Editorial Comments on the Karjakin/Altibox Norway Chess Affair

The following is my personal position and not that of the club. I don't think the club actually has any positions on any topic, save that we love chess, and we're all happy Connor has agreed to continue on as President God-Emperor of the Club so none of the rest of us have to do it. (The job isn't as good as the title suggests.)

Not long ago Sergey Karjakin of Russia won the FIDE Candidates tournament in Moscow, and with it the right to play Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship this fall. He also picked up, in the manner of Heracles lifting The Heavens from the shoulders Atlas, the weight of a nation's expectations. The Russians want the title back.

Since winning the Candidates Tourney Karjakin has been showered with gifts and attention, and who knows what is going on behind the scenes as preparations begin for November's contest. It seems Putin has some interest in the outcome, and the President of the Russian Chess Federation (Andrey Filatov) is a member of Russia's billionaire set.

All of this began on March 28th. On April 6, Karjakin's management announced that he is withdrawing from the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament, scheduled to run from April 18 to April 30. Here's a translation of a statement Kirill Zangalis, Karjakin's manager, gave to the Russian website RSport:

“No-one could have guaranteed his victory at the Candidates' Tournament. Now the situation for Sergey is different. He has decided to concentrate fully on preparing for the match for the world crown, especially since the Candidates' Tournament took almost all of his energy.”

Karjakin is excited, exhausted, and looking ahead to a match, against a player who may be the strongest (human) player of all time, that many have been anticipating for a dozen years or more. (Karjakin and Carlsen were both born in 1990, both achieved the GM title in their early teens, and both elevated themselves towards the top at a young age. Really, people have been waiting for this match for a long time!)

So the idea of playing in perhaps the second toughest tournament of the year a mere 21 days after winning THE toughest tournament of the year clearly wasn't appealing. Especially since he would be playing in the home country of the Champion, which may not have been all that hospitable. (More on that shortly.)

Thus withdrawing from the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament must have looked like a good idea, though it is unfortunate for the organizers of the tournament.

The reaction has been downright pissy. The tourney organizers are clearly upset, and that is understandable. I'm finding their reaction to be a bit less so. Here's the reaction of tournament spokesman Jøran Aulin-Jansson:

“Karjakin has a signed contract with us and it does not state that he can withdraw from the tournament if he qualifies for the World Championship in November. This action feels disrespectful to us as the organizers of the event as well as the other players in the tournament, not to mention the entire chess world that were looking forward to the dress rehearsal for the World Championship match between Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen.”

(Both of the quotes above come from Chess.com's article about the affair. Give 'em a click - but read the comment section at your own risk!)

Okay, perhaps the organizers feel disrespected, but unless they've spoken to all the other players I don't think they can speak for them, and they certainly can't speak for the "entire chess world." I don't feel disrespected by this decision at all. I'm not thrilled with it, but I'm also not particularly disappointed. Someone will be found to replace him, and the show will go one. (Li Chao is the replacement.)

I also find the hostile tone at odds with the tournament's stated position, at that time, that they were still trying to convince Karjakin to play. Perhaps salesmanship is different in Norway.

(It has also been reported, by Tarjei Svenson, that the organizers are considering legal action against Karjakin. I would think penalties would have been clearly outlined in the player's contracts, and if they aren't I think the organizers have done a poor job of it.)

But if that response was bad, Malcolm Pein's reaction was downright churlish. Pein is the chess correspondent for The Telegraph, one of London's major papers, and is also one of the organizing forces behind both the London Chess Classic and the Grand Chess Tour.

@TarjeiJS Preparation ? Nah - he's just chickening out - pathetic, pleased we didn't invite him to Grand Chess Tour #chess

— Malcolm Pein (@TelegraphChess) April 6, 2016

Pein also accused Karjakin of "running scared" in his newspaper column. These are the reactions one would expect from anonymous trolls online, not one of the games primary organizers. Sadly, it's impossible to tell the difference.

Besides being such a poor sport over a matter that doesn't actually concern him, Pein is also being incredibly stupid given that Karjakin could well be the next world champion. That would look great in the advertising of future tournaments: "Our tournament brings together all the world's strongest players (except for the world champion, who rightly despises us for publicly trashing his imagine because we're too stupid to think ahead more than 10 seconds - please give us your sponsorship money!)"

I'd like to address this idea that Karjakin is scared of Carlsen. This has been a common refrain of the last couple of days from anyone with a Norwegian flag flying beside their online avatar. I don't remember their record against each other, but it certainly isn't lopsided. Furthermore, while Carlsen is the better player, he doesn't necessarily have the better nerves. Carlsen tried to give away his last match against Anand, and he collapsed at the end of the 2013 Candidates Tournament in London over the last three rounds. He simply couldn't handle the pressure, and got lucky that the tie-break rules favored him when Kramnik also faltered. This year, when faced with similar pressure, Karjakin rose to the occasion. These aren't the marks of a man with bad nerves, or who otherwise has problems handling his emotions.

(I would even argue that Caruana also showed better nerves in the 2016 Candidates Tournament than Carlsen showed in the 2013 tournament. Yes, Caruana lost his last round game, but he didn't collapse: he pressed hard in a very unfavorable circumstance.)

Some additional points.

First, there is history between Karjakin and this tournament. Karjakin actually won the first two iterations of this event, in 2013 and 2014. So last year, for the third edition, he was invited ... to play in the qualifier for the last spot. This was done, allegedly, because Norway Chess had joined the Grand Chess Tour, which they have since left, and Karjakin didn't qualify at that time as one of the nine regulars for the Tour. Fine. One would then assume that Karjakin would have received the wildcard spot reserved for each tournament's organizing committee. Instead he was asked to play in an event that could well have cost him rating points if he had won it. That wasn't exactly well handled on the part of the Norwegians. It was their right to do so, naturally, but let's not pretend that it was duly respectful of the player who had won the event every time it had been played, either.

Second, the first edition of this tournament, in 2013, was also played not long after the Candidates had finished, and the qualifier from the Candidates that year, Carlsen, DID play. However, that's not all to the story: that tournament took play 37 days after the prior tournament, and an extra 16 days would certainly be helpful for recovery - enough time for a vacation by the sea, for example; Carlsen was somewhat obligated to play, because the tournament had clearly been organized as a feature program for him on his home soil; and while Carlsen did contend in that tournament, he didn't win. (Knock off 16 days of rest and see how he would have done.)

Third, there is another big difference between Carlsen in 2013 and Karjakin in 2016: Carlsen was a bachelor, while Karjakin has a wife and a recently born child. He seems to want to spend time with his wife and child now, who have had to make some sacrifices of their own for Karjakin to pursue his career.

Yes, given everything, perhaps Karjakin should have turned down the invitation to this tournament. But even for a player of his caliber invitations aren't always as easy to get as one would think. After all, he missed out on all three Grand Chess Tour events last year, so turning down an invite this year on the possibility that he would win the Candidates tournament probably wouldn't have been a smart business decision. That's the reality of the state of chess these days, and given the extreme pettiness of so many of the organizers, that is unlikely to change any time soon.