"What matters is whether people will watch your game on a 20-second reel..." — Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen

World's No. 1

“I think there’s certainly been an interesting trend over the last few years. A lot of young players are approaching the game a bit differently, especially in Classical chess, but also to some extent in shorter formats.

Many of them are deviating from mainline theory quite early on, and that makes the game a little different than it was a couple of years ago. It’s certainly increased the lifespan of Classical chess.

Ultimately, I do believe, as Fabiano said, that in this age, things need to be a little bit faster. We should make the game more about what it was originally supposed to be: intuition, imagination, fighting, and so on.

I’d also say that time control might not matter that much, because whether you play a Classical, Blitz, or Rapid game, what matters is whether people will watch it on a 20-second reel.

I think we kind of would regardless. So, I believe chess as we know it is going to be pretty solved eventually, and we’ll have to move toward something that’s not as easy.

Part of the beauty of chess is that it’s a very difficult game, but in many ways, it’s also not that difficult. I think when you lower the time controls, it may actually become more difficult for players, because it’s harder to defend with little time. So that’s definitely part of it, but others might disagree.

I’m not a sentimental person at all, so I don’t really long for the past. Still, I do kind of miss the times when you could get away with more, when even at top events, some people didn’t know Openings and so on. But most of all, I think we might be losing something, but it’s certainly not the top of mind for me.”