The Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge concluded in Germany a couple of days ago with the victory of Magnus Carlsen.
Notable was the absence of Hikaru Nakamura, Chess960 superstar, and the winner of the 2022 FIDE World Fischer Random Championship in ReykjavÃk, Iceland. It was presumed that Nakamura skipped the event in order to prepare for the upcoming Candidates Tournament in Toronto. However, in one of his streams on Kick, Nakamura stated “There were many reasons I’m not playing (Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge)”, and he proceeded to elaborate the reasons one by one:
First of all I got the invitation to Freestyle Chess GOAT Challenge at the very end of the Isle of Man tournament when I was playing there and I just qualified for the Candidates Tournament. So because I just qualified, I had to figure out what the schedule was with the Candidates being in April and this tournament being in the middle of February. That’s the first thing.
Also there was another tournament which I’m not competing in because I was unsure of the specific dates. It was the American Cup which is now happening in March but at the time I wasn’t sure and I thought it might even happen in February. So there’s the American Cup which might have been happening also, there’s the Candidates I had to think about.
But beyond that there were a couple of other little things that I really didn’t like. The first thing that I really didn’t like is that it felt very much like a tournament made for Magnus and only Magnus. It was not a tournament really about anybody else.
The invitation I received it’s like Magnus this, Magnus that, Magnus invites you, Magnus this etc etc.
Also considering I just played the tournament in Qatar right before, where Magnus got really Magnus through a little bit of a temper tantrum after losing to Alisher Suleymenov who is rated 2500. That also played a role too.
On top of that, another big thing was that there were all these issues pertaining to potential rights about it. They’re very stringent, they were saying you have to wear like certain clothing, there were going to be heart rate monitors. Those were a couple of other little things that I was just not a big fan of.
Hikaru Nakamura concluded: “I’m not saying there’s a problem with it but that there were a couple of those little things I was unsure of and I really wasn’t a big fan of personally. There are many different things that go into it, it’s not just as simple as saying like ‘okay I just said no’ or something like that.”
See the complete video below.
American Chess Cup 2024 – Pairings
