World chess champion Magnus Carlsen could be stripped of title
Norwegian prodigy’s dispute with governing body Fide over prize money for championship match lays bare fractures in world chess – and the strong influence Russia has on the game
Leonard Barden
The Guardian, Friday 29 August 2014 11.08 EDT
He is the poster boy of chess, a Nordic prodigy who became world No 1 while still a teenager and has since been rated the strongest player of all time. But Magnus Carlsen is locked in an escalating dispute with the game’s governing body, Fide, over a world title match due to take place in November. At worst, the 23-year-old Norwegian world champion could be stripped of his crown this weekend.
At face value, the dispute involves prosaic concerns such as prize money, timings and contracts. But matters have been complicated by the mooted venue – Russia‘s Sochi Olympic site – and the fact that a Carlsen default would open the way for a Russian-based player to stand in and challenge for the title.
Carlsen won the championship last year by defeating the Indian veteran Vishy Anand, who then qualified for a rematch. There were no bidders to host the $2m (£1.2m) 12-game series, scheduled to start on 7 November, until Russia offered to host it at the Olympic village in Sochi.
Fide has told Carlsen to agree to the arrangements by Sunday. His manager, Espen Agdestein, asked for a delay in the match until spring 2015, citing concerns about the venue and financial arrangements. He said Carlsen could not make a proper decision until the end of a US tournament in St Louis that runs until 7 September. “It’s critical for Magnus to focus on this tournament,” Agdestein said.
But Fide’s newly reinstalled president, the Russian tycoon Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, refused any delay and said that under match rules, the Russian Sergey Karjakin, 24, runner-up to Anand in the candidates qualifier, would be the substitute.
Karjakin is originally from Crimea and once played for Ukraine. But he is an ethnic Russian and in 2009 moved to Moscow. Last month he appeared in a Vladimir Putin T-shirt to support Ilyumzhinov against Garry Kasparov in the Fide election campaign.
Full article here: http://www.theguardian.com
How could Magnus refuse to play ? The timing was decided last year; the match venue and prize fund a few months back.
I suspect he fears Anand. Magnus has not been in good shape this year; Anand will send him to the cleaners. Magnus is chickening out.