No publicity Carlsen & Rosen: A chess farce: Nobody wants to host the World Cup

No Carlsen and Russian propaganda
The farce of chess: no one wants to host the World Cup

Written by Christian Schinzel
01/12/2023 at 7:10 PM

At the beginning of April, the new world chess champion will play a duel between Ian Nepomniaschi and Ding Liren. It is still not clear where the two leaders will meet. This is also associated with the star Magnus Carlsen.

Time is running out, but the solution is still elusive. The search for a place for the World Chess Championship 2023 is becoming more and more a farce. Although the first match is between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren It will take place within 86 days, and the FIDE World Association has yet to find a host for its most important event. Levi Rosman, one of the most famous and greatest chess players, put his finger in the wound this week He wrote on Twitter “An organizational and communication disaster.” FIDE spokesman David Lada agreed in part, saying “chess24.comFrom Justified Criticism.

Llada justified the fact that the search was drawn-out with, among other things, planning problems as part of the post-pandemic recounting of the chess calendar. “That’s why we had a much narrower time frame this time around.” An understandable explanation, but certainly not the only one. The biggest problem, which the federation has not stated, is probably that superstar Magnus Carlsen is no longer part of the world championships this year. The Norwegian has given up his title and will not compete in a World Cup for the first time since 2013. The event is therefore missing the biggest impetus the sport has to offer. This deters sponsors, among other things.

The dominant star is missing

“This is probably the least exciting World Cup match in a long time,” Norwegian chess expert Atle Grun said in an interview with Dagbladet, something FIDE could not publicly acknowledge. Grune noted that even with Magnus Carlsen there were always problems finding a place. But without the star, it’s much more difficult. Chess journalist Tarjei Svendsen takes a similar view and says: “It is obviously much more difficult to organize a world tournament if the player who has dominated chess for the past decade is missing.” But Carlsen’s absence is just another problem. Gron speculates that a competitor is also deterring potential financiers.

“In the end, (Nebo) represents Russia. That makes it more complicated for Western countries to host it,” he said, referring to Ian Nepomniachtchi’s background. who distanced himself from the war early on, but in the end it can still be exploited by the Russian state media, especially since chess is very popular in Russia. In November, President Arkady Dvorkovich indicated that the federation absolutely wanted to prevent such headlines when he explicitly rejected the World Cup in Russia, thus responding to a recommendation from the International Olympic Committee.

Russia is probably the most important and largest market for the assembly, along with the United States, China and India. The war temporarily crippled this market. From the association’s perspective, this is one thing above all: bad for business.

Mexico project failed

In November, the federation was still hoping to find a World Cup organizer. Dvorkovich confirmed the talks with a promoter in Mexico, saying, “We’ll make a decision in a month.” Almost two months later, that decision is still a long way off. Mexico, as revealed by spokesperson David Lada, has since withdrawn. So enticing was the project presented to the Society there that the potential host was given more time. “However, this ambitious plan did not materialize,” he told chess24.com. “That is why we are now considering alternative offers.”

FIDE has just received another bid from a country on the American continent. A delegation is going there this week. “If they come back, we will be in a position to make a decision,” Lada assured. Atli Gron trusts these statements and believes: “I think they will succeed.” Happy character, this is already evident, the association can no longer give up. It’s too late for that.