Carlsen To Take Part In Next WCC Cycle

Following his dramatic blitz playoff victory in the Grand Slam Masters, Magnus Carlsen has given an interview to the mass-market Norwegian tabloid newspaper Verdens Gang in which he says he will participate in the next world championship cycle.

Magnus receives his winner's trophy in Bilbao

When Magnus Carlsen withdrew before the last Candidates event in Kazan which produced Boris Gelfand as a challenger to Vishy Anand, the reasons in his letter to FIDE included the "shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept", and he gave his opinion that "privileges should in general be abolished and a future World Championship model should be based on a fair fight between the best players in the World, on equal terms."

It seems that Carlsen is prepared to accept that the reigning champion keeps his privileges for now, as long as the promised round-robin tournament format for the next Candidates event materialises.

The eight players in the 2012 Candidates Tournament will be:

• The loser of the Vishy Anand v Boris Gelfand world title match in 2012
• The top 3 in the 2011 World Cup (Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Vassily Ivanchuk)
• The top 3 rated players not otherwise qualified (average of July 2011 and Jan 2012 rating lists)
• A nominee from the hosts (minimum 2700 Elo on the Jan 2012 list)

The top three rated players that look set to qualify are Magnus Carlsen, Lev Aronian, and either Vladimir Kramnik or Sergey Karjakin.

The rules and regulations for the 2011-2013 World Chess Championship Cycle can be found here.

Picture from the official website of the Grand Slam Masters