Chess: World title match gets under way in Astana without Magnus Carlsen

Ian Nepomniachtchi, 32, and Ding Liren, 30, Russia’s world No 2 and China’s world No 3, begin their €2mil 14-game title match on Sunday at 10am BST in Astana, Kazakhstan. Nepomniachtchi will play under a neutral Fide flag.

While the pair push their first pawns, Magnus Carlsen, who announced several months ago that he would be abdicating after a highly successful 10-year reign, will be relaxing on his skiing holiday in Chamonix after competing in this week’s online Chessable Masters.

The Norwegian is comfortable with his decision to jettison his title and its baggage of months of hard slog preparation every alternate year. Carlsen defended the crown four times, and already has a secure place at the pinnacle of chess history, alongside or nudging ahead of Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer.

The 32-year-old is still ranked No 1 by a wide margin, and has a full programme of events in the next few weeks, starting with the Chessable Masters, where he was shocked by Russia’s Vladislav Artemiev in Monday’s opening round, and knocked out 2-1 on Thursday by his old rival Hikaru Nakamura after blundering his queen by a mouse slip.

Carlsen is scheduled to play over-the-board in the Grand Chess Tour rapid and blitz in Warsaw in May and Zagreb in July, and in his home tournament Norway Chess at Stavanger in May-June.

Whoever wins between Nepomniachtchi and Ding will face a credibility test similar to Anatoly Karpov when Fischer resigned the Fide title in 1975. Karpov overcame it within a year or two, aided by Fischer’s complete withdrawal and his own tournament successes.

For the Astana winner, the problem will be accentuated by Kasparov’s calling the series an “amputated event … because it does not include the strongest player on the