of after truly playing and winning such a match. Doubtless he will be among the favourites to win the candidates.
He was specifically asked in Bilbao about this, and his answer was “I couldn’t care less about the world championship right now”. Not very elegant from Magnus
Carlsen has passed on challenging for the WCF title despite an offer of 7.5 million total prize fund. Instead it now appears that since FIDE has caved into his demands he has simply used the WCF offer to get FIDE to do candidates as a round robin. This avoids him having to play several tough matches in a row and makes FIDE so called championship more of a Russian roulette…
I REALLY hope to see a Carlsen-Vishy match in 2013. After all, Vishy Anand is THE best player since Kasparov and what a matchup it will be!
I always hoped to see a Kasparov-Anand match (post 2002) but that never happened. Even Anand mentioned in an interview in 2006(?) that he was so eager for another match against Kasparov. That never happened. Oh well! Hopefully, there will be a Carlsen-Anand showdown in 2013. Even Anand-Aronian could be fiery.
The views expressed by others amply reflects the views of chess lovers world over. Thanks to every one!