World no.1 Magnus Carlsen’s fiery reaction after losing to D Gukesh in Norway Chess might lead to soft warnings in the near future for such actions.
India’s Chess legend, Viswanathan Anand, hinted that FIDE will discuss the issue.”Laws means definitions. It gets tricky. I guess it will come up (in FIDE discussions), I think. But, you know, on the other hand, if you take someone like (American GM) Hikaru (Nakamura), he says, ‘let’s have more of it’ (Carlsen incident). It gets attention. So, we’ll have to balance these things out.”But certainly, I think it will be discussed very soon,” Anand was quoted as saying by PTI.The chess legend added that he had seen “enough anger” on the table during his playing career to call it an aberration.”Yes, (I’ve seen) enough anger. All this has been around for a while, people screaming and cursing. I think it was in Delhi (2000 World Championship), where after his game with (Estonia’s) Jaan Ehlvest, (Vassily) Ivanchuk threw a chair across. So, the only difference is the camera, not the incident.”And, the other thing I would say is that this (game between Gukesh and Carlsen) was very intense. I mean, maybe Magnus isn’t that excited about classical chess, but he’s certainly taken on Gukesh (in the format),” Anand said.”Or if not Gukesh personally… the person who is now the world champion… showing that he (Carlsen) can fight youngsters. I mean, a lot of stuff (was) probably going on in his head, and it came out. So, those two games (against Gukesh), he took very, very intensely and seriously. And that’s kind of partially what brought it (frustration) on.”Anand said such incidents are not so common but once in a while they do trickle in and are mostly precipitated by a player losing from a position of strength.”I mean, it’s not that common… Well, you kind of see fragments every day. There was somebody who could barely bear to look at (the chessboard), because he blundered, mostly angry with himself… you’re so suicidal, briefly… that you spoiled something that you had done so well.”On whether he foresees chess being included in the Olympic programme sometime in the near future, Anand said FIDE was “trying hard” to liaise with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and he hoped it could be there in some form or the other.”Yes, I very much hope so. I don’t know if, at some point, the IOC decides various forms of engagement, either through esports or through the regular games and something. But we are trying very hard in that area,” said Anand.