Former classical world and world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik caught the attention of fans with his criticism of D Gukesh’s win in Singapore. The Indian grandmaster defeated defending champion Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship recently. The win saw Gukesh become the youngest-ever world chess champion.
Now the 49-year-old has once again taken to social media and made some huge accusations on Magnus Carlsen. Recently, FIDE came to an agreement with Freestyle Chess Players Club (FCPC), which was facilitated by the likes of Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura and Danny Rensch, who is also the chief chess officer at Chess.com. In a press release, it was also revealed that both parties were continuing discussions ‘regarding the mutual recognition of future World Championship titles’.
In a series of tweets, Kramnik asked posed some serious questions to FIDE, and asked for the main reason behind the world body coming to an agreement. He also questioned the absence of D Gukesh from the agreement. Kramnik asked, “Most important,why chesscom, Carlsen, Nakamura are part of this agreement? Why them,not others,not Gukesh? Why players at all? I have heard they demanded recognition from FIDE of this organisation in return ro their participation in NY. Is it true? Important to know.”
“It means FIDE recognises a private event (with all respect) as official WC, getting in return the recognition of something already recognised long ago by everyone,so in return to just nothing. It is new 1993 in fact”, he questioned FIDE in another tweet.
He continued, “Gukesh, even more,first Second, it is the opposite, THEY ask FIDE to allow them to play in both, not other way around That doesnt make sense because FIDE can and will not forbid players participate in whatever PRIVATE events, therefore clearly talking about official FR WC then.”
He also accused Carlsen of ‘blackmailing’ FIDE that if they didn’t reach an agreement, then he and some top players would skip the year-ending Rapid and Blitz World Championship. He stated, “Bit most important, was there a sort of “blackmail” from players using the forthcoming event? If not,why those two are mentioned? And what does this strange agreement means in real?”
“That is something unacceptable from them, posing those condition, if its true,period. And even worse,FIDE showing weakness and negociating with them. Tomorrow others will follow, if FIDE accepts this behavior. FIDE supposed to be governing chess world, not individuals, full stop”, he added.
The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 is set to begin on January 4. The Tour consists of five events across five continents and over 4 million dollars as the prize money. The lineup for the first event consists of the likes of Carlsen, Nakamura, Caruana, Viswanathan Anand and D Gukesh.
