CHESS

Magnus Carlsen launched his campaign for a 2900 Fide rating, the Everest of overall tournament performance, on Saturday at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee. Reaching the round number, after being twice stalled at 2882, is the world champion’s main target for 2022.

After four successful defences of his global crown, Carlsen says he will only do so again in 2023 if his opponent is the No 2, Alireza Firouzja, or another grandmaster from the new generation.

Carlsen will need to score 9/13 at Wijk to gain just a single rating point. A 10/13 total would take him to 2876, within range of his personal bests. He achieved 2882 in Fide’s monthly lists in the years 2014 and 2019, while his unofficial daily peak on the live ratings is 2889.

Having got so close, why has the No 1 not already surpassed his target? His all-time peak tournament performance rating of 3002 was in 2009 at Pearl Spring, China, which, among TPRs of nine rounds minimum, ranks second behind Fabiano Caruana’s 3103 at St Louis in 2014. Carlsen’s performance in the first half of 2019 was above the required target at 2942.