D Gukesh has made a terrific start to life as World Chess Champion with an unbeaten run in the first ten rounds of the Tata Steel Masters. But the Indian teenager awaits the first big challenge of his reign, requiring him to take a stance that could upset FIDE.

Gukesh is among an elite list of ten players scheduled to participate in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour opening round at Weissenhaus in Germany from February 7 to 14.

In addition to the top three in the world, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and Fabiano Caruana, five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand was named among the participants. But Freestyle has confirmed Anand's withdrawal 'on short notice'.

Anand's exit from the high-profile private event comes as FIDE is on a collision course with Freestyle Chess, the organisers of the Grand Slam Tour. Carlsen and German entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner are the co-owners of the event, which does not have FIDE's blessing.

Emil Sutovsky, the CEO of FIDE, has been invovled in a public spat with Freestyle Chess over their use of 'World Championship' for the event. Freestyle Chess, in response, accused FIDE of being money-minded. Anand's withdrawal from the event was understandable under the circumstances as he is the Deputy President of the organisation.

FIDE has a history of clashing with world champions. Carlsen has had a love-hate relationship with FIDE that reached its boiling point at the recent World Rapid & Blitz Championships in New York. The World No 1 had to infamously pull out of the Rapid event after being penalised for violating the dress code by wearing jeans.

On Wednesday, in an X post, Sutovsky implied to Carlsen that a full-on war with FIDE would not serve him well. "'I am bigger than FIDE' concept did not work even for Fischer and Kasparov - who tried it being reigning World Champions while having a real dominance over their rivals at the time," Sutovsky posted.

Gukesh became the youngest World Chess Champion in December after winning a 14-game match with Ding Liren of China in Singapore. The Tata Steel Masters, which is ongoing at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands will end on February 3. It is Gukesh’s first event since becoming World Champion and he seems determined to win it. But within a week of the Dutch tournament, he must decide on his participation in the Freestyle Chess event. He regards Anand in high esteem and always refers to the veteran as 'sir'. Gukesh's team has yet to make a statement on whether he will follow Anand's path and exit from the Freestyle Chess event or dare to proceed with it and upset FIDE. Next move: Gukesh.

TAGS

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.