World number one Magnus Carlsen has demanded that International Chess Federation President Arkady Dvorkovich resign for “coercion of players, misuse of power and broken promises” after talks to thrash out an agreement between the world body and the Freestyle Tour co-founded by him collapsed. The 34-year-old Norwegian superstar was reacting to FIDE’s statement on Monday in which it declared that efforts to work out a consensus with the Freestyle Chess Tour, co-founded by Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, had failed over the use of the term world championship.
FIDE also asked players wanting to participate in the Tour’s events to sign a waiver to remain eligible for the official World Championship cycle.
The Freestyle Tour reacted by lambasting FIDE but at the same time, agreed to postpone the use of term world championship for its grand finale this year. The decision means that players will not be required to sign a FIDE waiver anymore.
Sharing a few personal messages from Dvorkovich, Carlsen said the Russian had promised to leave players out of this tug of war in a text to his father before the world rapid and blitz championship in New York last month.
“…to convince me to play the Rapid & Blitz in New York, you wrote Dec 19th to my ‘Just want to pass a message to you and Magnus that whatever happens between FIDE and Freestyle in terms of recognition, players will NOT be affected in any way. They can decide on their own and FIDE will not take any negative action’,” Carlsen revealed.
“You added later that day: ‘I will step down if my word will be undermined by the Council.’ By forcing players to sign an unacceptable waiver you have reneged on your promise. Will you resign?” Carlsen asked.
Neither FIDE nor Dvorkovich did not immediately respond to Carlsen’s sharp statement.
The first leg of the five-round Freestyle Tour, featuring classical games, starts February 6 in Germany.
Tournaments will then be planned in Paris (April), New York (July), New Delhi (September) and Cape Town (December). Reigning world champion D Gukesh is among the players listed to compete in the Tour’s events.
“Freestyle remains committed to protecting players from FIDE’s questionable tactics. To ensure that no player is forced into a difficult position, we have decided — effective immediately, as of February 3 — to postpone the decision to award the title of ‘World Champion’ to the winner of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour for an additional 10 months,” Buettner said in an open letter to FIDE president.
“This decision ensures that no player is forced to choose between signing the unlawful letter FIDE is coercing them into or facing its threatened consequences. The current cycle is officially titled The Grand Slam Tour,” he added.
This was after FIDE said no agreement was reached with the Tour despite several concessions from its side.
“The Freestyle Chess Tour has chosen not to acknowledge FIDE’s existing authority over the World Championship title and has opted to remain a privately organised tournament, primarily featuring hand-picked elite players, rather than an open and transparent qualification process,” the FIDE stated.
The FIDE said that the waiver “does not impose new requirements on the players but provides them with a one-off exception from their existing contractual obligations.”
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