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Pat Musitano was a brash, loud mob boss, but his funeral was so low key it went almost entirely unnoticed after he was murdered by a gunman in a Burlington parking lot this summer in the midst of the global pandemic.

When his associate, Joseph Catroppa, was shot dead outside a hotel in Cancun, Mexico, in September, his funeral service in Woodbridge was also a private, quiet affair, marked publicly by only an online announcement.

Such discreet online mourning is part of the new realities of life and death for local and international organized criminals during the COVID-19 crisis.

Meanwhile, experts say the smartest organized criminals are now rebounding and even expanding after their initial pandemic scare.

Crime tends to be a first-mover, sussing out new opportunities whenever a crisis like COVID-19 arises, Misha Glenny, a fellow at the Berggruen Institute think tank, writes on his blog. They are very entrepreneurial.

The bad news is the surge of online activity during lockdown has multiplied the opportunities for the ever-growing cyber criminal fraternity, he continues.

For some, the new opportunities lie in a new division of police resources, weakened enemies, legitimate business failures and sloppy online security.

For Mississauga mobster Vincenzo (Jimmy) De Maria, 66, the global pandemic meant he could present a viable argument to immigration authorities that he is too frail to be deported to Italy. De Maria, who was convicted of a 1981 second-degree murder over a drug debt, has had his deportation hearing indefinitely postponed after he argued he wasnt well enough for pandemic travel.

Experts agree the COVID-19 crisis has hit different facets of underworld life at varying degrees of intensity. Heres how:

Drugs

Immediately after the pandemic hit last March, illegal drugs became the toilet paper of the underworld meaning cocaine, heroin and other narcotics were the target of panic buying and hoarding.

Then things calmed down.

Luis Horacio Najera, a GTA academic who covered the cocaine trade as a reporter in Ciudad de Juarez, Mexico, said the pandemic hasnt hit all drug cartels equally.

Some are struggling to survive while others have sniffed out chances to finally overtake their rivals and diversify their interests.

There could be some visionaries among the cartels that could try to take advantage of the pandemic and its effects to push for new markets, Najera said in an online interview.

Investing money on legitimate business as medical supplies may be a good opportunity to clean some cash, Najera said.

As the pandemic pressed on, local criminals realized that addicts and more casual users werent going anywhere and that fentanyl, marijuana and methamphetamine can be produced locally while cocaine could still be smuggled into the country. They just had to do a little better job improving their supply chains and delivery, just like legions of legitimate businesses.

Internationally, drones, submersibles and tunnels became increasingly popular for smuggling during the pandemic.

Canadians were sometimes on the producing end in the illegal drug business in the pandemic underworld.

Investigators with the York Regional Police announced that a three-month operation this summer by its Organized Crime Bureau Guns, Gangs and Drug Enforcement Unit netted approximately $150 million dollars worth of illegal cannabis.

The pot haul was made after officers executed 15 search warrants throughout York Region, including Markham, King, Stouffville and East Gwillimbury, resulting in 37 arrests and 67 charges.

Much of that pot was destined for the American market, police said.

Gambling

There has been plenty of wagering on high-level chess, but its not because gamblers are worked up by the Netflix hit The Queens Gambit, a professor who studies sports gambling said.

If youre addicted to sports gambling, youll bet on anything, Declan Hill, an associate professor at the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, University of New Haven, Conn., said in an interview.

Match-fixing and gambling is exploding during this time, Hill said.

After shutdowns and schedule shrinking hit many major sports leagues, gamblers showed they were eager to drop bets on virtually anything, including chess, Hill said.

The closure of government-run casinos also created an opening for lavish, spa-like illegal betting palaces to thrive.

One of those new venues in Markham a gated, guarded 20,000-square-foot Markham mansion on Decourcy Court near Warden Avenue and Major MacKenzie Drive, according to York Regional Police, who shut it down last month.

Its invitation-only policy meant criminals could mingle and conduct business without the interference of undercover police agents.

Loansharking

Pope Francis announced in July he was praying for people who during this time of the pandemic, trade at the expense of the needy and profit from the needs of others, like the Mafia, usurers and others.

May the Lord touch their hearts and convert them, the Pope said.

The Pontiffs comments came as small businesses throughout the world are suffering from the pandemic.

Many criminals who had invested heavily in businesses like restaurants and property-rental saw their customers stay home and their tenants suddenly become unable to pay their rents.

After an initial scare, opportunities presented themselves for organized criminals with deep pockets and plenty of liquid cash to become hidden partners in previously legitimate businesses.

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Things are particularly promising for organized criminals with plenty of liquid cash and connections to lawyers, accountants and financial advisers, professor Anna Sergi of the University of Essex said in an email interview.

Even without the business advice, some (organized crime groups) can approach certain businesses directly, but this tends to happen where places are smaller and communities tighter, Sergi said.

Businesses that are smaller (like cash businesses, restaurants, industry-specific businesses affected by the pandemic, such as hospitality and the like) are more at risk, but bigger industries might also be needing influx of cash to get back on their feet, Sergi said, pointing to construction businesses whose work decreases because real estate might be in distress.

Italian anti-Mafia magistrate Nicola Gratteri told the Global Initiative against Organized Crime in October that the pandemic creates an opportunity for organized crime because the usurers from the Ndrangheta initially come in with offers of low interest rates, because their end goal is to take over the business, via usury, and use it to launder their illicit proceeds.

Gratteri grimly added that the Ndrangheta lenders arent as worried about collateral as legitimate financial institutions because: Their collateral is the borrowers life.

Fraud

Criminals quickly cashed in on fact that cyberspace was suddenly central to work, education, health and entertainment after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Due to the pandemic, many Canadians are spending more time at home, Lisanne Roy Beauchamp of the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said in an email. As a result, fraudsters have upped their attempts to contact potential victims by phone and online.

By the end of March, there were already reports of bogus medicines and hand gels on the market. There have recently been reports of a flood of fake COVID-19 negative test results, allowing tourists to travel without receiving proper medical clearances. Some of those falsified results were downloadable for storage on mobile phones.

Hacking is also up exponentially. Experts urge people to keep their operating systems up to date, install anti-virus and anti-malware programs, avoid using the same password twice, use password generators and refrain from keeping sensitive data on the internet.

The public is also urged to avoid clicking links or opening attachments if anything seems unusual.

Working from home means leaving secure office networks to sharing home servers with children and teenagers, who werent always so security conscious.

The lesson from all this is crystal clear, Glenny says. If youve never taken computer security seriously, make time during the lockdown to get up to speed and quickly.

Human trafficking

The pandemic has made it even tougher to fight human trafficking globally and in Canada, experts say.

Sexual exploitation including webcam sex trafficking has shot up during the pandemic, feeding off poverty, isolation and desperation, Valiant Richey of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe said in an email.

COVID has exacerbated trends we were already seeing before the pandemic, and made them even more urgent, said Richey, the OSCE Special Representative for Combating and Trafficking in Human Beings.

It is harder to cross borders now, as many are in fact closed or carefully monitored, but trafficking and exploitation do not need to cross a border to take place, said Richey, whose organization fights human trafficking in 57 nations, from Vancouver to Vladivostok.

Canada isnt immune to this global phenomenon, Richey said, as most human trafficking is domestic.

Canada, like many countries in the OSCE region, has domestic human trafficking, Richey said.

Lockdown measures and movement restrictions have also contributed to a surge in online child exploitation through webcams, Richey said.

Richey said the number of reports of online child sexual exploitation have tripled globally since the pandemic began.

We are talking about hundreds of millions of pictures and videos exchanged on common social media platforms, Richey said. Much more robust efforts need to be taken to prevent this criminal conduct which can have cause long-term trauma to victims.

Read the original:
Loansharking, fake test results and betting on chess: How organized crime has learned to thrive in the COVID-19 pandemic - Toronto Star

Darien native Jasmine Su has been finding her joy in the game of chess ever since she was seven years old.

My dad introduced this game to me and Ive been hooked since, said Jasmine Su. And now at the age of 10, shes not only making moves on the board but in the rankings, as shes been named one of the top players in her age bracket in the country by the U.S. Chess Federation.

I feel really happy and I did a lot of training at home and played in a lot of tournaments to get it, Su said. I think its really fun because it doesnt matter about your age or gender or heritage or what language you speak. One time I was playing a 78-year-old gentlemen.

But although many in-person tournaments have been canceled due to the coronavirus, it hasnt stopped the 10-year-old from advancing her game.

I have chess coaches and they teach me how to improve my chess and I also learn from books. I do training and problems to train my brain and thats how I work my skills, Su said.

Jan van de Mortel is the president of the Connecticut State Chess Association and he said the online chess community has actually been booming as a result of the pandemic. He said he's excited for so many to experience the benefits that come from the game.

Chess is extremely good for childrens development. You learn to play with a strict set of rules which you have to stick by, said the 40-year chess veteran.

He goes on to explain the unique bond that comes from playing the game.

Chess immediately breaks down barriers, breaks the ice, and two people of completely different cultures, ages backgrounds can sit down and play a game of chess. They may not even speak the same language, but they can play chess and they start to create a bond and these relationships can last for a long time," van de Mortel said.

Originally posted here:
10-Year-Old Darien Native Becomes Nationally Recognized Chess Player - NBC Connecticut

Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Chess Players Forum (CPF), an association of chess players in India, will write to the Andhra Pradesh government seeking removal of the ban on the website Chess.com. In a recent amendment of the AP Gaming Act, the Andhra government banned 132 websites to prevent online gaming, gambling and betting. Chess.com is among those.

Officials of CPF are of the opinion that Chess.com is not a gambling site. According to them, it is a useful platform for upcoming and seasoned chess players, where they can play, learn and improve their game by various means. Their letter to the Andhra government is expected to be sent on Wednesday. Some prominent players from the state are likely to endorse it.

Describing Chess.com as a beneficial medium for players, CPF secretary V Saravanan said: "It's good for training, playing and overall understanding of chess. For example, during the lockdown when no tournaments are held, one can stay in touch using this platform. Players can organise their own tournaments. Also, an upcoming player seldom gets the opportunity to play against strong players over the board. Using these platforms, one can play against players like Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura or Maxime Vachier-Lagrave."

Chess.com offers free registration and has some 40 million users. Some of its features are available for free, some require subscriptions. Users can play rapid and blitz time controls. Analysis, puzzles and teaching materials are also offered. It has hosted tournaments including this year's Online Chess Olympiad and Online Nations Cup.

In a letter to Ravi Shankar Prasad (union minister for communications, electronics and information technology) dated October 27, chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy wrote: "We have amended the AP Gaming Act, 1974 to include online gaming, online gambling and online betting as an offence through Andhra Pradesh (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 which was notified on 25th September 2020."

The chief minister's letter added: "I would request you to direct all the Internet Service Providers to block all the gaming, gambling and betting websites and apps from access in Andhra Pradesh. A list of websites identified to be involved in online gaming, gambling and betting is being attached." Chess.com is 128th in that list.

Original post:
Chess Players Forum urges Andhra govt to exclude Chess.com from banned betting sites - The New Indian Express

I was seven years old when I first started playing chess. My parents didn't know too much about the game because chess doesn't have a long history in China. Most people got to know more about it because of the 1991 Women's Chess World Championships when China's Xie Jun defeated Georgia's Maia Chiburdanidze. That just happened to be the year I was born.

When I was in elementary school there were various options for interesting after school lessons and I chose chess. At first I found I played well against students in my area of the same age, and then went on to achieve excellent results in under-8s and under-10s national competitions. At that stage I began to think I could become a professional chess player. My home in Shanghai at the time was very close to where I studied chess, so I'd play chess almost every day for a few hours. Chess was perhaps the most significant aspect of my childhood.

Then, in 2004 at the age of 13, I travelled to Beijing for professional chess training at the National Chess Center there. Sometimes you're going to a tournament or event but the average time we trained was about six hours a day.

Becoming a grandmaster is the highest title in chess, and to achieve it you have to reach a rating of 2500 and three "norms"in general, a norm is a strong performance with a rating of 2600 in select international chess events. When I received the title of grandmaster in 2014 I was 23 and had six norms. It's still fairly rare for a woman to become a grandmaster, but I believed I was good enough. So I was happy, but it wasn't necessarily surprising!

I first realized I could become Women's Chess World Champion in 2016. That year, I competed in the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Women's Grand Prix 2015-16; a series of five chess tournaments where the winning player qualifies as a challenger to play in the next FIDE Women's World Chess Championships. I won that Grand Prix.Chess is a male-dominated sport, so keeping the championships separate gives a chance for more female players to join and achieve. They've also been separated since the women's championships started in 1927, and there are open tournaments where male and female players can play against one another.

The Women's World Chess Championship Match in May of 2018 was a 10 match tournament between myself and another Chinese player, Tan Zhongyi. We've known each other since childhood, and I knew for at least a year she would be my opponent, so I had plenty of time to prepare. I won three matches, drew five and lost two. So although it wasn't easy, I was leading throughout. Winning was a dream come true. I was the 17th female world champion, the sixth Chinese woman to win and the first woman from my home city of Shanghai.

I also won the Women's World Chess Championship Tournament of November 2018, but the Women's Chess World Championships 2020 in January this year was the toughest chess championship I've played. My opponent Aleksandra Goryachkina was from Russia, and she was only 21 at the timeseven years younger than I was. Russia is traditionally a chess playing country and Goryachkina is very talented.

We played first in Shanghai and then in Vladivostok and during the time we were in Vladivostok for the second half of the tournament in 2020, my coach, Ni Hua's grandmother passed away. He was supposed to go back for the funeral, but instead he stayed with me in Vladivostok until the final, and didn't tell me about his loss so that I could concentrate on playing and winning.

During a tournament it's often late in the evening when we finish games, so my priority is to rest well and have energy for the next day, rather than socialising or partying. But also, while playing chess isn't a physical game, it takes up a lot of mental energy. So for me, it's better not to go out afterwards.

In the tournament against Goryachkina, we drew the first three matches and then it was very up and down with both of us winning matches. The tournament was actually very unclear until the final, when we played four rounds of rapid tie-break games and I won.

I know how popular the Netflix show The Queen's Gambit is and it's great to see a show about chess, especially female players. I've watched a few episodes and I think the character of Beth Harmon is smart and an intelligent player. She's charming to watch when she's on the board.

I believe many chess players have actually watched the show and I personally like how the name of the show speaks to the famous chess opening and the fact that it's about a female player. Beth and I both studied chess when we were very young and playing was our own choicewe played because we wanted to. And, of course, we both want to win. There is a sense from the show that Beth is a passionate woman, with a passion for chess.

Right now, there are many more male chess players than females, so it's good to have something that can encourage women into playing chessBeth could be a good idol for women. But whether you're male or female, young or old, you can play chessit's not limiting.

I would love to think that I could encourage even more young female chess players, and I hope that many more young people begin to play and love the game.

In the future, I'd just like to play better. I prefer to play strong chess players, because after the game no matter whether you win or lose you learn something. Like Beth, I read many books by chess world champions, I tend to admire playing styles more than the individual. And of course, my coach Ni Hua has really helped me over the years, I truly appreciate him.

Although the date is not yet confirmed, I will certainly try to do my best in the next Women's Chess World Championship match.

I really enjoyed playing chess when I first started and now I love it even more.

Ju Wenjun is the FIDE 2020 Women's Chess World Champion. She also won the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship Match 2018 and the Women's World Chess Championship Tournament of November 2018. In 2014 she became a grandmaster at the age of 23. She currently lives in Shanghai, China.

All views expressed in this piece are the writer's own.

As told to Jenny Haward.

View post:
'I'm The 2020 Women's Chess World Champion' - Newsweek

Introduction

A (much) longer version of this interview appears in the years final issue of the Norwegian Chess Federation magazine Norsk Sjakkblad, appearing in mid-November 2020. The piece was my editorial farewell to the job, and a chance to explore a very turbulent year or so for the champion at home, after a series of high-profile episodes eventually led him to make the symbolic gesture of withdrawing from the national federation.

His endorsement of a proposed deal for federation funding from a cooperation with gambling giant Kindred sparked massive national controversy, and this was eventually followed by him becoming an ambassador for Unibet. Gambling is run by a state monopoly in Norway, and is both a thorny and touchy subject. Magnus remains active, supportive and a representative of the Norwegian federation. His lack of membership was a protest against the heated and hostile rejection of what he felt was a unique and unmissable chance to finally fund the chronically impoverished organization.

Although Magnus and I were clubmates at Asker during his late childhood, and I had the entertaining experience of captaining the Norwegian Open team at the Baku Olympiad in 2016, where Magnus led the squad to Norways best ever finish, Ive never had a chance to really quiz him from a journalists seat. In recent years, whenever this was a possibility, there was always someone higher up where I was working who would grab this opportunity for themselves.

Image Caption

photo courtesy Norway Chess / Lennart Ootes

This interview somehow automatically took place in English, which is worth mentioning, even if it only had an impact on the version translated and used in the federation magazine. As our conversation evolved, it became very clear that segments of this interview would be of particular interest to a U.S. audience, and Magnus graciously granted permission for me to publish this in any other channels I felt fit.

As always, Magnus speaks his mind and pulls approximately zero punches. He also repeatedly reveals the high standards he demands of himself over the board, virtual or physical. Some of my previous writing might be interesting as background context: My piece on the creation of Magnus global Offerspill Chess Club and an explanation of this and the Kindred case for a non-Norwegian audience in New in Chess 6/2019; and a look at Magnus history for being outspoken and admittedly nave. The latter article might shed more light on some of the things he admittedly miscalculated in a Norwegian political context, but it also illustrates his belief in speaking his mind.

About being a Unibet ambassador - is it going to focus on fantasy football because of your success? It seems to be the perfect medium for the sponsor, you applying mental skills that aren't chess to a different kind of contest.

Its as simple as it [being] something that I find very interesting to talk about, and to some extent promote as well. And there is a lot of overlap with people who like to gamble and like to play fantasy football. Theres a very obvious connection to make there.

You say on the fantasy football podcast that youre not much of a gambler, which might surprise people when you're a Unibet ambassador. How much 'math' is involved in what you play?

I think fantasy football has a lot of similarity with poker and with betting, in that you make decisions based on stats and then that gives you a better chance to be lucky. So to me its not the gambling aspect of these things that makes it interesting for me, it is more about trying to make good decisions, to make better decisions than others do, basically based on having a lot of the same data.

Obviously in the short term there is a huge amount of luck, there is no denying that, but I think that over time these are definitely - I think fantasy football is definitely in the same category as betting or poker, [which is] to a huge extent a skill-based game.

Luck is no coincidence is the Unibet slogan - this comes around to luck being a kind of skill?

Yes, if you're skilled youre going to be lucky more often, that's the basic point.

Do you see any analog to this in chess at all? I mean chess is a complete information game but there are human factors involved, psychology maybe bluffing occasionally to a certain extent...

I don't think there is any fundamental luck in chess. No...

When you speed things up don't you think it increases the chance factor? Or does it just increase the skill sets needed?

It certainly increases the variance when the game speeds up and when it becomes more complicated, more unpredictable. But I don't consider it chance, or to be a matter of luck. I still feel that it is all skill.

Lets go to the evil side of gambling for bit. When I look at fantasy football it doesn't really strike me as gambling per se maybe that's because I respect the level of skill involved in things like poker even though there's a lack of information and the presence of chance. But it doesn't seem to me the same kind of thing that people are worried about. I imagine the whole point of promoting gambling with a clear conscience, is you see it as a 'safe' pastime if it is a pastime and skill is consciously involved?

Yeah, to be honest I simply don't find gambling very interesting, I don't find online casino games that interesting. As you said, poker, sports betting, and I think also fantasy football, those are, in the long run, highly skills-based games. They can be extremely addictive, there is no doubt about that, so you need to make it safe, set boundaries.

But I dont think there is anything inherently wrong with these things.

The thing about poker and sports betting fantasy football is not quite the same the thing about these games when you play them online, if you are even a reasonably smart person, you understand very well that the house has the edge. You understand that and you accept it as the premise, that when you play there [at a casino or online betting site ~ed.] they are going to have a bit of an edge and you are going to try to beat them with your superior skills. Or youre just going to play a bit for fun. Which is also fine, but then you accept that you are going to pay a bit of money for the thrill of gambling.

But I don't think that there is something inherently wrong with person 1 accepting a fee to allow person 2 and 3 to wager a bet between them. I don't think there is any fundamental problem there.

Lets talk about what I like to call Magnus Inc.: Chess 24, Play Magnus, Chessable and CoChess. You came up with the name for CoChess (= 'coaches'), I assume?

Ha! No Im a huge pun aficionado. Unfortunately, it wasn't me but obviously I like it.

How active are your roles with these companies?

Lately I stay a little bit out of the way. Usually whenever they ask me to do something, they ask me for a favor, I am very happy to do that, but its not like I run any of the day-to-day business. Clearly Im a lot more involved when it comes to the tour that we had and the tour that is coming up. That is something that Im thinking a lot more about and having much more of a say in.

So investor and promoter mostly?

Yeah, absolutely.

Is there a sense of this being a big competitive front for you? Are you taking on chess.com and lichess and any other big online players with this empire you're building?

Yes, we certainly are trying to compete, especially with chess.com, there's no doubt there, but most of all we're trying to grow chess, and to do something special to create a good environment for the best players.

Image Caption

photo courtesy Norway Chess / Lennart Ootes

Do you consider lichess a competitor? They seem to be helpful in some of your projects and they would appear to be a natural competitor in others.

In general I like those guys. So I wish the lichess guys everything good, [and] I think what they've managed to do is amazing.

So the main rival is chess.com. What are your ambitions, and what is success in that respect?

Its not really all about competing with them. We just want to create good products that are going to make people interested in following our events, and eventually also playing on the new site we've got coming up on Chess24.

Its not only about Chess24 as well. We're trying to grow all of the different companies. Essentially, Im just there as you said, as investor and promoter. My main role still is to try and play well; that's after all, I think, the best way to promote [these ventures]. When I start playing a lot worse, my value for the company will be a lot less.

There was a recent video with Arne Horvei about exciting job opportunities as a broadcaster for the next online tour - but this tour sounded a bit like the start of a new world title...

Ha! You'll have to ask him.

(Tisdall's aside: I did ask Arne, on business social media site LinkedIn. He gave me a very professional answer, explaining that the tour was a private initiative and It is not in any way an announcement of a new world title, official or unofficial but the message did include a wink emoji)

The format of your (online) tour (sets of rapid matches) a lot of people are talking about it being a testing ground or public demonstration of what you would like to see the actual world title format change to. Any truth to that?

Yeah, I guess I have been pretty open about, not necessarily for the championship title, but about my opinion about how you would determine the best player in the world, and certainly this goes some way to showing that.

Do you think the COVID-19 situation has permanently changed the status of rapid and blitz events now?

I think so. But I also think its just not realistic to expect people to play long games online. I also think it is not realistic to expect people to watch it with great interest. So I think the rapid format is excellent for online play because you keep at least some semblance of high quality chess and it also doesn't take too long. You get more games in a day and that way you get more excitement possibly.

You don't think it will impact over-the-board play when it comes back? That things will speed up more in general?

I don't know. I think in general the future of classical chess as it is now is a little bit dubious. I would love to see more Fischer [Random] Chess being played over-the-board in a classical format. That would be very interesting to me, because I feel that that particular format is pretty well suited to classical chess as basically you need a lot of time in order to be able to play the game even remotely decently. And you can see that in the way that Fischer [Random] Chess is being played now when it is played in a rapid format.

The quality of the games isnt very high because we make such fundamental mistakes in the opening. We don't understand it nearly enough and I think that would increase a lot if we were given a classical time control there. So I would definitely hope for that.

For classical chess over-the-board, I guess it has a future, but I think you have to accept it as it is. There are going to be a lot of draws when the best players in the world play classical chess over-the-board. There is no way around it, if you dont change something fundamental that is simply not going to change. It is a little bit sad but I think it is very, very hard to do something about.

You don't think engines might open the frontiers again somehow?

I find it very unlikely. The fact [is] that Alpha Zero and Leela, are, in terms of the Berlin Defense, rather shutting down doors than opening them. I think that's not a very encouraging sign and youre grasping more and more at straws when it comes to finding playable opening ideas. It is a bit of a shame.

That makes me wonder if you've been following these chess variant experiments, I think by Kramnik.

I certainly think its interesting, and yeah, Id love to try some of the variants that most resemble chess, I would love to try them in real games. I just think that to some extent we already have a really good variant, that is Fischer [Random] Chess. I think that probably also needs to be explored more.

Going back to the topic of rapid being possibly the main battleground for a while: What's it like reanimating [GM Hikaru] Nakamura - he seems to be more of a rival now than when he was world number two?

Yeah, definitely. First of all, Ive been mightily mightily impressed with the way he's been playing. When we were doing the invitations for the first Magnus Invitational there was this basic thought to invite all the best players in the world and there were a lot of people who were a given, and I was pushing for Nakamura to be invited there. I was saying that even though it has been a long time since he has had any success whatsoever in classical chess, I still thought that in rapid formats he would be a more than worthy competitor. And I didn't expect him to be nearly this good.

Its been amazing to see the amount of success that he's had and I also think the match that he played against me, or all of the matches, they became very, very difficult for me. I think that he had a very well thought out match strategy, to a greater extent than other players have had. Its come to the point that theres no doubt that when it comes to rapid and blitz chess, especially online, he's clearly my biggest competitor.

Do you think the faster controls will create more serious challengers for you or do you think you will be just as dominant?

To be fair, I don't think I've been very dominant recently. I want to be a lot more dominant than I've been. I think I played well in one of the events, the Chessable Masters. Apart from that it has been fairly mediocre I would say. I feel like I havent reached my full potential in these formats and I would say certainly during the last St. Louis event, I think I was just basically going through the motions. I had no energy or creativity. I was just not playing well at all.

Is it just as demanding as playing classical then?

Yes, I think so, when you play a bunch of games in one day it is equally exhausting.

Will classical chess and the official cycle still be your top priority?

I think it is very, very likely that I will compete for a world championship next year, but I feel it is very unlikely that I will ever play as many classical tournaments as I did in 2019.

Because of the strain?

Yeah, because there is going to be, at least for the next year, a lot of focus on the online tour that is coming so I cannot spend all my time travelling.

Who do you expect to be your next challenger?

One of the guys playing in the Candidates. I don't know, the two guys who are leading [GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi - ~ed.] and also [GM Fabiano] Caruana have a very decent chance. I don't have a better answer than that.

Is there anybody you'd find more interesting to meet?

By far the best player among them is Caruana.

But that doesn't mean he'd be the most -

I think that would be the most interesting for sure. Its not necessarily what I want. I mean, I don't really know what I want at this point but yeah, I certainly think he's the most interesting opponent.

What did you think of Nakamura's Bong Cloud in the last round at the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz? (Nakamura played 1. e4 e5 2. Ke2 as White vs. GM Jeffrey Xiong, an opening known as the Bong Cloud.)

I think it was OK. my opinion has always been chess moves are chess moves theyre not much more.

In that particular situation it's not about respect for the game or lack of it.

What about respect for the opponent?

I just don't find that whole discussion very interesting. Like when you face it, either you go 2. Ke7 yourself and you say, I see that you're trying to give yourself a disadvantage here and I don't want to be a part of that, now we play on equal ground. Or else you try your best to win. Certainly it's not an ideal situation to be put in, but you do your best. If you're talking about lack of respect for the opponent, that's far too dramatic, there should be room for some showmanship in these events. But I don't necessarily think it should be a headline creator.

What about what the organizers think?

It's also about what you do after. Clearly Hikaru's intention was: I play 1. e4, I play 1. Ke2 and after that I play a normal game. He didn't continue to play in a silly way after it. So if you think you are good enough to play 1. e4 2. Ke2 and beat your opponent, sure go ahead. I don't see the problem.

It almost looked like he did it because his stream followers voted for it.

Youve got to keep in mind, that he considers himself a streamer first and foremost rather than a chess player. With that in mind, his choice is not only understandable, its perfectly rational.

What do you think about the way his video streaming is plowing new ground for chess popularity?

I think its very good for him first and foremost, and in general its a good thing for chess. I don't think that it's necessarily a case of more numbers always corresponds to being that much better for chess, but I think overall its a very positive thing. I just think that we should not lose complete track as chess players of what we are trying to do, which is play good chess.

He himself has been thoroughly vindicated in the sense that he finds a lot of success, not only as a promoter of the game but also as a player. I think what he's doing is a huge positive, and it's obviously great for him.

--

After getting to see all the attention seekers swarming around you when I was Olympic team captain in Baku, I'm curious to know if all this has made you reflect a little bit about celebrity life. And if you think about yourself as a role model at all, and the implications of that.

(Pause)

Im not particularly guided by those thoughts about being a role model or whatever. I try to live my life in a way that I feel reflects what I want to do, but its not like I am going to do exactly what people expect of me. That's never, or at least not recently, something that's been important to me.

Are you more comfortable with these kinds of media storms now? I see that just for fun you can provoke Liverpool fans (in connection with fantasy football), which is a strange kind of hobby.

Read more here:
We're trying to grow chess: An Interview with Magnus Carlsen - uschess.org