1/27/2025 – After giving his Bundesliga debut for St. Pauli, Magnus Carlsen travelled on to the ICE Gaming Fair in Barcelona. In an interview, Carlsen commented on the controversy with FIDE, though he did not mention it explicitly. Still, it was an interesting and open interview.
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Magnus Carlsen is a man in demand and has many appointments to keep. After making his Bundesliga debut for his new German club, the FC St. Pauli, he travelled to Barcelona for the ICE gaming fair and was a "celebrity guest" at the stand of sports betting provider Betby.
He also answered questions from Tim Poole, editor of Gambling Inside. The interview has been posted on YouTube.
Carlsen spoke briefly about his wedding, which had taken place two weekends earlier in a chapel at Holmenkollen, Norway, and described it as the happiest event of his life so far. The world's best chess player expressed his gratitude for all the attention he and his wife had received from all sides.
But he couldn't really relax afterwards, said Carlsen, because a series of appointments required a lot of travelling.
Tim Poole addressed the controversies that Carlsen has had to deal with recently and asked somewhat provocatively – met with a smile from Carlsen – whether Carlsen thought there was ever a danger of a successful sportsman considering himself more important than the sport in which he excelled.
"I do not aim to be bigger than chess, of course, but I do think though that I do have the ability to sort of speak up when I think that something is not right", Carlsen answered. And continued: "There have been instances where I feel that maybe when it comes to specific organizations and so on, maybe they need me more than I need them. Chess will always be bigger than I am, but specific organizations maybe not.""
Carlsen then clarified his position as follows: "I feel like I'm generally nice, but I will not just willy-nilly agree with things that I just believe are wrong, and that's what makes conflicts happen sometimes. I am in a position where I can afford to be sometimes less agreeable."
Behind this somewhat vague statement is Magnus Carlsen's controversy with the World Chess Federation FIDE. Even before the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship in New York, there was an intensive discussion with FIDE about Carlsen's "Freestyle Chess Grand Slam" project, which the world number one launched together with the Hamburg entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner. Fifteen of the top players from the top 20 want to take part. However, FIDE sees this series as an infringement of its self-defined sovereign control over organised chess.
FIDE itself has also held World Championships in Freestyle Chess or Fischer Chess, but has not been able to continue them in recent years. It seems more than questionable whether FIDE can actually claim trademark rights to the title "World Championship" for all chess variants – there are countless others. In fact, the Freestyle Tournament Series is to be called the "Freestyle Chess Grand Slam". The best player at the end would be the "Freestyle Chess World Champion".
Apparently, top players were put under pressure by FIDE not to take part in the Freestyle series before the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Championship, but the players resisted.
In the further course of the interview, Carlsen talked about his favourite hobby, football, and the Fantasy Football League and other fantasy leagues. Carlsen regularly takes part in fantasy leagues and has already achieved excellent results there. However, he was so annoyed by the public attention of his game decisions that he has since started playing anonymously. He is currently playing in the NBA Fantasy NFL, says Carlsen.
Finally, Carlsen commented on the parallels between chess and poker and e-sports in general. He didn't have much to say about poker, but he did say that Freestyle Chess has a lot in common with e-sports because of the different starting positions, which allows you to "sort of have a new map very often that you play."
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