Carlsen dropped out of the 2024 Candidates Tournament.

Magnus Carlsen announced he would not be participating in the Candidates tournament, ceding his spot to Nijat Abasov to compete in the 2024 World Chess Championship to determine the challenger to Ding Liren.

The eight candidates for the tournament have all been determined: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Fabiano Caruana, Abasov, Vidit Gujrathi, Hikaru Nakamura, Gukesh Dommaraju, and Alireza Firouzja.

Carlsen earned his spot by winning the 2023 Chess World Cup, but in an interview with Chess on January 6th, he said: "I'm not going to the Candidates, so don't worry."

Carlsen after a draw with Daniil Dubov at the World Blitz Chess Championship in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on December 30, 2023. Photo: Chess — Carlsen after a draw with Daniil Dubov at the World Blitz Chess Championship in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on December 30, 2023. Photo: *Chess*

Carlsen explained that he is no longer interested in participating in the Candidates tournament or reclaiming the FIDE World Chess Champion title. "I like my current schedule, playing online tournaments at home and occasionally traveling for board games," he said. "I don't miss the World Finals anymore."

Carlsen declined FIDE's offer, meaning World Cup fourth-place finisher Abasov will be promoted to replace him. The Azerbaijani player is the only one at the 2024 Candidates with a standard chess Elo rating below 2,700, at just 2,641. The other seven players all have Elo ratings of 2,720 or higher.

Carlsen has spoken about this decision for a long time, since the 2023 World Cup was underway. He explained that he only wanted to play in the World Cup finals if FIDE reduced the number of standard chess games and added more rapid and blitz games to the schedule. He said that was the proper method to determine the best player. "If they need to find the best player, they don't need to look at the types of chess, they just need to look at my name," he added, then laughed.

According to today's Elo rating (January 7th), Carlsen is the world number one in all three chess categories, with a standard rating of 2,830, rapid 2,823, and blitz 2,886. He won both the rapid and blitz championships last year, but his Elo rating has still dropped. The Norwegian player has also won 17 championships in all chess categories and has been the world number one since 2011.

Ding is currently the nominal World Chess Champion, having defeated Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Championship final. The Chinese player will have to defend his title later this year against the winner of the Candidates tournament.

The 2024 Candidates Tournament took place from April 2nd to April 25th, with players competing in a double round-robin format in Toronto, Canada.

Xuan Binh

Source link