Schack-tråden

World Blitz: Carlsen clinches triple crown, Assaubayeva defends her title

12/30/2022 – Magnus Carlsen and Bibisara Assaubayeva won the World Blitz Championships in Almaty. Carlsen thus grabbed the triple crown, as he is currently the classical, rapid and blitz world champion

Carlsen’s spectre looms as Ding and Nepomniachtchi launch title match

Magnus Carlsen, considered the greatest chess player on the planet even before rising to the No 1 ranking more than a decade ago and winning the title from Viswanathan Anand, will be enjoying a skiing holiday in the French Alps when Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi and China’s Ding Liren kick off their €2m ($2.2m) world title match on Sunday at the St Regis Astana Hotel in the Kazakh capital.

But the spectre of Carlsen continues to loom over a title match that has been criticized as “amputated” due to his absence, calling into question the legitimacy of the title at stake.

“I can hardly call it a world championship match,” Kasparov told the Saint Louis Chess Club last month. “For me, the world championship match should include the strongest player on the planet, and this match doesn’t.”

the match between Nepo and Ding is a great show anyway, but it’s not a world championship match.”

The play by Ding was very strange. His behaviour too has been bizarre. He was very nervous during the first game as well and in the interview after the game, he revealed that after reaching Astana, Kazakhstan where the championship is being held, he actually changed his hotel room a day before the start. Something is wrong with him at the moment. He’s very underconfident and lacks self-esteem.