The following players have declined their World Cup Invitations:
Veselin Topalov, former World Champion, #1 in the world
Viswanathan Anand, World Champion, #2 in the world
Levon Aronian, Olympiad Champion, #3 in the world
Magnus Carlsen, #4 in the world
Vladimir Kramnik, former World Champion, #5 in the world
Peter Leko, #6 in the world
Michael Adams
Hikaru Nakamura
Here are the current top 6 players in the world by ratings:
1 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2813
2 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2788
3 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2773
4 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2772
5 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2772
6 Leko, Peter g HUN 2762
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Why did Naka decline? Why doesn’t he wanna prove how great he is?
Kramnik is joint fourth with Carlsen as they have both played the same number of games.
‘Kramnik is joint fourth with Carlsen as they have both played the same number of games.’
No he is not. Carlsen is younger.
I do not know if the H. Nakamura decision was reasonable. How can he approach WCC cycle other way.
The other matter is that not inviting Nakamura to blitz WCC is the scandal.
Rgds
Pony
Nakamura will play the London supertournament (together with Kramnik, Carlsen, Adams and others) – which collides with the World Cup.
If I were Kirsan I would never invite them again. Preposterous.
“Why did Naka decline? Why doesn’t he wanna prove how great he is?”
Adams, Carlsen, Kramnik and Nakamura are playing in London Chess Classic tournament in December which is about same time as World Cup 2009 will be.
Why Nakamura should play directly in blitz WCC? He could win the qualifier as other 6 people 9and got some additional monies), he is not still so established as others super GM; other way that Karpov and Kostenyuk could be removed from the list as the weekest participants, but it is Karpov and current Women World Champion, so organizers have a reason.
Ni Hua is also in London, what will he do?
@Anonymous 4:46PM: Ni Hua can honor his commitment to London if he gets eliminated from the World Cup at the latest in round 5 (last 8 players). Apparently he joins the World Cup with the sole intention of playing a few games and earning some prize money – eyebrows would be raised if Kramnik, Carlsen or Nakamura did the same !!?
I heard rumours that Corus isgonna invite Naka to the B group and not C this year.
Well, it was obvious that Anand and Topalov are not going to play (1. because of their wc match 2. because of the fact they have already qualified to candidates). It was also obvious that Carlsen and Kramnik won’t play (Magnus is in conflict with FIDE and withdrew from GP, Vladimir wants to have the same rights as Kamsky in the cycle; anyway both of them will probably qualify to the candidates via rating). Aronian won GP, so his ‘no thanks’ is also nothing strange. But I wonder why Leko doesn’t participate – maybe he wants to focus on the FIDE GP?
And it’s really nice to see Judit taking part. I hope that one of three: Ivanchuk, Shirov or Polgar will win this competition :).
And one more thing: Susan, you are not right saying that Topalov is former world champion – he was only FIDE world champion and there is a big difference between FIDE (Ponomariov, Khalifman…) and absolute world champion (Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand…).
‘Susan, you are not right saying that Topalov is former world champion’
Only FIDE champions count. All others are self-proclaimed champions.
FIDE rules the chess world. Obey them or leave.
“FIDE rules the chess world.”
… I don’t think so. It’s been a long time since that. You are talking about past history my friend. FIDE’s chess monopoly is over.
More over Susan put Vladimir Kramnik, as a former World Champion too… so, I think she is taking everything in consideration. Please don’t make dump comments… is you are not able to understand what you are reading please, please… shut up. This is a serious blog