The year-ending FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships was shrouded in controversy. The Rapid Championship saw Magnus Carlsen’s jeans scandal, and then the Blitz C’ship saw him reportedly telling Ian in the final to play short draws after the sudden death failed to decide a winner. In a video which has gone viral on social media, the World No. 1 and Ian can be seen having a conversation, with the Norwegian saying, “Just play short draws until they give up”.

The video and result of the match sent social media into a state of meltdown as fans, former and current chess players took to X to accuse Carlsen of match-fixing.

Carlsen decided to break his silence on the controversy on Thursday. Retweeting a post shared by a French Grandmaster, Carlsen denied the match-fixing accusations and revealed that his comments in the viral video were a ‘joke’ due to the lack of ‘decisive tiebreak rules’.

He wrote, “I’ve never prearranged a draw in my career. In the video I’m joking with Ian in a situation with lacking decisive tiebreak rules. This was obviously not an attempt to influence FIDE. It was said in the spirit that I thought FIDE would agree to our proposal. If anything it was a bad joke given the gravity of the situation.”

“I think the match itself showed two players playing high level chess, equally matched and both deserving of a win”, he added.

Carlsen began the final with two wins over the Russian Grandmaster, and then just needed to a draw to clinch the Blitz title. Ian staged a comeback in the third game to make it 1-2, still in favour of Carlsen. In the fourth game, the Russian star showed excellent strategy as he sacrificed his knight to grab a win which levelled proceedings, 2-2.

In the sudden death, both had an accuracy of 98 per cent and all three games ended in draws. After discussions with the FIDE, Carlsen proposed that the title could be shared, and it by agreed by his opponent.