Rosenstein Promises Magnus Carlsen Return
By Douglas C. · Sat, 19 Sep 2026
Wadim Rosenstein told Reuters this week that, if elected FIDE president, he would push to bring Magnus Carlsen back into the classical World Championship cycle, alongside a platform built around governance reform, greater transparency, and tougher conflict-of-interest rules.
Wadim Rosenstein told Reuters this week that, if elected FIDE president, he would push to bring Magnus Carlsen back into the classical World Championship cycle, alongside a platform built around governance reform, greater transparency, and tougher conflict-of-interest rules.The pitchRosenstein was direct about where he thinks the sport's priorities should sit. "We need to communicate to the world that the most important title is the classical world championship," he said. "We need to respect our traditions." That's a notable stance to lead with at a moment when freestyle, rapid, blitz, and online formats have all been pulling attention and commercial interest away from classical chess, and Rosenstein said any changes to the championship's structure would need real consultation with sponsors and national federations to avoid diluting the title's prestige in the process.On Carlsen specifically, Rosenstein was confident about his own standing: "Among all the presidential candidates, I think I have the best relations with Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. I would love to bring them back into classical competition and I hope I will succeed." Carlsen, still the world's top-ranked classical player despite stepping away from the title cycle, and Nakamura, ranked second, would be genuine coups for any federation trying to restore the classical championship's standing.On Russia and Belarus, Rosenstein said FIDE should keep following the Court of Arbitration for Sport's rulings, a position consistent with the federation's current stance excluding Russian teams from this year's Olympiad.The complication Rosenstein didn't addressCarlsen's own recent public comments make this a considerably harder promise to keep than Rosenstein's framing suggests. Asked directly by Reuters about a possible return to classical world championship competition, Carlsen called it "very, very unlikely," saying he's focused instead on Freestyle Chess and his upcoming appearance at the Esports World Cup with Team Liquid. He's also been openly cool toward FIDE as an institution lately, telling Reuters plainly, "I'm not really very interested in what FIDE is doing." That comment follows a rocky stretch between Carlsen and the federation, including a 2024 dispute over a jeans dress-code violation at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships that led him to walk out of the event before a later reconciliation once FIDE eased its rules.None of that means a relationship, even a good one, couldn't eventually move the needle. But it does mean Rosenstein's central promise on this front depends on changing the mind of a five-time world champion who has, in his own recent words, already largely made peace with walking away from the classical title picture.Where it fitsRosenstein's Reuters interview lands a week before the September 26 vote at FIDE's General Assembly in Samarkand, where he faces Jan Henric Buettner and Timur Turlov. The race began after longtime president Arkady Dvorkovich stepped aside following his own inclusion on the European Union's sanctions list. Whoever wins will inherit not just the governance questions Rosenstein is campaigning on, but the same challenge he's now staked part of his platform on solving: getting the sport's biggest star interested in its oldest title again.