The world number one has successfully won both his world rapid and blitz chess championship titles in Samarkand across two events, each featuring its own share of controversies. With these victories to follow up his Champions Chess Tour win, Carlsen clearly remains the player to beat in faster time controls, where his interests lie.
With just a single game lost across the 34 played in the two tournaments combined, it was yet another blistering set of performances by Magnus Carlsen, who rode the crest of a wave created by his early victories to steer his final games in the rapid and the blitz events alike to draws in a bid to secure successive title defenses for himself.
It was an exciting and controversy-filled year in the chess world, and these events were no exception: First, there were online complaints from fellow players about Carlsen’s private lounge and the mistaken notion that he has access to a laptop to prepare for games between the rounds in a way his rivals didn’t, followed by some questionable decisions from the arbiters about enforcing the event’s strict dress code.
In the blitz tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Daniel Dubov played out a clearly prearranged draw where they did nothing apart from hopping back and forth with their knights, prompting an outcry over fair play considerations and leading to both players getting sanctioned in the form of a 0-0 result, missing out on the half point they would have each earned with a legitimate draw. With Dubov finishing just half a point behind Carlsen in the blitz event, one has to wonder how he feels about his own unsportsmanlike conduct.
Despite featuring faster time controls, the tournaments also had a tangible impact on the race to the 2024 Candidates Tournament as they marked the final chance for some players to rack up added points for the FIDE Circuit. With Anish Giri falling short of his ultimate goal of winning either tournament, it’s Gukesh D of India who will join the established crowd of competitors in Toronto next year for a bid to get the chance to challenge Ding Liren, Carlsen’s successor as the classical world chess champion.
