Carlsen to defend World Championship in New York

Magnus Carlsen will play the winner of the Candidates Tournament in New York in a 12-game match that starts on November 11th. The news broke in the Wall Street Journal and was soon confirmed on the World Chess website and in a press release. So far no specific sponsors or venue have been announced, but the event’s organiser, Agon CEO Ilya Merenzon, said he hopes to hold the match on Broadway. The prize fund will be at least 1 million euros (about $1.1 US dollars).

It’s been a long wait! On November 25, 2014, at the closing ceremony of the 2nd Carlsen-Anand match, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced that the next World Championship match would be held in the United States. 

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

Since then rumours have swirled, with a number of cities, most often New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, touted as possible hosts. A spanner seemed to be thrown in the works when US sanctions were imposed on Ilyumzhinov, but the match is now set to go ahead as planned on American soil. Let’s look at the details:          

Where will the match be held?

New York will host its first Chess World Championship match since the 1995 Kasparov-Anand match that was held in the World Trade Center. 

Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand pose for photographers on top of the World Trade Center back in 1995 | photo: Owen Williams, The Kasparov Agency/Wikipedia

That building was destroyed in the tragic events of September 11, 2001, but Ilya Merenzon told the Wall Street Journal that he’s in discussions with the rebuilt World Trade Center as a possible venue. His preference, though, is for the Big Apple’s most famous thoroughfare:

Ideally, we’d like to take over retail spaces along Broadway—we have about five or six locations on the shortlist—so people can walk in and see [the match] through glass.

The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, pointed to the city’s love of chess:

I and all New Yorkers welcome the World Chess Championship back to New York City. What better place to be than the city where parks are often populated by chess enthusiasts.

Indeed, someone commented on our Facebook page, “Hold it in Washington Sq Park!”, the best known location and the site where GM Maurice Ashley recently turned the tables on a hustler in a video that’s gone viral (1.2 million views and counting!):

If they don’t play there it would at least make a wonderful venue for some pre-match publicity.

When?

The match is scheduled for an interesting time to be in the US, starting only three days after the superpower may have elected Donald Trump to the White House… and reaching its climax on the quintessential American holiday of Thanksgiving. The full dates are as follows:

Who’s funding the event?

The details are still scant, to put it mildly, with Dylan Loeb McClain writing on the event’s future official website:

The sponsors of the match have not been announced, but include a half dozen companies.

The Wall Street Journal got no further:

Though Merenzon said that some of the tournament’s sponsors this year had been confirmed by the organizers, he declined to identify them.  

Both the organisers and Magnus Carlsen’s team would like to bring major US companies to the event, which may be more likely to happen depending on how the upcoming Candidates Tournament pans out.

Magnus Carlsen drew a huge crowd for his recent simultaneous display in Hamburg 

What remains undecided?

The major missing piece of the jigsaw is of course the name of Magnus Carlsen’s challenger, which will only be known after the Moscow Candidates Tournament – live here on chess24 in 9 days’ time. If US players Hikaru Nakamura or Fabiano Caruana manage to win…

…then it would give a big boost to the organisers in their hunt for sponsorship, though of course New York is a global enough city for there to be huge interest in any potential opponent. The other Candidates are Vishy Anand, Anish Giri, Levon Aronian, Veselin Topalov, Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler.

There’s also, of course, a major question mark over whether FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will be able to attend the event. Ten minutes before announcing the news on his Twitter account he tweeted:

I’ve arrived in Zurich to work with my American lawyers. The US Treasury has received my complaints and official work has begun.

The head of the World Chess Federation previously stated he was suing the US for $50 billion.

What can we expect?

Let’s not end with chess (or other) politics, though. A match in one of the world’s great cities is a huge chance for chess to seize the limelight, though the organisers are aware that the overwhelming majority of the audience will follow the games over the internet:

We’re focusing 99% of our efforts on online viewership,” said Merenzon, adding that the online broadcasts will feature a variety of camera angles, an educational component to help explain the action, and two commentators analyzing the match live, which has become commonplace.

“It will look more like a morning news broadcast,” Merenzon said.

Whatever happens, it's going to be a great show!

Do you have a preference for where in New York the event should be held? Who would you like to see challenge Magnus? And who will win?  Let us know in the comments below!

See also:

• 2016 Moscow Candidates Tournament live
• Magnus Carlsen retains his crown
• Carlsen wants to change the world