By: Lucas Chi
The current chess world champion Magnus Carlsen announced last Wednesday has decided he will not defend his title but allow someone else to take it.
After being world champion since 2013 and having a world record highest rating of 2882, he will be taking a break that possibly will last forever from chess.
Who will replace him? The two main competitors are Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and Ding Liren of China. These two grandmasters are very good, although far behind Carlsen. The two grandmasters will fight for the top spot in next year’s championship match.
Ian Nepomniachtchi won the candidate’s tournament. The candidate’s tournament is a tournament that usually decides who would be challenging the world champion. Because Carlsen is withdrawing from the competition, the tournament’s top two players will instead be facing off against each other.
Nepomniachtchi, who is called Nepo, became a grandmaster in 2007 and has advanced to the seventh best in the world. He has a current chess rating of 2821, which is a very high rating.
Ding Liren, who came in second place in the candidate’s tournament, has many respectable achievements. He currently stands second in the entire world, behind Carlsen. His current rating is 2836. He became a grandmaster in 2009.
A similar event happened between 1993 and 2006. Two grandmasters, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov had been fighting for the top spot. They both considered themselves world champions, although they sometimes beat each other. Many argued who was better. In the end, Kasparov was ranked number 1 until he retired in 2005.
Nepo and Liren could have the same continuous battle as Karpov and Kasparov had, and fight for years on end.
Many of Carlsen’s fans are very unhappy that Carlsen left competitive chess. Arkady Dvorkovich, the president of the International Chess Federation also thinks this way about Carlsen. “His decision not to defend the title is undoubtedly a disappointment for the fans and bad news for the spectacle,” he said, “It leaves a big void.”
Sources: nytimes.com chess.com fide.com