Candidates 2024: Why is Magnus Carlsen not playing?

The biggest talking point heading into the Candidates tournament, set to start in Toronto on April 3, is the absence of World No.1 Magnus Carlsen, who chose to miss out on the premier chess tournament.

Carlsen, a five-time World Champion in the classical format, forfeited his qualification spot citing the lack of motivation in playing the longer version of the game in the existing tournament structure. “I would say the main reason is that I don’t enjoy it. It’s as simple as that.”

The 33-year-old had secured his qualification for the candidates by winning the 2023 Chess World Cup. Carlsen’s withdrawal paced the way for Nijat Abasov to enter the field in Toronto.

“Under the current format there is absolutely no chance. I think everybody should operate under the assumption that I will not play at the Candidates and that everybody else who’s in the semifinals is qualified for the Candidates,” said Carlsen after beating D. Gukesh in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

Earlier, Carlsen relinquished the chance to defend his world title — which he won in 2021 — in 2023, expressing a similar discontent, leading to Ding Liren to claim the world crown. He pointed out the suffering from a lack of motivation to play classical chess, because of the dominance of opening preparation.

The Norwegian, who has a total of 17 world titles under his belt across formats, has been drifting towards the shorter versions of the game. Recently, he had announced a world chess tour based on the Chess960 format, along with German entrepreneur Jan-Henric Buettner.

Carlsen has also emphasised the best player in the world needs to excel in all three formats of the game — classical, blitz and rapid.

“Obviously the rating system lags a bit behind, but if you look at that over time, that’s a pretty good indication of who the best players are. Also, if you want to know who the best player is, you don’t have to look at all the different formats; you can just look for my name.”