World Champion Hikaru Nakamura Expresses Unwillingness to Participate in FIDE Candidates Tournament
Hikaru Nakamura, the American chess grandmaster has recently opened up about his fading passion for the game, hinting at a possible retirement. The wizard dropped an emotional bombshell about his future in the game and revealed that he’s struggled to find joy in chess lately.
As per a leading publication, Nakamura has termed the FIDE Candidates Tournament a ‘lottery’, questioning its unpredictability as a championship. He expressed his desire to prioritize Freestyle Chess over the classical format this year.
Hikaru earlier qualified for the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour’s second leg in Paris.
His candid viewpoint regarding the FIDE Candidates Tournament suggested that its outcome is not stable, and the reflects the tournament’s unpredictable nature which players face, in securing a spot to play against the World Chess Champion.
The current world No. 2 Nakamura seems unlikely to participate in the next Candidates Tournament, stating that the requirement of playing 40 qualifying games is quite unrealistic and luck has a huge factor to play in the qualification too.
He emphasized that he would have to choose between Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour or the conventional tournaments, indicating that other top players might also snub and opt for new formats of the sport.
If Nakamura decides to prioritize the Freestyle Chess Tour over the Candidates Tournament, he would be the next big player after the reigning world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, who has already confirmed in the past to no longer participate in the world title challenger race.
My Perspective:
With two big names of the chess world choosing a road less taken, this underlines an emerging trend of top players prioritizing private leagues over FIDE tournaments. The relationship between the top-ranked players including Carlsen & Nakamura and FIDE have turned pretty sour over the last few months, since the launch of the Freestyle Chess.
The 2024 Candidates Tournament in April was an eight-player event held to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2024. It was won by Indian grandmaster Gukesh D., making him the youngest ever winner and World Chess Championship challenger.
Nakamura finished second in the standings. The next edition of the Candidates Tournament is slated to be held in 2026. The five-time US Chess Champion has been showcasing his prowess in the unconventional formats and has been a dominant force in Freestyle Chess.
Whether FIDE organised Candidates Tournament is going to sustain for a long time in future or be scrapped as stalwarts of the game speak against it, the credibility surely will be under scrutiny. It’s uncertain results and not highly appealing concept have steered popular grandmasters to slow drift away from registering their attendance in it.
The 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour is underway with the second leg of the event set to kick start in Paris from 8 to 15 April. The action can be caught for live streaming on FIDE’s official website and Chess.com.
