Magnus Carlsen has gained every thing beneath the solar, besides this chess match—not less than till now. With a near-flawless run by means of the knockout bracket that culminated in a grand closing matchup in opposition to 18-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the Norwegian phenom has lastly added the final lacking feather to his cap, at the same time as he confirmed his continued lack of curiosity in taking part on this planet championship cycle.
The chess world has long term out of superlatives in terms of Magnus Carlsen. He’s the highest-rated participant on this planet proper now, with the very best all-time peak ranking besides, having topped the charts for 158 consecutive months—admittedly nonetheless a far cry from Garry Kasparov’s 255. He’s additionally one of many choose few to have change into world chess champions, and he’s defended his classical title on 5 separate events earlier than abdicating in 2022, citing a scarcity of curiosity within the super-slow format. Maybe to underscore the purpose, he’s additionally reclaimed each the speedy and the blitz world champion titles in the identical yr.
From prestigious invite-only tremendous tournaments to the most important of open competitions, Carlsen has gained all of them—with one exception. The FIDE World Cup (to not be confused with the world championship) is a particular affair, an eight-round single-elimination bout that pits the gamers in opposition to one another in back-to-back matches in classical time management earlier than shifting to quicker tiebreakers all the way in which to three-minute video games with two-second increments.
Associated: Chess World Cup 2023: Players, schedule, and format
Carlsen’s had a topsy-turvy historical past with the match up to now. At a younger age, he declined to attend on a number of events, and afterward, laws barred him from taking part when he was the world champion. Final yr, he crashed out within the semis in opposition to younger Polish upstart Jan-Krzysztof Duda. 2023, nevertheless, would show to be the Norwegian’s yr.
The world No. 1’s run featured a solitary defeat within the classical portion alongside the way in which, and he scored notable victories in opposition to the brand new era’s rising gamers, dispatching Vincent Keymer and Gukesh D alongside the way in which earlier than dealing with Pragg within the grand closing, the place he steered the classical video games to 2 attracts whereas battling with meals poisoning, then decisively defeating his younger Indian opponent within the speedy playoffs.
He has additionally confirmed alongside the way in which that he has no real interest in taking part within the Candidates Event, the occasion that decides the following world championship challenger, clearing up not less than among the considerations and concerns concerned with the drama. Now, all three different semifinalists may be protected within the information that they’ve earned themselves a spot—one thing that made the third-place decider between Fabiano Caruana and hometown hero Najit Abasov rather less intriguing than it in any other case would have been. After falling behind in sport one, the American grandmaster managed to strike again and totally flip the tides within the speedy video games to safe himself the bronze.
Over within the ladies’s part, IM Nurgyul Salimova gained the occasion because the twenty ninth seed and instantly earned herself the grandmaster title for her troubles.
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