“Basically a lottery” – Firstpost

The American Grand Master Hikaru Nakamura recently expressed a frank point of view concerning the Fide candidates tournament, suggesting that his result is similar to a “lottery”. Nakamura’s feeling reflects the unpredictable nature of the tournament and the challenges that players faced to get a place to play against the world chess champion.

The world n ° 2 Nakamura believes that the candidates tournament is an unpredictable affair where the results can be both luck as competence. Nakamura seems unlikely to participate in the next candidates tournament, declaring that the requirement to play 40 qualification games is not realistic.

Nakamura retires from the candidates tournament?

He pointed out that he will have to choose between the Grand Chelem Freestyle chess tour or classic tournaments, suggesting that other best players could also snub the candidates tournament and opt for the new format.

“As for the concept of playing 40 games (tournament required) is not realistic. I must essentially make a decision, do I want to focus on the failures of the freestyle or do I want to try to play 40 games? ” Nakamura would have been cited by Chess.com.

“Entering the candidates is very difficult, winning the candidates is essentially a lottery. I don’t think anyone will give priority to that of playing freestyle,” he added.

If Nakamura decides to give priority to the Freestyle chess tour on the candidates, he will be the next great player to withdraw from the race to become the challenger of the world title. The world n ° 1, Magnus Carlsen, has already confirmed several times that he was not interested in challenging the title.

Nakamura, Carlsen to define a new trend in the world of failures?

He will also highlight a trend of the best players in the process of making private leagues above FIDE tournaments, because the relationship between the best classified players, notably Carlsen and Nakamura and Fide, have become quite acid in recent months since the launch of the Freestyle Chess tour.

The 2024 candidates tournament was an event to eight players organized to determine the challenger for the world chess championship in 2024. It took place in the big hall in Toronto, Canada, from April 3 to 22, 2024, alongside the candidates’ women’s tournament. The event was won by the Grand Master Indian Gukesh Domomilju, making him the youngest winner of a tournament of candidates and the youngest challenger in the world chess championship.

After this historic achievement, Gukesh became the youngest undeniable world champion by beating Ding Liren in the 14th and last classic match of the world championship. Nakamura finished second in the ranking. The next edition of the candidates tournament will take place in 2026. The dates have not yet been finalized, but it will be played in the same dual tournament format with 8 players.

The recent comments of Nakamura on the candidates tournament being a “lottery” are at a time when he excels in tournaments with high issues outside traditional classic failures. The five -time American chess champion presented his prowess in the 2025 American Cup, where he recently obtained a place in the champions final open against Fabiano Caruana.

Nakamura’s trip to the final was far from simple, because he had to overcome a difficult 15 -year -old prodigy challenge, Abhimanyu Mishra, in an exhausting qualifying series. Nakamura himself admitted that he had made things unnecessarily complicated in the quarter-finals. Nakamura was also a dominant force in the Freestyle failures.

Meanwhile, the Grand Chelem tour of the Freestyle 2025 chess is underway with the second stage of the event which should start in Paris from April 8 to 15. Nakamura qualified for the return match in finishing fifth in Weissenhaus, where the opening leg took place from February 7 to 14. Vincent Keymar won the first leg by beating Fabiano Caruana in the final. Magnus Carlsen finished third.