Chess World Shocked: Magnus Carlsen Throws Down the Gauntlet!!
Now that his defense of the world championship is over with, and Nepo collapsing like a house of cards, Magnus Carlsen shocks the chess world. He has announced that he will only defend his title against Alireza Firouzja. If Firouzja does not win the Candidates Tournament this next time around, the Carlsen will, like Bobby Fischer before him, resign his title.
Well, it isn’t quite like Fischer because Carlsen HAS defended his title against Anand, Karjakin, Caruana, and now Nepo. Thus, Carlsen does have some tenure as the champ. Who is Firouzja?
Alireza Firouzja is an Iranian born chess prodigy who now plays for France. Since Firouzja has rocketed (yes, I do mean to say rocketed — it is literally not hyperbole) to the #2 spot in the world, he has captured the chess world by storm. And, apparently the champ has noticed this upstart. I also noticed Firouzja, and I wrote about it here: click this link.
But, there are some other problems, like the proverbial elephant in the room, that have brought this situation to the point it is now.
First, chess is at or very near the “draw death” predicted by Capablanca many decades ago. I have written about about chess being a phoenix on here before: click this link. Thus, with Fighting Chess (my chess variant) replacing chess…
