Carlsen is DEEPLY disappointed and said "will start preparing"

In a statement which we have just received from his manager, Magnus Carlsen says he is "deeply disappointed and surprised" by FIDE's decision to grant the World Championship match to Chennai. The Norwegian, who will challenge reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India in November, doesn't seem to be planning to protest. "My team and I will now start preparing for the match."

Here is Carlsen's full statement:

After qualifying for the World Championship match by winning the London Candidates I have been highly motivated for, and looking forward to the World Championship match against reigning champion V. Anand.

I’m deeply disappointed and surprised by the FIDE decision to sign a contract for the 2013 match without going through the bidding process outlined in the WC regulations, and for not choosing neutral ground. The bid from Paris clearly showed that it would be possible to have more options to choose from.
The lack of transparency, predictability and fairness is unfortunate for chess as a sport and for chess players.

My team and I will now start preparing for the match. The main thing now will be to come to an agreement with the Indian Chess Federation and FIDE regarding terms and conditions before and during the match. I really hope this process will run quick and smoothly.

Lastly, I will not let the news from Baku diminish the joy and excitement derived from playing the top level Norway Chess tournament starting tomorrow.

The statement comes a day before the start of the Norway Chess tournament, where both Magnus Carlsen (by the way, profiled by Yahoo/AP today) and Vishy Anand will play. It comes a day after FIDE's decision toofficially grant  the World Championship match to Chennai. This was done in Baku, Azerbaijan where a FIDE Presidential Board meeting took place on Sunday and Monday.

After the second day, a press conference was given and some local media have reported about it online. For example, ExtraTime quotes FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov:

In 2011 India has been granted the right to present his first bid for the next match. (...) The application should have been provided with a sum of money in the amount of no less than two million dollars. Then we did not know exactly who would be the contender for the world title and to ensure the organization of the next world title match, it was decided to hold the next match in India. So yesterday at the Presidential Board meeting, its members have confirmed the decision which was adopted in 2011.

 

Ilyumzhinov also said that, in the light of the higher bid from Paris, representatives of the All Indian Chess Federation

assured that the prize money will be increased. 

 

Quite remarkably, the FIDE President also repeated that he did not receive

an official statement by Magnus that he refuses to play in Chennai.

 

Azerisport quoted FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos:

Vishy Anand played against Veselin Topalov in Sofia and against Boris Gelfand in Moscow. I do not see any problem in that the match will take place in Chennai.

 

The World Championship match is scheduled for November 6-26, 2013. It will be the fourth time that Anand will defend his title which he won at the 2007 World Championship Tournament in Mexico City. Magnus Carlsen qualified for the world title match by winning the Candidates' Tournament in London on April 1st of this year.

source:http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/carlsen-deeply-disappointed-and-surprised-will-start-preparing