You broke the rules on camera, you only thought they would agree to your proposal because you dropped out of the blitz and made ridiculous demands. FIDE will hopefully take a stand and remind us all that no player is above the game. They failed to hold you accountable when you tried to ruin my life, I hope they’ve learned their lesson.
I’ve never prearranged a draw in my career. In the video I’m joking with Ian in a situation with lacking decisive tiebreak rules. This was obviously not an attempt to influence FIDE. It was said in the spirit that I thought FIDE would agree to our proposal. If anything it was a bad joke given the gravity of the situation.
I think the match itself showed two players playing high level chess, equally matched and both deserving of a win.
To celebrate the New Year, let’s look back on all the firsts that happened in 2024:
1. Gukesh became the first Indian World Champion
2. Hikaru was the first streamer to cross 2800 Rating
3. I became the first World Champion to be disqualified for fashion
I understand that many people have criticized my decision to split the World Blitz Championship, and rightfully so. To be fair and consistent, I will also be splitting one Classical Championship each with @lachesisq and @HansMokeNiemann to help them achieve their goals.
1/2 I would like insincerely apologize to the @NYMag writer who had her feelings hurt.
She presented a lot of misleading and/or erroneous claims, the most egregious of which was that I accused the photographer, Lennart Ootes of aiding with cheating