MY DECEMBER
A look back at December, which was a busy month in terms of Rapid and Blitz games, with the Champions Chess Tour Finals in Oslo, followed by the Rapid and Blitz World Championships in New York. I was obviously highly motivated, with a stated goal of winning one of the three. It’s fair to say that I didn’t achieve my goal, and not by a long shot 😊. The main cause, and this was even more glaring in the Blitz, was the profusion of miscalculations. This was something we had already noticed at the London Blitz tournament the previous week.
In this normal position at the end of the opening, I played the terrible 14.Bd2?, completely forgetting 14…Nd3 with a double attack on the Re1 and the b2-pawn.
And these unusual miscalculations were repeated throughout the month, as well as a few stunning errors of judgment…
So, during the Champions Chess Tour semi-final against Magnus in Oslo, I had a rather new and surprising experience. I had the feeling that I fought on equal terms in positional play and piece placement, which I must admit is quite rare 😊. But on the other hand, in terms of pure tactics, I was completely dominated, which is also very unusual!
In this game, I had obtained a clearly winning position, and I could probably have avoided this endgame, which poses real conversion problems. But that was no reason to play the inept 47.Nxc6? Nxc6 48.c5, and with the blockade on c6 unbreakable, the position is completely drawn.
Those who followed my tournament in New York will have noticed that these miscalculations were particularly flagrant on the Blitz day, which qualified only the top 8 players for the finals. And I was never able to get into the race because of these really serious errors, at least by my usual standards. The second day of the Rapid also went badly from that point of view, but it was less obvious.
To date, I don’t know what conclusion to draw, but in any case, I’m obviously thinking about it with my whole team. It’s a negative point that was very important at the end of the season, and one that absolutely must be resolved in 2025.
END-OF-YEAR POLEMICS
On the subject of the FIDE Dress Code, I’ve already had the opportunity to express my views in various interviews. For good or for bad – and I have been quite active in the discussions about it in the past few years – the dress code rules for this year were explained in advance, including the fact that you would not be paired after a second offense. I’m not a fan of the ban of jeans and sneakers, but there is a logic behind it : to not have to sort on the day which jeans and sneakers are acceptable for the event and which ones are not. Once I’ve said all this, the rules in place should apply for everyone, and that is what happened, as FIDE, the chief arbiter and Magnus Carlsen remained principled. The public aftermath was a bit unfortunate to my taste, but at the same time, in every sport where there is a controversial decision e.g. Djokovic being disqualified in US Open 2020, it also generally leads to debates and serious media coverage.
As for sharing the world title in Blitz, I’ll be even more explicit: I don’t like it. Once again, it’s not something you see in other sports. Especially since, in this case, there was still plenty of time to decide between the players. We were only three games into the tie-break. I’d have been more understanding if, for example, after eight tie-breaking games, or even after six, i.e. 1.5 hours and an overall day of 7 or 8 hours, the players still hadn’t broken the tie. I could accept that in this case, the « we’re of equal strength today » aspect could be put forward, why not? But this was early and I don’t understand why FIDE accepted it. Nor do I understand why Magnus, who loves the sport so much, even proposed this deal. For Ian, of course, it’s a bit different. In a way, he’s in a bit of a bind. If he turns it down and loses, he looks really stupid. I don’t want to blame Magnus unnecessarily either, because sometimes, in the heat of the moment, you lose your lucidity…
But it leaves a bitter taste from a spectator’s point of view, in the sense that really, it could have been a pretty legendary, pretty epic end to the match. I’m thinking of the last football World Cup final between France and Argentina, which went to penalty shoot-out and became a legend after France were trailing 0-2 (just like Ian!) and equalized at the very end.
LET’S LOOK AHEAD TO 2025
New for 2025, there are two fresh circuits! Before that, of course, there’s the return of the Candidates qualification cycle, as in every odd-numbered year. We’re a little short of information on dates and locations, although I hope things will soon settle down. I’ve once again qualified for the Grand Chess Tour, which starts at the end of April, thanks to my third-place finish last year. We also have the Champions Chess Tour, which is back once again, but in a slightly different form, with only two online qualifying tournaments, and a 16-player final to be played as part of the Esport World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), from July 31 to August 3. And of course, the brand-new 26-player FreeStyle Chess circuit, with its cycle of five tournaments, among them the first one in Germany (February), and the second in Paris (April). After the Speed Chess finals last September, it’s great to see chess back at the highest level in France.
So it’s true that it’s going to be a very busy year, but if I find my form and come back well, I think I’ve got every chance of competing with the best!
Maxime’s games in London:
Maxime’s games at the Champion Chess Tour Finals:
Maxime’s games at the World Rapid:
Maxime’s games at the World Blitz:
In addition to the aforementioned London blitz tournament, in which Maxime took second place behind Firoujza, the chief organizer of British chess, Malcolm Pein, put up a blindfold tournament with 10 players, including the best English, such as Adams, Vitiugov, Mc Shane and Jones, as well as Mamedyarov and Vidit. Blindfold play is one of Maxime’s strong points, and he considered himself a favorite for the tournament. And rightly so, since he won quite easily at a time control that suited him very well, namely 10+5. The competition took place on computers, in front of empty chessboards.
