So the 2014 World Championship in Sochi is over and Magnus Carlsen remains king of the chess world. All that was left was officially to close the event, for which the usual suspects such as FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov were joined by arguably the world’s most powerful man, Russian President Vladimir Putin. It wasn’t just a day of awkward smiles and speeches, though, as we learned who helped Carlsen, where the 2016 World Championship would be held and more.  

Magnus Carlsen lifts the World Chess Championship trophy as Vladimir Putin, Viswanathan Anand and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov look on | photo: Anastasia Karlovich, FIDE

So then, in no particular order, here are 5 things we learned on Tuesday, 25 November 2014:

1) Putin doesn’t guarantee mass media coverage (in the West)

If you missed the closing ceremony you can rewatch it below:

Despite all the current and former World Chess Champions in attendance the one guest you couldn’t ignore was Russian President Vladimir Putin. So if we googled Vladimir Putin on this one day of the year we’d read about chess, right? Not exactly 

We could try and salvage the situation by pointing out that the Nepalese have a chess-like national game involving goats and tigers – as the world’s oldest grandmaster Yuri Averbakh pointed out – but that’s probably not what the press had in mind.

The players and others such as World Champions Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov got to sit down with Putin after the closing ceremony | photo: Anastasia Karlovich, FIDE

Meanwhile the players had mixed reactions to receiving medals from Putin. Carlsen was asked by Live Mint if it was awkward for him:

It is a difficult situation... Russia was the host, so it is not unnatural that the president is to give away the prizes.

Vishy, at least if you take his Twitter account as an expression of his views, was much more comfortable:

2) Carlsen had a little help from his friends

Magnus Carlsen with his trophy - he told Karlovich that his most likely challengers in 2016 are Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian and Alexander Grischuk | photo: Vladimir Barsky, FIDE

Magnus Carlsen has often been represented as a lone wolf who takes on the world’s best working almost on his own and with much less time spent on preparation than his colleagues. There may still be some truth in that, but for his World Championship matches it appears Carlsen had some phenomenal fire power on which to draw. He let several cats out of the bag on his blog:

In the last minutes of the round 11 game, Norwegian media interviewed my hardworking seconds located at the Kragero Resort south of Oslo; Jon Ludvig Hammer, Laurent Fressinet and Michael Adams! A special thanks to the three of them and to my main coach Peter Heine Nielsen present in Sochi. I’m very grateful also to Garry Kasparov for valuable advice before and during the match and some really good help from my friends (and former European Champions) Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vladimir Potkin who was having a training camp at the player hotel in preparation for Ian’s participation in the Russian Super Final starting later this week. 

Thinking back one year; in addition to several of the above seconds, Pavel Eljanov contributed significantly before and during the Chennai match.

Garry Kasparov was the headline name to help, even if Michael Adams and Pavel Eljanov no doubt count as bigger surprises. Kasparov reproduced his comments for the Norwegian TV Channel NRK on his Facebook page:

I was happy to provide any assistance I could to help Magnus prepare for this challenge. I'm not sure he has much to learn from anyone these days, but there aren't many people in the world with deep world championship experience. I was lucky to have the support and advice of former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik when I was playing my matches against Karpov when I was Magnus's age.

Plus, being involved with someone of Magnus Carlsen's unique talent and energy also helps keep me inspired about chess and the future of our sport. A rematch is always tough, and he fought through his nerves and won despite not being at his best. Matches have a way of taking the fun out of the game, so I hope now he'll have time to relax a little and to enjoy playing and to take his chess to an even higher level.

Nevertheless, it was hard to claim Carlsen had actually won the opening battle in Sochi. 

Here’s a fragment from Anastasia Karlovich’s interview with the champion (watch it above), after she asks what Anand’s team did differently this time around:

They played d4 on move 1, obviously. I don’t know if it was because of that but they managed to put more pressure on me with the black pieces. So last time I had playable positions with both colours. This time I didn’t really get to play with Black at all except in the first game. Basically I just had to defend and then it’s more difficult.

Some experts say the opening preparation of Anand in both matches was better. Do you agree?

In general Anand is better prepared than I am. That has been the way for many years and even though we try our best it’s hard to close the gap.

3) The 2016 World Championship will be held in the US (probably)

When FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said goodbye to Sochi he added:

The next World Championship in 2016 will take place in the USA.

No details were given, although Los Angeles and New York were rumoured to be options. There was some understandable scepticism, given the history of finding venues for World Championship matches:

But if the announcement was made at such a moment you have to assume there was at least something to back it up. After all, it's unlikely the aim was merely to annoy Vladimir Putin, who also had to stand through the Norwegian national anthem despite icy relations between the two countries.

4) The Women’s World Championship will be held in Sochi

Former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk taking on Alexander Grischuk during the Tal Memorial Blitz in Sochi | photo: Anastasia Karlovich, FIDE

The 64-player knockout tournament to determine the 2014 Women’s World Champion was postponed less than a month before it was due to start with a brief press release that didn’t really inspire confidence:

FIDE announces that the Women's World Championship 2014, originally scheduled for this October, will be postponed for a few months. Exact dates will be announced soon when FIDE finalizes all organising details with potential sponsors interested to hold this event.

It’s back again, though, to be held in Sochi next March, which might lead you to ask: “Is Sochi the new Khanty-Mansiysk?”

5) Carlsen may play in the 2015 GRENKE Chess Classic

Norwegian chess expert Tarjei Svensen notes that Carlsen is planning to play a lot of chess in 2015, including:

It seems that refers to the 2015 edition of the GRENKE Chess Classic. If you recall, Vishy Anand won the inaugural tournament ahead of Fabiano Caruana and Michael Adams in 2013, while the 2014 tournament/qualifier saw Arkadij Naiditsch and David Baramidze qualify for the international supertournament to be held in early February 2015. They probably didn't realise what they were letting themselves in for!

That's not quite all for our World Championship coverage. At 18:30 CET today, Wednesday 26 November, Jan Gustafsson and Lawrence Trent will be producing a special live show on the match. Watch and participate here!