Magnus Carlsen Gives Up His World Title And Replacing Him Won’t Be Easy

The decision announced Wednesday by Magnus Carlsen, the reigning world chess champion, that he will not try to defend the crown in a match next year means there will soon be a new starter.

For chess, this can be the hardest part. There is a real possibility that whoever wins the 2023 world championship match, which will be played between Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, the winner of this month’s candidates tournament to be the prescribed challenger, and China’s Ding Liren, who ended up as runner-up, will be considered an illegitimate champion, or at least greatly diminished.

Arkady Dvorkovich, president of the International Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, acknowledged this Wednesday after Carlsen announced his decision to withdraw from the championship he won five times.

“His decision not to defend the title is undoubtedly a disappointment for the fans and bad news for the show,” Dvorkovich said in a statement released by the federation, which organized the world championship match. “It leaves a big void.”

While Carlsen’s decision is not unprecedented, history suggests that the new champion will have a hard time filling his place.

In 1975, Bobby Fischer, the temperamental American who won the championship by beating Russian Boris Spassky – in a 1972 game played against the backdrop of the Cold War – refused to defend the title. At the time, Fischer was in lengthy negotiations with the federation, but when they failed to reach an agreement, he chose to fold rather than play — despite pleas from many people, including politicians, and the offer of millions of dollars to the award background.

Fischer’s abdication left Anatoly Karpov, who had qualified as a challenger, as the de facto champion. Initially, there was a feeling that Karpov was not entitled to the title. But he showed that he was a worthy successor, dominating the competition and holding the top spot for nearly ten years.

A better comparison for Carlsen’s would-be successor is what happened between 1993 and 2006, when the world title was split between rival claimants.

The problem arose when Garry Kasparov, who defeated Karpov in 1985 to become champion and then successfully defended his title against Karpov three times, was selected to play Nigel Short of England.

Kasparov and Short were unhappy with the way the world chess federation was organizing the match and the fact that she would receive 20% of the prize pool, so they formed their own organization and negotiated their own deal. The federation retaliated by declaring the match illegitimate, stripping Kasparov of the title and arranging their own championship match between Karpov and Jan Timman of the Netherlands, whom Short had defeated in the candidates’ final.

After Kasparov and Karpov won their respective matches, they both declared themselves world champions. Although Karpov had the support of the federation, most people considered Kasparov the rightful king, calling him a classic or linear champion.

The federation’s holder lost even more public esteem after the entity organized a series of tournaments to crown a champion and the winners were mostly players with less significant backgrounds than those of Karpov or Kasparov.

Kasparov also continued to play and was No. 1 until his retirement in 2005, although he lost a title match to Russian Vladimir Kramnik in 2000, who became widely recognized as the world champion.

The rift in the chess world was only fixed in 2006, when federation champion Veselin Topalov lost a reunification match against Kramnik.

Beyond competitive and legacy issues, however, there are other parallels between Kasparov and Carlsen that could overshadow Carlsen’s successor — and have an impact on chess itself.

Kasparov is a dynamic personality who has done a lot to popularize the game. While Carlsen is nothing like Kasparov, he has a large stake in a publicly traded global chess company (Play Magnus), has modeled for a renowned clothing brand (G-Star Raw), and has hosted exhibits at tech and financial conferences. He was even on a Norwegian reality show.

In short, Carlsen made chess modern, and while he’s not giving up, the game won’t be the same when he’s no longer world champion, which Dvorkovich mentioned in his statement.

Carlsen is also by far the best player in the world, a ranking he won’t lose for not defending his title. As long as he keeps playing, what he said in his announcement that he intended to do, he will overshadow everyone else, just as Kasparov has already done.

The title of world champion is unquestionably valuable. It is possible that whoever wins the title race next year will gain enough stature to be seen as a legitimate and worthy rival and successor to Carlsen. But history suggests otherwise.