This was covered just over a week ago by Leonard Barden in The Guardian:
Chess: Magnus Carlsen targets all-time rating record of 2900 at Wijk aan Zee
Nice bit of history there with mentions of Mallory and Irvine!
This is a bit more controversial:
What are the views here on that. Peter Wells has said this development is a "little [disturbing]", and suggests that Ding Liren and Nodirbek Abdusattorov are other names as well.Leonard Barden wrote:After four successful defences of his global crown, Carlsen says he will only do so again in 2023 if his opponent is the current No 2, Alireza Firouzja, 18, or another grandmaster from the new generation.
But should Carlsen be saying things like this? I agree with Wells that:
(The piece by Wells in full is here.)Peter Wells wrote:the situation which has pertained under his reign in which we could be confident that he would compete with whichever player was thrown up by the system had a very healthy feel to it.
Interesting to hear in Leonard's column about some of the behind-the-scenes negotiations over appearance fees and so on. Was it like that back in the days of Soviet GMs as well, or was it all a bit different then?
[Interesting review by Leonard of Sadler's latest book, The Silicon Road to Chess Improvement - this is the wrong thread to discuss that, but worth a look.]