Sergey Karjakin has pulled out of the Altibox Norway Chess supertournament, citing the need to prepare for the November World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen as well as exhaustion after winning the Candidates Tournament. It means we won’t see a Carlsen-Karjakin rehearsal in Stavanger, and the Russian won’t attempt to win the event for a third time. Jon Ludvig Hammer looks like the obvious replacement.

Update, 8 April, 2015: Li Chao replaces Karjakin!

Li Chao from China, currently the world no. 15 with a rating of 2755, will replace Karjakin in Altibox Norway Chess. The 26-year-old has climbed the chess ranks by playing almost exclusively open tournaments, and was so keen to seize the chance to play in his first supertournament he agreed to postpone his wedding, originally set for April 30th in China. Li Chao is currently in Germany, where he plays in the German League this weekend.

Tournament Director Jøran Aulin-Jansson told Tarjei J Svensen that Karjakin was given until 2pm today to rethink his withdrawal. The organisers say they would prefer an amicable settlement but may still consider legal action against Karjakin, although a source quoted by Russian newspaper Komersant says the Russian player's team have no fear of any negative consequences. Apparently no penalties are specified in the contract:

There it only says that the organisers and the players should resolve all questions amicably, meeting each other halfway.

Although Jon Ludvig Hammer might have been the obvious choice of replacement for the local Norwegian audience, Jøran explained that they have contractual obligations to sponsors and needed to preserve the high average rating of the tournament. Peter Svidler also came into consideration, but will be the official commentator as planned - in a chess24 dream team with Jan Gustafsson!

Have all the media engagements taken their toll, or does preparation for the World Championship match in New York really start now? | photo: Eteri Kublashvili, Russian Chess Federation

The Altibox Norway Chess tournament starts on 18 April and was able to boast of an incredibly strong line-up, with world no. 8 Karjakin only appearing as the sixth seed:

1. Magnus Carlsen, 2851, world no. 1, Norway
2. Vladimir Kramnik, 2801, world no. 2, Russia
3. Anish Giri, 2790, world no. 4, Netherlands
4. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 2788, world no. 5, France
5. Levon Aronian, 2784, world no. 7, Armenia
6. Sergey Karjakin, 2779, world no. 8, Russia
7. Pavel Eljanov, 2765, world no. 12, Ukraine
8. Pendyala Harikrishna, 2763, world no. 13, India
9. Veselin Topalov, 2754, world no. 16, Bulgaria
10. Nils Grandelius, 2649, world no. 112, Sweden

Karjakin of course stood out from the field for other reasons, though. His victory in the Candidates Tournament would have made the prospect of a showdown with Magnus Carlsen so soon in Norway mouth-watering, even if there hadn’t been the additional storyline of Sergey having won the event ahead of Magnus on the two occasions he’d taken part.

Karjakin's shock withdrawal

The disappointing news that chess fans were going to be deprived of that contest came from Karjakin’s manager Kirillos Zangalis, who told RSport by telephone:

Karjakin won’t play in the prestigious tournament in Stavanger. Of course it was with great satisfaction that Sergey accepted the invitation from the organisers of the event, which he’d won twice before (in 2013 and 2014). But the explanation for it all now is pretty simple: no-one can guarantee in advance that they’re going to win the Candidates Tournament. Sergey now has another status and decided to fully focus on preparing for a match for the world crown, especially as the Candidates Tournament cost him almost all his energy.

The leadership of the Russian Chess Federation fully supports their sportsman and at the current moment we’re sticking to an exact schedule worked out in preparation for the World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen.

Karjakin and his manager after a life-changing victory in Moscow | photo: Vladimir Barsky, Russian Chess Federation

Of the two reasons given – preparation and exhaustion – the latter is perhaps the most convincing, with Sergey having been stuck in a whirlwind of media appearances ever since his victory in Moscow. Our own Jan Gustafsson, in a pre-tournament blog, hadn’t been predicting great things for Sergey in Norway:

Karjakin will need a moment to adjust to his new status. I expect him not to contend for the top places, but end up somewhere mid-table.

World Chess Championship preparation starts here

With seven months to go until the World Championship match in New York it seems early to be deep in preparation, but there’s no doubt Sergey will be taking his chance of a lifetime very, very seriously. He talked about his preparation in an interview with SovSport.ru:

You now need to establish your team for the match against Carlsen. Will it be bigger than usual?

Definitely. I think I need no fewer than five trainers. Just now I was helped by four grandmasters. I also need a coach for physical preparation and, perhaps, a cook. The preparation will cost serious money, but there are sponsors and the Ministry of Sport has promised to help.

How much does a working day from a top class chess trainer cost?

On average 500 euros. Long term, the amount is reduced.

That same theme was touched on in a video interview with Match TV, who tweeted a Karjakin quote that 300,000 euros would be needed to prepare a World Championship challenge. 

Sergey plays some blitz against Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov | screenshot: Russian Chess Federation/Match TV

Sergey objected to that figure!

There was one other, more light-hearted theory for the delay (as a note of interest – Karjakin’s manager had previously confirmed that it was a shock for Sergey to discover he’d only been “gifted” a sports car for a month):

A problem for the organisers

The late withdrawal of course creates issues. Tournament Director Jøran Aulin-Jansson wasn’t yet ready to provide a comment when we contacted him, though he later told Tarjei J. Svensen that he was in a dialogue with the Russian Chess Federation and, “there’s a contract they should deal with”.

Jøran later expanded on that comment with a press release on the official website entitled, "Disrespectful of Karjakin". He still hopes that Sergey may change his mind, commenting:

Karjakin has signed a deal with us as organisers. There is nothing in that agreement saying that he could withdraw if he qualified for the World Championship match in November. We see this action as disrespectful not just to us as organisers, but to the other players in the tournament, not to mention the entire chess world that had looked forward to a dress rehearsal for the World Championship match between Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen. 

Sergey Karjakin is a very good chess player and he is still welcome as a participant in Altibox Norway Chess. He has, after all, won both times he's participated. There are obviously a lot of nerves for Karjakin before his first World Championship match, but we truly hope that Karjakin and his advisers understand that you can't simply run away from agreements because they suddenly don't fit into preparation for a match that doesn't start for around half a year. 

This isn’t the first friction between the sides, since a year ago Karjakin was unhappy to have been left out after winning the first two events, writing on Facebook:

Many people have asked why I’m not playing in Stavanger. Moreover, the organisers did invite me personally, but then they went back on their word, citing the fact that the regulations had changed and now it wasn’t a separate supertournament but a series of tournaments. Then, no doubt, they felt awkward and they nominated me… for a Stavanger qualifier! Never mind the fact that it clashes with the Grand Prix stage in Khanty-Mansiysk, I consider it strange, to put it mildly, to qualify for a tournament that I’ve won twice in a row, so I wouldn’t have played the qualifier in any case. There’s no moral to this story – let everyone draw their own conclusions – but I’ve answered the question of why I’m not playing.

After the victory in Moscow, Karjakin and his team suddenly have much greater bargaining power with tournament organisers, though Ruslan Ponomariov noted that can sometimes backfire:

Who will take Karjakin’s place?

Jøran says no replacement has yet been chosen, though Magnus Carlsen highlighted the obvious candidate - a guy he famously lost to a year ago:

Jon Ludvig Hammer lost both games to Sweden’s Nils Grandelius in the recent Altibox Norway Chess Qualifier, but still finished second in the event and, as the Norwegian no. 2, would be the first choice for a local wildcard. Hammer himself didn’t think his selection was so clear-cut:

In any case, something will have to be decided soon, since there are only 12 days to go. It's not a World Championship match, but facing five of the world's top seven players is no walk in the park either!

The Altibox Norway Chess fleet of cars is ready... | photo: Norway Chess Twitter

We’ll keep you updated as soon as we have more information.

See also:

• Norway Chess official website
• Karjakin earns shot at Carlsen
• Karjakin on his Candidates Tournament triumph