Carlsen Sets Up All-Around World Championship, Chooses Nakamura as His Opponent

I guess he wants to the world championship title after all.

Magnus Carlsen may have abdicated his classical world championship title (which will go to the winner of the match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren starting in a week and a half), expressing a lack of interest in maintaining that burden. The time needed for prep and away from other events was part of his motivation for surrendering the title, but now it seems that he wants to be dragged back into it. (Maybe his financial advisers and P.R. people told him that not being the world champion was bad for his brand?)

So, according to this story, he has decided to create a new, All-Around World Chess Championship, combining classical, rapid, and blitz time controls. A cycle is being set up, but given the dominance he and Hikaru Nakamura have displayed in blitz for years, together with his (Carlsen’s) being the #1 rated classical player for more than a decade while Nakamura only just missed qualifying for the FIDE World Championship by a whisker, it seemed sensible to have them contest the inaugural title.

An especially interesting twist is that the winner can decide which disciplines will be chosen for the next All-Around World Championship. For instance, the next final could see the finalists try their chances in hyper-bullet, ultra-bullet, and correspondence chess. The chess world is waiting with bated breath.