“The way they've botched and completely murdered what the World Cup was is horrendous for chess...” — Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

American GM, streamer

“My big problem with these updates is the World Cup…

The way that they have destroyed the World Cup with these new changes, I am very strongly against. And I’d say this as someone on the outside, looking in as a viewer, as a fan of chess. Not as a top player anymore, because I don’t really play chess professionally, other than a handful of tournaments.

The way they destroyed the World Cup basically invalidates these qualifying spots. Because you have two Grand Swiss tournaments in effect. You have the FIDE World Cup which is now a Swiss event like the Grand Swiss and then some kind of janky 16-player Knockout, which I think is just absurd…

When there was a tournament that was completely fine in the World Cup as it was. I think nobody had a problem with it, as far as I could tell. Other than maybe Alireza, and maybe they thought that Magnus would play if they shorten it.

The way they’ve botched and just completely murdered what the World Cup was is horrendous for chess. The way they’re suddenly trying to make games 45 plus 30 is awful. I don’t think it solves the problem at all.

I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I think this is based on the flawed notion that somehow faster chess is going to bring in more viewers or more sponsors, more interest. In terms of live viewership, those days are long gone.

Maybe it’s to bring Magnus back. Maybe it is, I don’t know…”