FIDE Chief Executive Officer Emil Sutovsky, on Monday, responded to Hikaru Nakamura’s current explosive case criticising the Prospects’ score certification place. Nakumara accused FIDE of keeping the scores spot only to give way for Magnus Carlsen’s return. Sutovsky stated the insurance claims were wrong.
“Hikaru usually makes statements in great confidence, yet without knowing all the realities, and that’s an issue. Naturally, he has a bigger system, that makes it hard to refute him from a smaller one. However that’s … well, appropriate,” Sutovsky stated.
Sutovsky additionally rejected Nakamura’s case that the regulations were developed in a way to favour Carlsen.
He added: “He (Hikaru) claims we made the ranking place for Magnus, yet that’s totally not logical. This rating certification has actually existed for several years– there was constantly a rating place (in fact, there used to be 2). If it were especially for Magnus, we would have restricted it to only the globe No. 1 Instead, the law specifies either No. 1 or No. 2 can qualify by score. Actually, one could suggest we in fact developed it for Hikaru in this case– why else would we leave it available to the leading 2?”
“Allow me clarify the reasoning: In the previous cycle, the highest-rated player who didn’t certify with other courses could go into (that’s how Alireza Firouzja qualified, though his method had not been totally kosher– he was around Globe No. 6 in the world at the time). We later on chose this was unjust. We keep the ranking area to make certain the Candidates consist of players plainly among the world’s finest– the top 8. Nevertheless, we knew we should not go all the way down to No. 6 or No. 7, where score differences end up being minimal. It’s more rational to compensate gamers who virtually certified with other methods. That’s why we restricted it to the leading two– the Candidates just should not leave out the globe No. 2”
“The thinking is simple: It had absolutely nothing to do with Magnus. We never ever anticipated his return– why would he return currently? Would certainly he suddenly return after shedding 50 ranking factors? The recommendation makes no feeling.”
The FIDE score area is figured out by a six-month average from the period of August 2025 to January 2026 For this reason, to qualify, gamers bent on play at the very least 40 games throughout that duration, with a minimum of 15 games throughout consecutive ranking listings.
“This isn’t the first time Hikaru has actually made accurate claims without correct expertise. When we presented the FIDE Circuit, he promptly called it ‘a silly system’, asserting he can just win some random open with a 2900 efficiency. Just later on did he know you can not make numerous factors in regular tournaments– he simply hadn’t read the policies appropriately. I think the same taken place here,” he included.