‘Cause for investigation’: Chess world miffed at Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi sharing blitz title

In a video that's gone viral, Carlsen can be heard telling Nepomniachtchi that if “FIDE refuse (to allow us to share title), we can just play short draws until they give up.”

Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the World Blitz title on Wednesday. (FIDE)

Written by: Sports Desk

4 min readJan 2, 2025 01:35 PM IST First published on: Jan 1, 2025 at 09:55 PM IST

There was plenty of ire in the world of chess after Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi agreed to share the World Blitz Championship title at the FIDE Rapid and Blitz Championship in New York’s Wall Street. Plenty of the disbelief and anger was directed at a clip where Carlsen can be heard telling Nepo that if “FIDE refuse (to allow us to share title), we can just play short draws until they give up.”

The first player to lash out at the result was US grandmaster Hans Niemann who posted a long rant on social media.

Carlsen won the first two games in the final against Nepo before the Russian made a comeback by winning two games, thus levelling the score at 2-2. The final went into a tiebreak, where both players played out three draws. At that stage, Carlsen suggested that they share the title, and Nepo agreed. While FIDE deliberated, Carlsen was heard telling Nepo how they would arm-twist FIDE into agreeing.

“The chess world is officially a joke. I can’t believe that the official body of chess is being controlled by a singular player for the second time this week!” Niemann posted on his X handle.

READ MORE: ‘Chess world is officially a joke’, Hans Niemann says in explosive rant after Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi share title

Soon afterwards other elite grandmasters also posted their opinion on Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi’s ploy.

Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik took a potshot at FIDE for not thinking of the possibility of both players not being able to find a victor over the board.

Kramnik was responding to a tweet from popular chess streamer Agadmator, which read: “Magnus should just tweet at the end of every year who the classical, rapid, blitz and Fischer-Random World champions are (or groups of champions). No need to organize events and waste precious resources.”

To this, Kramnik said: “Of course, some might wonder if FIDE should have thought a bit making the regulations concerning final WC match situation like that, but understandable, a lot of time and energy was spent on the jeans clause, the person writing the regulations was already tired by then.”

Kramnik was referring to the dress code at the event, a strict enforcement of which had almost led to Carlsen pulling out because he had been fined for wearing jeans.

There was a clip on social media showing Carlsen telling Nepomniachtchi that if “FIDE refuse, we can just play short draws until they give up.”

People wondered aloud if this conversation itself was tantamount to match fixing.

READ MORE: Magnus Carlsen defends himself against allegations, says ‘not trying to influence FIDE… was a bad joke given gravity of situation’

Hans Niemann posted: “This is cause for an investigation by the FIDE Ethics committee. I can’t believe that two players who maliciously accused me and tried to ruin my career are openly breaking the rules. The irony simply can’t get any worse.”

Indian grandmaster Srinath Narayanan said: “Criticism of the regulations and using it as an excuse is nonsense here. The Wimbledon 2019 final lasted 4 hours and 57 minutes. Novak Djokovic won the 5th set 13-12 and won Wimbledon 2019. They didn’t make a pact to share the trophy or ‘keep losing one point each until they give up’”.

Talking about the conversation where Magnus is telling Nepo about playing out draws until “FIDE gives up”, Srinath later added: “It’s wrong, of course, at many levels. It also shows Magnus’s instinct to resort to blackmail if FIDE insists on following the regulations… Where does power reside in the chess world, in 2024 or 2025?”

Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, who almost qualified for the quarters, said on X: “If only I had known that the rules were flexible, I’d have lobbied for all 10 players who tied for first to be included in the knockout. Or, if we can have two co-champions, why not 10?!”

Susan Polgar pointed out that Nepo and Daniil Dubov had been docked points for playing out a draw at last year’s event where both players made their knights hop around the board before the handshake agreeing to a draw.

“What is the difference between the famous ‘Knight Dance’ and ‘Title Share’? I hope some arbiters can explain the ‘rules’ to me,” Polgar said.