In an exclusive interview to Jonathan Tisdall for the United States Chess Federation’s official magazine Chess Life Online, 16th World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen took stock of the last chess year, which recorded a dizzying online growth in the face of an unprecedented meltdown of reality due to the global pandemic. Indeed, Carlsen, more than anyone else, proved himself to be a true “hero of the two worlds”, gaining wins and podiums both online and offline. On the other hand, the reshaping of the world chess governance is neither clear nor simple, and it can’t announce itself as replacing FIDE with chess24.com or broadcasting classical music on Twitch. In other ways, Carlsen’s attempt to privatise chess through online gambling companies such as Unibet can hardly succeed in convincing people that the “free world” is a conceptual derivative of a casino, but, if nothing else, the deal can serve well the interests of a strict élite, which, after all, has proved capable of drawing sponsors with large pockets even in times of pandemic crisis. Strange to say, but a World Chess Champion cannot limit himself to wearing the King’s crown and counting banknotes, and thus even Carlsen himself must envision a future and then work to make his visions come true. “I think in general the future of classical chess as it is now is a little bit dubious”, he said. “I would love to see more Fischer [Random] Chess being played over-the-board in a classical format”. Of course, his flattering fans could not care less about chess960, but His Word alone can make impossible things happen. Among many other thoughts, he just gives a thought about who will be his next challenger. “By far the best player among them is Caruana”, he said. Yet “It’s not necessarily what I want. I mean, I don’t really know what I want at this point but yeah, I certainly think he’s the most interesting opponent”. |
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