Real reason why carlsen is forfeiting his classical title

What you say may be true, time will tell all. As for what I’d do? That is completely irrelevant. My point was and remains: only Magnus knows (or any champion, pick one) when it’s time to walk away from classical chess events and do something, anything else. Only he will know the reasons why, unless he feels the need to tell the world, which i highly doubt will happen. 

Carlsen's income is far beyond streaming, at this point.

He's the co-founder of PlayMagnus, which earns around $20 million per year in revenue, and has a $100 million (USD) market value on the European stock exchange.

He has also purchased many subsidiaries, such as: Everyman Chess and New in Chess (both chess publications), Chess24 (chess coverage website), and Chessable (chess lessons website).

He's raking in millions from owning (and co-owning) these companies, alone. And add to that the money he wins every year from tournaments, which is relatively substantial, especially after his WCC winnings.

Carlsen doesn't need to stream at all. (He might, of course, for self-entertainment reasons ... and a lot of fans would definitely love it if he streamed more. But he certainly doesn't need to, for income.)

Carlsen is not going to forfeit his title. If he steps down now, he will always be second to Kasparov who reigned supreme for far longer than Carlsen.

You are comparing overwatch and csgo with chess ?? ! (who is Dafran ? )

This isn't a disney movie and carlsen isn't a hero... lmao at people bringing up stupid things like legacy etc in real world. In real world career is all about money and or fame/power. Carlsen will always defend his rapid title since it takes only 3 days. He never needs to defend his classical title since it takes way too much energy for way too small of a paycheck.

Just keep watching, if carlsen's streams and popularity continues then he will likely quit classical chess altogether just like how hikaru has done

We are not talking about his business empire vs streaming. We are talking about his world chess championship defense vs his other options and his other options are far more lucrative my guy. I don't know why u keep bringing his business, that isn't and never will be of any concern here since he isn't going to give it up for something else. Let's discuss what he is giving up vs what he would be doing in it's place.

Only common people think that great players think of legacy... nope, players literally only think about how to invest their time in a profitable way to get most out of their talents. Carlsen's time investment in classical chess is useless since he has to prepare for months for his championship.

Even if alireza wins the candidate i highly, highly doubt carlsen will invest his energy and money into another world chess championship match. He would likely(very very likely actually) just quit playing classical chess just like how hikaru has done.

Bro, Carlsen would make bank as being the World Champion, staying World Champion for sure brings in more money than being a streamer for example. That being said, I am sure if he started streaming like Hikaru he would make a lot of money.

he already streams. Also, maintaining the world title in classical chess is a costly affair. You have to start preparing for it a few months beforehand, have to hire your team of seconds, give up some of your other endeavors etc. The 1 million dollars is definitely not worth it. You can make bank by just streaming or playing some blitz tournaments online. 

It just makes no sense to defend a world title in classical chess.

He doesn't make money in a vaccum. He has his "empire" based on his app and based on the fact that he is the best chess player at the moment. However people in general have stopped caring about classical chess and the popularity of rapid and blitz online events have risen to the extreme. Therefore now he doesn't need to be the "classical world champion", he can easily thrive in his business by just streaming + attending online speed chess events.

This was NOT the case earlier and therefore people held on to their world titles a lot more since that was the only way to gain fame(and therefore money). 

It surprised me that he chose to play wijk aan zee. I guarantee that this will be one of the very last classical OTB events he will play though. His retirement from classical chess is coming very very soon, won't be surprised if he retires from classical chess in 2023 even.

I know how players think. The concept of "legacy" only appeals to someone as long as someone is far away from achieving that thing. As one gets closer and the thing becomes more real, it stops being so magical so no one thinks in terms of "legacy"

Hikaru is a big example. He was thought to be a potential rival of magnus and was even a part of candidates but he quit classical chess due to his streaming career. Earlier he was competitive but now he openly accepts that magnus is way better. Same thing is happening with magnus, he is in the process of giving up classical chess 

Lol mate. It's been officially confirmed a few days ago that Carlsen will defend his title next time regardless of whoever wins the candidates

Whatever the reason for this, it will be super weird if he gives up the title but continues to play chess competitively and stays #1. The prestige of the WC title would take a huge hit. Fischer, at least, stopped playing chess altogether after he had refused to defend the title. But this will be completely unprecedented. And very bad for chess, I think.

That's a good point

Imagine him going in to chess for the first time with such an open mind, only now to think back on what it has become to him.

Hmm what post is this

Everyone should lay off on the guy. It’s like the paparazzi if they talked behind their backs. Let him do what he wants to do.

He plays chess. He’s great at it. simple.

When I read the title of the thread I was like "Oh here is another know it all spouting about something he knows nothing about" but then I read the post and, no, no yeah I actually agree. It does make sense. In the end it's all about money, for all of us. The World Championship is every two year cycle. He knows his challenger about 6 months ahead of time. Which means literally 1/4th of his life is in heavy study/preparation and anxiety for a huge, burdensome, tiresome, arduous match. So he lives a quarter of his life in anxiety. Even though he's good, he knows he's not God and he could lose so that's got to be anxiety right there. Yeah he'll make a million or more, but he could probably make more with his other endeavors. I bet he has a lot more fun streaming. Doing it 5 times has got to be very laborious. He's already at the point now where he knows they will call him the greatest of all time so he doesn't really need to hold it longer for his legacy.

Wait…..it all leads up to one SINGLE game? Months of preparation to a single game that will decide who will hold the title?

 No the World Championship is a long match consisting of potentially 14 games over about three weeks. A draw is a half a point and a win is a full point. First person to 7 points wins. So it could possibly be over in 7 games if someone wins 7 in a row, which will never happen at that level. The match that just concluded was 11 games, and it was shorter do to the fact Carlsen won convincingly earlier than expected. But it's a long ordeal that gives both players to opportunity to settle in over weeks and win a majority.

It used to be first person to 12 back in Fischer and Spassky's day. That match could be 24 games. I wish it was like that. THOSE were REAL matches. But noooo everyone's too tired and can't handle it these days.

he won't