World Championship 2018 to be in London

by Macauley Peterson
11/29/2017 – Magnus Carlsen will defend his World Championship title in a 12-game match to be held in London from November 9th to 28th, 2018, World Chess confirmed today. He will play the winner of the Candidates tournament to be held in Berlin in March.

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Match in London for the first time since 2000

World Chess announced this evening that the British capital will host the 2018 World Championship match at a media event with World Champion Magnus Carlsen. The announcement came at a reception held at Kensington Roof Gardens and hosted by former UK politician, and avid chess fan, George Osborne, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2016, and is currently the editor of the London Evening Standard.

The choice of London was previously leaked to and reported by El Pais columnist and ChessBase contributor Leontxo Garcia on October 9th, and today's event serves as confirmation of the city.

Magnus Carlsen gave brief remarks to the gathered crowd, on the eve of the London Chess Classic:

The match will have a prize fund of € 1,000,000, the minimun required by FIDE. The official hashtag on twitter for the match should be #LondonPlaysChess. That continues the theme set for the Candidates tournament which is supposed to use #berlinplayschess, as seen, for instance in World Chess' most recent tweet confirming Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk as the final two participants:

A new minimalist logo for the match has been released in keeping with the style Agon / World Chess has adopted since its inception in 2012.

World Chess Championship 2018 logo

World Chess Championship banner | Source: World Chess on Facebook

Few new details

In keeping with the 2016 match and the Grand Prix, the sponsors noted in the press release remain the same, although the "official partner", PhosAgro, a Russian chemical holding company, has apparently signed a long-term contract with World Chess. Its duration and investment level is unmentioned.

The release quotes Andrey Guryev, CEO of PhosAgro:

Long-term sponsorship of the World Chess championships, which we signed today, is part of PhosAgro’s established corporate responsibility programme, which supports education, science, medicine and sports. We already sponsored the 2014 World Chess Championship match in Sochi and the 2016 World Chess Championship match in New York and are committed to continue. We are delighted with the choice of the city: London is where tradition and modern technology meet, and this is exactly our vision for the future of chess. Can’t wait to the chess fever to commence in London!

Other partners are back as well: Kaspersky Lab, also headquartered in Moscow, as "World Chess and FIDE Official Cybersecurity Partner"; S.T. Dupont as "Official Writing Instrument"; and Isklar ("ice clear" in Norwegian), which also sponsors Carlsen himself, as "Official Water".

Agon CEO, Ilya Merenzon, says:

Chess is now one of the world’s most popular computer games, but it has long-standing traditions, and we believe that London is the perfect setting for the next Championship Match. We are transforming the sport and making it modern and hip, but mindful of millennia-old traditions – and we hope to conduct this transformation as gracefully, as London does.

The press release promises a match "with every move avidly followed and analyzed by a global audience of hundreds of millions of chess fans" and then cites a total audience for the 2016 World Championship match "topping 1.5 billion people". A bit of hyperbole perhaps, as even with a generous reading of "audience", 1,500,000,000 people, or 1/5th the number of humans currently living is nigh impossible to fathom.

The market research firm YouGov is once again cited as the source of the spurious claim that "more people play chess regularly than golf and tennis combined". Chess does have a large audience, and can be presented in an exciting way that appeals to professionals, amateurs, and casual fans alike. In the long run it benefits no one to invoke this rigamarole statistic.

Also newsworthy is what was not mentioned, namely a venue. For the 2016 World Championship in New York, the venue was not revealed until just three months before the match began. Agon came under heavy criticism, including from the players, for the delay in finalization a location. Let's hope the match will be on firmer footing now that the city is known 345 days in advance.

Countdown clock

Less than a year to go. Getting excited?!

London2018.worldchess.com

The new subdomain of World Chess offers info about ticket sales, and teases a "Personal Bundle" and "Referral Programm" which are slated to be available over the next two months. The press release also notes:

World Chess will provide a free live broadcast of the moves of the Match exclusively on www.worldchess.com and media partner sites. The premium online broadcast will cost $15 for the Match or $25 for the full year and will include multi-camera video feed, behind-the-scenes access, studio show with expert commentary and special guests, as well as other subscriber-only benefits, such as limited edition merchandise, possibility to ask grandmasters questions during press conferences and more. 10% of all digital tickets will go towards increasing the prize fund for the Match.

London is no stranger to World Chess Championship matches, having previously hosted the 2000 match which saw Vladimir Kramnik, take the crown from Garry Kasparov. Ironically, Kramnik is again one of the Candidates 17 years later! The wild card announcement — made unusually early a month ago — surely pleased the Russian sponsors of the cycle.

The city also hosted the 1993 match between Kasparov and Nigel Short, and part of the 1986 match between Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.

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Macauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.

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maxharmonist maxharmonist 12/1/2017 11:05
"it seems obvious that Kramnik was selected because he's the most popular and well-known-to-the-public player whose rating is still high enough and wasn't already qualified"

I think he was selected because the Russian sponsors pick a Russian player, just like they did for 2014, like the Armenian sponsor did for 2016, and the Azeri sponsors did for 2011 and 2013. Popularity is less important, I think.
Aighearach Aighearach 11/30/2017 09:34
As an American chess fan it seems obvious that Kramnik was selected because he's the most popular and well-known-to-the-public player whose rating is still high enough and wasn't already qualified.

Everybody in the world loves Kramnik, except Topalov and Danailov.

That said, the sponsorship definitely raises questions about if the event will actually happen.
flachspieler flachspieler 11/30/2017 05:05
Hopefully the organizers will improve soon.
Currently the proposed schedule on their website
is nonsense, and the "contacts"-button does not
work.

We need professional organisation!
ChessSpawn49 ChessSpawn49 11/30/2017 04:50
There could well be a US Challenger for the WCC in London in 2018. US Chess may be asked about its support of FIDE and this event if the challenger is So or Caruana.

Banned from doing business with any US government agencies and dropped by many corporations, Kaspersky has just showed his true colors as one of a number of Putin puppets involved in chess promotion at the highest level. Along with PhosAgro, Kaspersky sponsors the WCC in London.

The Stakeholders: FIDE, Kaspersky, Guryev, Litvinekov, Putin and Kirsan. Modern international chess as presented by the Agon/World Chess minions. Consider also that Kirsan is still on the US Treasury Dept. sanctions list. All of this affects International chess which involves US Chess as it is a FIDE affiliate.

When do we and other Western nations say enough and form a new international chess governing body?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... ted-attack
ramonhimera ramonhimera 11/30/2017 03:35
Will other sites get to stream the game so we can get commentary from other GMs? I'm guessing if they're charging money to access the commentary they will be reluctant to allow 3rd parties to offer coverage for free.
Thomas Richter Thomas Richter 11/30/2017 12:07
Maybe "Kramnik is again one of the Candidates 17 years later!" could/should be preceded by e.g. 'remarkably' rather than 'ironically'. Shenanigans are one story, but his longevity at the world top is remarkable - equalized or surpassed only by Anand who played his first WCh match in 1995 and the last one in 2014 (rematch against Carlsen against all odds), and still is top10.
Shirov (halfway in age between Anand and Kramnik) is gone as a world-top player, Topalov (about same age as Kramnik) seems unlikely to return into the top10. Gelfand and Ivanchuk, both older than Anand, may be next in terms of longevity, but not quite at the same level (always top10 or at least top20).
One can criticize the wildcard for Kramnik and consider other players (mainly MVL) "more worthy" - this isn't the definition of a wildcard, and Kramnik easily met and well exceeded the minimum requirement Elo 2725.
littlecapa littlecapa 11/30/2017 11:40
One could question, why the wildcard was given to Kramnik. But everyone winning the candidates tournament in Berlin will be a a well earned challenger to Magnus.
Ajeeb007 Ajeeb007 11/30/2017 10:57
Didn't Kramnik get his first shot at the title by losing a qualifier match with Shirov? The implication here is that he is now getting a chance to play for the title by being picked as a wildcard to please a Russian sponsor. With the pay-per-view and now this shenanigans chess is becoming more like professional boxing.
daftarche daftarche 11/30/2017 10:40
yeah kramnik is a great player but so were players like rubinstein, keres and stein and no one handpicked them to play in a world championship match or candidates. this was of playing for the top spots is simply against the spirit of sport.
cannnjan cannnjan 11/30/2017 09:43
"Less than a year to go. Getting excited?!"

Well, yes, but could you please comment, why the World Chess Championship is not taken every year? :-)
maxharmonist maxharmonist 11/30/2017 09:15
"Still being in with a shot at the WC 18 years after he first won it is impressive longevity on Kramnik's part"

But neither then nor now did he qualify for title match or candidates, but was hand picked as participant in them.
macauley macauley 11/30/2017 09:13
@kassy - I guess they mean Round 8 on Monday the 19th, which would actually place the tiebreak on the 27th.
kassy kassy 11/30/2017 03:52
Am I the only one not surprised that the official website gives an impossible schedule?
It starts Friday, Nov 9 with round 1 and then continues logically thru Sunday, Nov 18 with round 7(play 2 days, rest 1, repeat), then goes to Friday Nov 19(the day does not exist in 2018) with round 1 again and picks up from there with rounds 2-6. There are no rounds 8-12 listed at all and the dates in the 2nd half literally don't exist next year.
therook1357 therook1357 11/30/2017 12:45
what happened to the womens world championship match,
between the two china players scheduled for november
Michael Jones Michael Jones 11/30/2017 12:31
"Ironically"? Still being in with a shot at the WC 18 years after he first won it is impressive longevity on Kramnik's part (although by no means unique, in a sport which tends to see longer careers than many others), but I can't see what's ironic about it.
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