Dvorkovich, “It is not Nakamura’s fault, it is our fault for the deficiencies in the rating system”
Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, the world’s number-two ranked chess player, continues his quest for the 2026 Candidates Chess Tournament by participating in yet another tournament. This time Nakamura appeared in Canada, where he added 6 more games to his game tally. Chessdom continues to follow Nakamura’s road to Candidates. The next tournament of Nakamura is coming and it will have its prominent place in the calendar of Hikaru Nakamura.
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich spoke with Chessbase India about the Total Chess World Championship (and how Total Chess World Championship awards two spots to the Candidates) in an hour long interview. Dvorkovich was asked about Hikaru Nakamura’s road to Candidates 2026. The FIDE President said, “The rating system is a very complex subject, but we should separate the two issues here: qualification to the Candidates and the issues with the rating system. From the perspective of the Candidates and the qualification to the Candidates, Hikaru is the number 2 player in the world, and generally I would expect him to be part of the Candidates and he deserves it. Of course, he should prove that he deserves it by playing and he used deficiencies in our rules to prove it. It does not look very nice, but again, it is not his fault, it is our fault that we allowed for those deficiencies. Also, I would say that I am not happy with the words he is using when he is describing FIDE’s decisions, FIDE’s policies. I think he is completely wrong in that. Of course there is freedom of speech as long as there is respect. I hope he will be respectful to our work in the future. But again, as far as his tactics to achieve his goal, it is according to the rules. It is our mistake that we allowed that […] I think we found the right solution for the short term, at least we do not allow farming the rating by using this window of opportunities, where players could earn points by playing against low rated opponents.” Dvorkovich added, “Of course we have to think in the long term what to do. Not only with farming the rating, but also the whole subject of the inactivity. […] We did an opinion poll among players and we are now collecting the results. […] We will discuss this at the Council level, we need to correct the rating framework, to be sure it is representative of players’real strength right now, not five years ago, not ten years ago.” See the full interview here
About the Candidates: Candidates Chess 2026
About the Total Chess World Championship: GothamChess, “Magnus Carlsen returns to the World Chess Championship” / Magnus Carlsen, “Total Chess World Championship seems like a well-thought-out step” / Hikaru Nakamura, “Interplanetary Galactic Total World Chess Championship” / Hans Niemann, “There has never been a better time to be a chess professional, kudos to FIDE” / Susan Polgar on the Total Chess World Championship / Jacob Aagaard about Total Chess World Championship, “Hopefully this is the end of the rating spot for Candidates”