Doha, Qatar: Chess maestro Magnus Carlsen made his intentions clear ahead of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships Qatar 2025, noting that he is in Doha to sweep the titles.
During a pre-event press conference held in Lusail yesterday, the Norwegian five-time World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Champion and the eight-time World Blitz Chess Champion said being a husband and a father doesn’t change his objective.
“I love being a husband, and a father. It’s been a fantastic experience this year. Neither my son nor my wife are too much of a help, unfortunately in terms of chess advice yet. So, it really hasn’t changed much.”
‘’I’m here to win as always,’’ the World no.1 Carlsen said.
Carlsen remains the dominant force in world chess and enters the season-ending event as the top seed despite the presence of a host of top players in the world. Carlsen, the reigning blitz champion – having shared the title with Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi – swirled a storm at the previous Championship after he was banned due to a violation of FIDE’s dress code which resulted in him being banned for Rapid competition.
The 35-year-old is in now Doha for a third time – aiming to secure the double, but is surrounded by a number of young players, including the world classic chess champion Dommaraju Gukesh who had beaten Carlsen earlier this year in classical chess.
Carlsen said that facing youngsters remains unpredictable, as their strength improves rapidly.
He confirmed he still views Gukesh (19) as part of the younger generation, despite their growing rivalry at the elite level.
‘’I think I was like a top-50 player at the very least in the world when he was born, so in my book definitely ‘yes’,’’ Carlsen said.
‘’It’s always very interesting to play against youngsters because playing against a lot of established top players is very interesting but it’s also a little bit of a known entity. So when I haven’t played some of the youngsters in a few months, I don’t quite know how good they are going to be,’’ he said.
Carlsen also said his strong relationship with Qatar Chess Association President Mohammed Al Mudahka played a role in his participation.
Meanwhile, Gukesh said his main focus is still on classical chess.
“For me, playing well in any format is quite important, and I have been taking rapid and blitz a bit more seriously this year. That being said, I think rapid and blitz events have been slightly less of a priority than classical events for me,” Gukesh said.
“So, this is an event for which I don’t have a lot of expectations. I’m here just to play, experiment, enjoy, and play chess with the aim of having fun,” Gukesh, the third youngest player to reach a 2700 rating and the youngest to reach 2750, said.
Carlsen and Gukesh are among more than 400 players competing in the prestigious event from today.
The elite field also includes Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, R Praggnanandhaa, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, Ediz Gurel and Ukrainian Vasyl Ivanchuk, the 2016 World Rapid champion among the leading contenders.
Qatar will be represented by International Master Hussein Aziz, along with Khaled Al Juma’at, Hamad Al Kuwari and Ibrahim Al Janahi.
Five-time world champion Ju Wenjun headlines the women’s field of 130 players, arriving as world No. 1 in rapid and the reigning Women’s World Blitz champion. She faces strong competition from former champions Tan Zhongyi, Alexandra Goryachkina, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Anna Muzychuk, Mariya Muzychuk, Kateryna Lagno, and Qatar national team player Zhu Chen. The line-up brings together multiple rapid and blitz titleholders, underlining the depth and quality of the women’s competition.
Al Mudahka stressed the strong relationship between the Qatar Chess Association and FIDE. He expressed his delight at the record participation, describing the championship which offers a total prize pool of €1m, as a landmark edition.
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said he was delighted with the scale of participation and described the event as one of the most exciting and widely watched chess tournaments of the year. He also thanked the local organising committee for their efforts in delivering a world-class event.
