Tuesday
Aug262014
Carlsen and Sochi: Will He Or Won't He?
Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at 10:53PM
Will Magnus Carlsen sign his contract for the world championship match slated to begin in Sochi on November 7? He has until September 7, the final day of the Sinquefield Cup (which starts tomorrow/today/Wednesday) to do so. This article offers a good summary of where things stand, and notes that it Carlsen doesn't play there will be a world championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Sergei Karjakin. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Reader Comments (3)
Agreed that an Anand-Karjakin match would be a real shame. Hopefully, Carlsen and Anand (presumably via their management teams) can agree to some common conditions. On the face of it, Carlsen's misgivings seem to be sufficiently justified that Anand should not just ignore them. And this is perhaps the time for the leading players to take a stand. A postponement, and locking into a 2-year cycle for the world championships would be reasonable. It would be best if Kasparov stayed out of it; he has been so blatantly partisan (pro-Carlsen, anti-Anand) for many years that if he intervenes (without any official standing) I doubt any good will come out of it.
7 September, two months before the supposed start of the event, would be a logical deadline. But according to the chess24 article (written by someone close to Carlsen rather than a neutral observer) FIDE hasn't set a deadline, at least not publicly. Tarjei Svensen also slightly misquotes the World Championship Regulations - his version: "FIDE _can_ replace Carlsen for the match if the Norwegian fails to sign the contract by their deadline." Official version: "If a player refuses to participate in the World Championship Match, he _will_ be replaced ...".
Signing the contract implies agreement, not signing the contract implies hesitation but not refusal to play - unless/until he misses a set deadline. And 7 September seems to be Carlsen's own deadline, only in the sense of 'no earlier than that day' - if he doesn't sign the contract on 7 September, he might still sign it on 15 or 28 September!?
Before the candidates event, some people insisted that Anand should concede his spot to Caruana - Anand was given a deadline (initially right after Zurich) that was later advanced. Due to his status, Carlsen seems to have a more comfortable position.
Another source (Europe Echecs, dated 21 August, based on "ITAR TASS Artem Kuznetsov") quotes Ilyumzhinov: "If Carlsen doesn't come to Sochi, he will be forfeited." (no mention of Karjakin at least in the translation) Does this really mean that the deadline is 0 minutes before the planned start of the first game? And would Karjakin need to travel to Sochi to replace Carlsen the same day? Altogether, an awkward situation, also for Anand!?
According to this Russian article, http://kommersant.ru/doc/2553482, after google-stranslating, the deadline for signing the contract is end of August. Quote
"The manager said that the final decision will take an athlete after a major tournament, opening today in St. Louis. He finishes on 7 September. The problem lies in the fact that the deadline for signing the contracts match participants officially expires at the end of August."