Magnus Carlsen admits concern of shedding made him share World Blitz title with Nepomniachtchi: ‘My confidence was shaken’

World No.1 chess participant Magnus Carlsen’s sharing of the World Blitz Championship 2024 title with Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi on the finish of 2024 had led to an enormous controversy on the earth of sports activities. The previous world champion additionally confronted match-fixing allegations. It was the primary time in historical past that the
World Blitz Championship title was shared between two gamers, and issues received worse after a video of Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi planning to play “quick attracts” within the tiebreakers till the Worldwide Chess Federation, FIDE, determined to share the title went viral.

Indian GM Srinath Narayanan and American Grandmaster Hans Niemann had been among the many star chess gamers
who criticised Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi for sharing the blitz title and questioned the choice taken by FIDE. The 34-year-old Carlsen, nevertheless, has now launched a full rationalization of what led to him agreeing to share a chess world championship title.

Carlsen says he feared shedding the World Blitz title

Talking to Take Take Take, a chess platform co-owned by the Norwegian, Carlsen revealed that he feared shedding the World Blitz Championship remaining after Nepomniachtchi’s sensational comeback, main him to suggest sharing the title.

“I imply, it’s not a disrespectful query in any respect. I imply, I’m very open about the truth that I don’t have fairly the identical drive as I did earlier. It did creep in sooner or later that I felt like after the comeback he made that he would have been very arduous accomplished by if he didn’t get his first world championship title due to this,” Carlsen stated. “Other than that, you realize, I used to be, in fact, earlier pondering that I used to be going to win the match. I gained the primary two video games, and I used to be feeling fairly good, and he made an excellent comeback. At that time, in fact, my confidence was shaken a bit. We performed three actually high-quality attracts within the tiebreak as properly.”

Magnus on the co-champion incident. pic.twitter.com/4sgqMQQHQY

— Take Take Take (@TakeTakeTakeApp) February 5, 2025

Speaking in regards to the backlash from the specialists, Carlsen stated that there was hardly any time for him through the tiebreakers to rigorously replicate on the choice he was taking.

“So I wasn’t feeling assured that I used to be gonna win so it was a mixture of that like feeling that it could be a pleasant answer partly additionally you realize desirous to get out of there with the world championship title and I truthfully thought that it could be a pleasant second and I nonetheless suppose that that it was. Additionally, I feel individuals received to appreciate that at that time, like, you realize, you’re not all the time pondering very clearly. Like, there’s all the time, like, two-minute break in between rounds. Like, you don’t actually have time to go relaxation in any respect. And I wasn’t, like, pondering via all the things.”

Carlsen additionally drew parallel with the excessive soar occasion on the Tokyo Olympics the place two athletes (Italy’s athlete Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim) determined to share the gold medal as a substitute of participating in a jump-off after registering the identical peak within the occasion.

“In fact, you realize, it turned out, like, that individuals didn’t actually, didn’t actually take it the best way that I believed they may, like what occurred with the excessive soar at Olympics and all the things. Which is, which is, which is, in fact, positive,” Carlsen identified.

Carlsen: ‘Pleased with the best way issues concluded’

5-time world champion Carlsen, who has additionally been on the forefront
of the Freestyle Chess Operation’s battle with FIDE, made it clear on the finish that he has no regrets about sharing the 2024 blitz title.

“No, No, no, I’m, you realize, I’m proud of the best way issues concluded. The one factor is I most likely didn’t suppose via all the things utterly,” Carlsen stated.

Within the 2024 World Blitz Championship remaining, Carlsen took a 2-0 lead, however Nepomniachtchi staged a comeback, profitable the following two video games. This led to a sudden dying tiebreak, which resulted in three consecutive attracts. Carlsen then proposed sharing the title, a suggestion accepted by Nepomniachtchi and FIDE.