Nakamura thinks Carlsen would skip the Candidates even if he earns a spot.
FIDE has opened a new route to the Candidates, in the faster formats Carlsen says he prefers. According to ChessBase Nepal, Nakamura doesn’t think it will bring him back.
Hikaru Nakamura believes Magnus Carlsen would skip the Candidates even if he earned a place in it, according to ChessBase Nepal, and has suggested a match between the top two finishers instead.
We haven’t been able to find the original clip, so treat this as what it is: a rumor. But the reasoning behind it is hard to dismiss, because FIDE has just changed how players get into the Candidates.
A new way in
For the 2028 Candidates, FIDE has scrapped the rating spot, the route that used to give the world’s highest-rated player a place. In its place are two spots from a brand-new event: the Total Chess World Championship Tour, which starts awarding places in 2027.
Total Chess mixes formats. Its pilot event opens with 3+2 blitz, and its knockout stage combines rapid with “fast classical” games of 45 minutes plus a 30-second increment.
That’s close to what Carlsen has said he wants. When he turned down the Candidates in 2024, he said he would only reconsider the classical world championship if organisers would “reduce the time controls” and play “more games”.
Carlsen is in. Nakamura is out.
Carlsen is the top seed at the Total Chess pilot in Budapest from November 10 to 20. “I look forward to playing the Total Chess World Championship in Budapest this year,” he said. “It’s always interesting to try out new formats.”
Nakamura qualified for an invitation and turned it down. When FIDE announced the tour last year, he called it “total fluff” and said it felt like it was “being done to desperately try to get one player to return.” His verdict: “Everything at the end of the day is about Magnus.”
He has also played down the stakes of November’s event. “It’s a one-off, it’s just like a test event,” he said, according to ChessBase Nepal. “It’s not an event that has anything on the line other than prize money.”
Why he might be right
Carlsen gave up his world title in 2023 rather than defend it. Ahead of the 2024 Candidates he was blunt: “I am not playing the Candidates. I don’t enjoy it. It’s as simple as that.” He didn’t play the 40 classical games needed to qualify for the 2026 edition on rating either, and the rating spot went to Nakamura.
A Total Chess spot would change how he gets in. It wouldn’t change what the Candidates is: a long classical tournament, followed, for the winner, by a classical world championship match. Without Carlsen, Javokhir Sindarov won this year’s Candidates unbeaten and will play Gukesh for the title in Geneva in late November.
What we don’t know
We don’t know exactly what Nakamura proposed when he suggested a match between the top two finishers, or which event’s top two he meant. Carlsen hasn’t said anything about the 2028 Candidates. And Total Chess doesn’t award a single Candidates spot until 2027.
If Carlsen earns a spot, what do you think will happen?
Tell us on Instagram, @thechessfile.
Rumor: Nakamura’s comments as reported by ChessBase Nepal. The Chess File has not been able to find the original recording. Other quotes come from Nakamura’s stream on the Total Chess announcement, Carlsen’s 2024 interview with Chess.com and World Chess’s coverage of the Budapest field.
