For First Time Ever – Chess Has Joint World Champions
There will be joint individual world champions for the first time in the more than 100-year history of FIDE (the International Chess Federation) chess competitions.
Photo: Nepomniachtchi vs. Carlsen, 7th game of 2024 World Blitz Chess Championship final (screenshot youtube.com/@ChessBaseIndiachannel)
After seven completed games into their final, grandmaster Magnus Carlsen from Norway, who was a heavy favorite in the final according to chess betting sites’ odds, suggested that the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and he split the 2024 FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship title.
Carlsen won his seventh global blitz championship after he dramatically changed his mind about withdrawing from the event at the global Rapid Chess Championship 2024, which was held a few days before the blitz event. Nepomniachtchi won his first world title. This is the first-ever joint world championship title for an individual competition.
Following unstoppable performances in her quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, Grandmaster Ju Wenjun defeated Grandmaster Lei Tingjie 3.5-2.5 in an all-Chinese 2023 Women’s World Championship rematch final at this year’s competition.
What Led to This Joint World Title?
The championship’s knockout stage was held at Cipriani Wall Street, a historically significant structure that was once the site of the New York Stock Exchange. The spacious hall was alive with activity when the 16 men’s and women’s quarterfinalists entered. Grandmaster Valentina Gunina and Carlsen, the reigning champions, were still vying for their titles when play started, but Gunina lost to the later champion already in the quarterfinal.
After advancing through their quarterfinal and semifinal matches, Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi, two longtime rivals, squared up in a supposedly winner-take-all final on New Year’s Eve. The two are no strangers to competing on the international scene; their most well-known match was at the 2021 FIDE World Chess Championship. Carlsen had two consecutive crushing victories to start the final. After that, Nepomniachtchi responded like a world champion, winning two games on demand to level the score and force a sudden-death tiebreak.
The players agreed to a draw on move 43 in the first sudden-death game, which established the tone for the remainder of the final. Then came a rare chess moment after two more games with an almost flawless performance ending in a draw. Carlsen proposed to Nepomniachtchi that they share the title of the fourth sudden-death game, even though he was entitled to play with the white pieces. The players spoke with the arbitrating crew during a brief pause. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich approved the two being named joint champions.
Why Was Carlsen Disqualified Before Blitz World Champs?
Carlsen announced his surprising decision to skip the 2024 FIDE World Rapid Championship on Friday, December 27, after being fined $200 for breaking the dress code by wearing jeans. He was told he had to change before round nine or risk being unpaired, but he refused. He later said that, albeit not in between rounds, he was prepared to switch jeans for the following day. In a series of angry statements and accusations toward FIDE, Carlsen said he was done with FIDE tournaments, adding “I’m at full war with FIDE.”
Then, as an even bigger surprise, Carlsen announced that he’d compete in the 2024 FIDE World Blitz Championship in New York. Everything has changed in the relations between the Norwegian grandmaster and the governing body for international chess, as the seven-time world blitz champion was allowed to experiment with dressing and could wear jeans.
