Chess: Magnus Carlsen ‘unlikely’ to defend crown, but questions remain
Magnus Carlsen has again stated that he is “unlikely” to defend his world title against the winner of the eight-player Candidates scheduled for Madrid in June and explained that he felt more comfortable in the years before 2013 when he was ranked No 1 but had not yet defeated India’s Vishy Anand in the world title match in Chennai. Since then Carlsen has won five championship matches – twice against Anand, and one each against Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana of the US, and Russia’s Ian Nepolmiachtchi.
