Controversy as World Chess Championships ends with two winners!

The 2024 FIDE World Blitz Chess Championships came to a controversial end on New Year’s eve with two World Champions!

This is after Grand Masters Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi agreed to share the title following the former’s suggestion seven games into their final.

The move has divided the chess world right in the middle, with claims of match-fixing being bandied around.

This was the second time that Carlsen found himself in controversy after he had earlier been kicked out of the World Rapid Championships for refusing to change his jeans.

Though he had earlier announced that he would pull out altogether from the World Blitz Championships, the Norwegian made a U-turn and decided to participate and unsurprisingly made it to the final.

Carlsen disqualified from World Championship because of - clothes!?

Grand Master Hans Niemann said on his Twitter handle: "The chess world is officially a joke. This has never been done in history. I can't believe that the official body of chess is being controlled by a singular player for the second time this week. There can only be one world champion.”

In a Youtube recap, another Grandmaster Hikaru Nakumara said: "I don't think it is right at all."

A poll on his Twitter handle almost split the room, showing that 56% of voters were against the decision and 44% thought it was fine according to leading chess site chess.com.

Locally, former Chess Kenya president Githinji Hinga said the two players should have played until one of them wins.

“The private discussion on a draw is match fixing. The organisers and FIDE look beholden to chess stars which is very sad. I cannot wait for the new crop of youngsters to wipe off these superstar chess cartels.”

A poll on a local WhatsApp group saw 50% of those who took part disagreeing with the decision to agree on a draw, while another 20% asked FIDE to reverse the result and investigate match fixing.

Another 20% of those who took part supported the decision by the players to agree on a draw.

According to chess.com while this is the first time that the title has been shared, there is precedent already with other important chess events.

The 2018 Sinquefield Cup was decided the same way after Carlsen made a similar offer to GMs Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana. In 2020, the FIDE Online Olympiad ended with India and Russian being announced as joint gold medalists following a major internet disruption.