Chess-Carlsen rules out world championship return, still 'better than the kids'

PARIS : Magnus Carlsen feels he's still better than the young generation of chess players, but the Norwegian great is ruling out a comeback at the classical world championship.

World number one Carlsen cited lack of motivation when he announced in 2022 he would not defend his title the following year and since then the 34-year-old was succeeded by Chinese Ding Liren and Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju.

Five of the Top 10 players were born in the 2000s, but Carlsen, who has embarked on a journey to spice chess up with the creation of the Freestyle Grand Slam and his involvement in the Esports World Cup, feels he has nothing to prove.

Asked if he would aim for the title again, Carlsen told Reuters on Monday: "I don't see that at the moment. I think it's very, very unlikely."

In 2021, Carlsen said if Iranian-born prodigy Alireza Firouzja of France would win the qualifying Candidates tournament, he would consider defending his title, but no active player would now entice him to return.

"At the moment, no (other player would convince me to give it a go)," he added.

Five-time classical chess world champion Carlsen is hunting on other grounds to show he is still the player to beat before maybe one day turning to coaching - just like he was mentored by Garry Kasparov, the only player who can be mentioned with him in the greatest of all time debate.

"I mainly enjoy playing, but I don't rule that (mentoring) out for the future. I already enjoy it when younger players ask me for advice and so on," he said.

"But I feel like for the moment I really enjoy playing and I'm really good at it still. So that may be something for the future, but at the moment I'm trying to certainly prove that I'm still better than the kids."

Last year, Carlsen