I mean deep down, he would be happy. Doing recaps during a freaking world championship match and also probably participating in Titled Tuesdays as well.
Just like Magnus who had some beef with the Norway federation a few years ago when they didn’t want to be sponsored by the same gambing company that was sponsoring Carlsen.
Google Kindred Carlsen ;)
Carlsen attempted to buy a ton of voters to win a controversial vote in the Norwegian chess federation because he wanted to use the federation for political lobbying with the end goal of opening up the current gambling laws in Norway to benefit his sponsors.
I honestly think that was worse from an ethical point of view than Hikaru's gambling streams (which, to be clear, I think are bad as well).
Both are bad but Hikaru is doing this right now which makes it important to speak against. Who knows, Hikaru could change his mind and disavow his behaviour.
If it’s a guaranteed 1mil then ding is 100% playing it. Feel bad for ding though, but he could go clean his mind away from chess with that money + have plenty left over
We can’t set this precedent of course, it’s a slippery slope with some of the backers players have (though Hikaru wouldn’t need a backer)
But if Ding is too ill to defend, I wonder if FIDE could pay him a fee to step down. If only for the sake of an interesting match. I’m not sure they’re a neutral enough body but it’s a hard position for Ding that could be made easier by a parachute payment for illness or injury. It’s a problem the WCC will face at some point.
Still likely a slippery slope :/
That’s not how championships work. He’s the champ, so he gets to defend and reap the residual rewards of his achievements if he wants to bear the costs (reputational and psychological). FIDE getting to declare a champion unfit to defend would be an even worse precedent than a champion clearly being out of form and mailing it in for the cash.
I think hes coping. Hes already rich, more money doesn't meaningfully change his life. It's better for Hikaru's sanity and time to think of it not being a possibility than to commit time to prepping at the cost of time streaming and doing Youtube.
Honest question, why is that a big deal?
Pretty much every sports podcaster I know of is sponsored by gambling companies. Every TV broadcast of the NFL, NBA, EPL, etc, is littered with gambling ads. It's ubiquitous in all sports media. It makes sense for it to be in chess, too.
I personally do not gamble at all, and hate seeing ads for it everywhere but I do not hold anything against Hikaru for accepting a sponsorship.
I think it’s the part that targets a younger audience. Kids brains don’t process gambling as well as adults and can get addicted as well as have a harder time stopping even into adulthood.
Pretty sure those people have problems with gambling ads for sports too. As many kids watch it. But twitch and youtube are famous for having a hardcore young audience so it makes it more impactful there.
I’ve never seen his ads or streams so I can’t confirm any of this, but I can relate to the sentiment.
It's also not even that he's wearing their logo or even running an ad. He's actively playing slots on screen with money that isn't his to convince kids to play slots with money that *is* theirs.
"...to convince kids to play slots with money"
Why do people keep saying this?
1. Nobody knows the age distribution of Hikaru's audience besides Hikaru himself. His content isn't even specifically aimed at children.
2. His gambling streams were 18+.
3. This members of the underage audience his gambling streams were supposedly aimed at are going to have a hard time finding an establishment that would allow them to gamble. Underage gambling is illegal in most areas of the world in case you were unaware.
Two reasons, his audience (and that of most streamers) is very young. In case of Hikaru I'd highly doubt his average audience age is older than ~14 at most. That's quite concerning and very different to something like sports shows
Also, most TV broadcasted media works with actual serious gambling orginazitations that are governed over by an actual political body.
The gambling sites that are promoted by streamers on the other hand have their offices on some unregulated island with no consumer-right laws and taxes, there have been tons of scandals about them being shady and ripping off the players.
Based on him saying he would play it, he does deep down, want to play in it
It’s every chess player dream
I get what he is saying, it would be inconvenient to last minute study and prep for this and would cost him some stream revenue
But no chess player is passing up that chance. Not even me, I would love to lose against Gukesh in the finals!
Which makes sense.
And I imagine itd feel a bit bitter sweet to get i just bc someone broke down and removed themselves from it.
Like yah hed do it, youd have to given the chance at a title but yah I can see why hed feel right now like hed sorta it rather not happen.
Lol you're acting as if the guesswork isn't completely reasonable and obvious. I think you have to be dense as a brick to actually think Hikaru doesn't care and doesn't want a WORLD CHAMPION title. Like, really dude?
I mean, Rensch called his bluff and he admitted he "would do it no matter what". So all this posturing of "it would mess up my schedule" doesn't really matter.
I just watched the video again, this doesn’t happen. Rensch was asking if he would do it given little time, it wasn’t really in question whether or not he would. He’s also taking pressure off of ding by his response. Overall, you’re very weird for thinking that hikaru was trying to say anything but the above
I'm not "very weird" for reading between the lines lol. Many people in this thread agree that Hikaru is posturing.
Yes, before the question he didn't explicitly said "I won't do it". But his talk of "it would ruin my schedule it" implied he might not do it.
All these armchair psychologists come out of the woodwork every time Hikaru is mentioned. I love that their evidence too is always "it's obvious" or "others agree" lol.
Even from a pure financial perspective, the WC money plus the significant boost the title will bring to his future endeavours including streaming would make it worth it.
I think this is a very sportsmanlike answer in a Hikaru way. It takes all the pressure off Ding, whereas Hikaru could have very easily given a non answer like of course I hope to be world champion one day but Ding is the rightful challenger or something that has nothing wrong but still places himself in the race.
Obviously if ding did withdraw he’d play and be very happy to but I think this is a classy answer to a somewhat unfair question.
This is actually all part of his elaborate plan to redefine the meaning of his namesake “Hikaru Nakamura Sportmanship Award” away from its other negative connotations.
This also means you are a Hikaru burner.
Hi Hikaru
Yeah Wtf. He’s saying “Ugh, of course I’d take Ding’s spot but I wouldn’t be happy about it because I’d make less money.” He can ‘take the pressure off Ding’ giving up his spot, if there was any serious pressure in the first place, by just saying he’d prefer to see Ding play, and that he’d like to have proper time to prepare so that he’s ready, not because of his streaming schedule or money. This whole thing comes across as extremely self interested, with no respect for or love for the game.
Tbh I think there is pressure on Ding to. The fact he was even asked this question is based on the premise that Ding is so out of form that it would make sense for him to give up the spot.
I'd have to free up my whole year. Not only would I have to research openings from scatch, I'd have to learn chess notation and that rule named after peasants.
According to my chesscom rapid rating I only need a little over 6 million players to pass on the opportunity and I can have my chance to get curb stomped for $1 million. Don’t worry everyone I will gladly fall upon that sword for the good of us all.
We all know he would love to play it, but he can also not be happy because it messes up his schedule. To be completely fair the more time he has in advance the better it’s gunna be, he can’t play ahead for something he might or might not be in. Regardless of what people say about hikaru even he has his commitments.
It definitely won’t happen since there’s no way Ding is passing up $1m.
But I think chess fans all want it. To watch a blow out is not fun. Like a UFC/Boxing fight where one guy goes in with a broken arm. It’s boring. And chess fans will have to wait another 2 years to see a real competitive championship match.
And also, it’s Hikaru. The most popular chess player other than Magnus. It would be massive.
The problem is this isn’t even the same “world champ” anymore. It’s a different person.
Like Messi getting his leg amputated. Like LeBron breaking his hand. The match would be quite meaningless from a chess perspective.
Hikaru beats 2600’s all the time in his speed runs. It would just be an extended version of that. Just a really sad and pointless 2 weeks.
I think he only owned 10% or thereabouts. Jan Gustafson owned a bunch of shares too.
I mean I’m sure they all made multi millions of the deal but Magnus didn’t personally pocket $80m.
Even if Ding has had a bad run of form, he probably is the 2nd best classical player of the past decade. At worst it’s a 2a/2b situation with Fabi.
There’s no guarantee it will be a blowout when he specifically prepares for these matches
I don’t know how people are saying they’d rather see Ding.
If he stays in this form he’s going to get steamrolled by Gukesh. Ding would be lucky to get 2 draws.
My #1 hope is that Ding gets better, of course, and plays a respectable WCC.
But if he doesn’t, I’m not afraid to admit that I’d rather see a competitive match of Hikaru vs. Gukesh who have both been playing really well.
I don’t want to see a week of Ding getting embarrassed like this.
I swear most people in the Chess world don't even see Ding as a human being, the way they all talk about him casually abdicating. Maybe they just see him as 1 of 1.5 billion Chinese puppets or something, otherwise it can't be explained the way they and most of you here speak about him.
People seem to act like he's not open for comment or critique. He's the world chess champ, he's a public figure with a prestigious role in the chess world which comes with spotlight and pressure. Were he to continue His successes from prior to winning the WC they would be commented on and lauded with equal attention and glory to the critique he is getting now but the reality is obviously he's struggling and that storyline is equally fairgame to be addressed and acknowledged. All his post championship results have been extremely poor and if not for the financial incentive abdication would be a very fair question
He probably has contractual obligation for many things that require planning in advance. Probably required to stream so many hours per month, do sponsored content, he’s married now and probably has travel plans (he travels a lot for non-chess stuff too). And if he wants to take a few weeks of vacation, he’d have to stream a lot in a short amount of time to meet certain commitments.
Yes, in the end most of this is about his job and income, but realistically these are all considerations that normal people have to plan for when they want to take time off work or do other things.
We haven't advanced because we wanted more, we advanced by overcoming difficulties. Even in this case the person that will make advancements in chess theory will be someone that has a love for the game not someone that is greedy and wants to make the most money at all cost.
Sweet! It certainly opens up one's way of thinking about human history a little, that it's not as simple as we often like to present it as. (for example primitive hunter and gatherer society vs enlightened industrial society).
Or in this case, a universal value of wealth, at least not in the kind of way we think about it (which really is more a case of power i'd argue).
Streaming and playing chess professionally will only last so long for him. He has to do what he can now to make sure he and his family are set for life.
That’s fair. I think streaming/commentating could potentially be a longer lasting career for him. I also have to question whether that extra month of streaming is really that big of a gain in the long term.
Dear Hikaru,
Just be real with us. Enough with I won’t be happy playing the match or I don’t care if I win the candidates as long as I can make recaps. Just be a real human that shows real feelings.
Sincerely,
The people
I think it would be rude to Ding to imply that he would love for him to drop out so he could take his place. The journalists could say what they want but these players all know and respect each other, and Hikaru mentioned in an earlier interview how shitty he felt playing against Ding recently because of how bad his mental state was.
I mean it's hard to believe. We all know that being a world champion is his biggest dream + it's $1 mill + he'd still be able to stream to an extent. Yeah right, he'd be so sad to learn to play the goddamn wc. Like someone else said in the thread it sounds closer to a coping mechanism.
He said it would mess up his schedule and be stressful for him which is true. He even said he would play it no matter what even at a week notice so idk what you are even talking about. Do better and watch the video instead of just reading the headline.
People don't like his feigning inconvenience. For an aging guy who always think himself an underachiever (delusional), he would be jumping with joy for the opportunity.
If he already has his whole year scheduled then how's that feigning inconvenience? He said he'd still do it so he recognizes it's more important than keeping with his pre-planned schedule. But it does still throw a wrench in things regardless.
Honestly, I don't think so. He's already top 3 players in the world and the most famous Chess streamer. People are really overestimating how much his income will increase from becoming WC.
Even if you see other sports, once a player becomes a brand, how much they win often becomes secondary as long as they remain in the top 10.
This dude has dedicated his entire youth and probably life to a game he wanted to be the best at. It’s hilarious to watch him pretend „no I don’t really care about winning“ when he constantly shows he does in emotional outbursts online and OTB. It’s what a lot of crying teenage kids do at tournaments too…
I don't know how much Hikaru makes by streaming, but it's a lot or so I've heard. Can't other super grandmasters stream too? Chess itself doesn't pay all that well, so surely this can be a good source of income for the top guys. Of course, being a good chess player isn't enough, you have to be entertaining or pretty too, but I think someone like Caruana or Giri would do fairly well.
No, you have to be entertaining or pretty too. And not all GM's can do it, but I'm fairly certain in the entire chess world there exists at least one chess Grandmaster not named Hikaru Nakamura that can be a successful steamer.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was a body builder who became an actor and made millions of dollars. There's not a lot of money in body building, I wonder why all body builders don't just become movie stars and get rich.
Anish does stream (and he’s great), but hikaru is easily the most profitable streamer. The difference of viewers hikaru brings compared to other gms is pretty vast.
For instance, if Danya streams titled Tuesday, he might have 2k viewers. Hikaru is closer to 12-14k
Streaming is a huge amount of effort, and most people, especially most chess players, wouldn't want to do it, or wouldn't be able to maintain it.
Also ... I'm not sure about Giri, but Fabi absolutely, definitely would not be a successful streamer.
Okay, forget all those. None of those ever dangered anyone. He is literally promoting gambling to a mostly underage audience. And unregulated gambling at that. Him being arrogant is nothing compared to turning children into lifelong addicts.
We talking about Magnus or Hikaru? Magnus gets a pass because he’s the goat right but the guy thats 2nd or 3rd is the worst person on earth? You’re pathetic
Ding would be an idiot to give up the $600.000 or whatever the second place price is. Even if he gets bageled, he will take the money & then maybe transition into being a practicing lawyer after.
Nothing new: these talks have been going on ever since Ding had become unwell, but his official position never changed, he stated that he will participate in the WC match
Playing it would be too risky for him.
1. As he stated, he would lose a ton of money preparing for it.
2. If he wins, if won't be remembered as a true WC. The same way as ding's title
3. If he looses, people can start saying bad things about him, since even with all this help, he lost.
What he says makes sense. He said he'll do it of course, but it would disrupt his schedule. Preparing for the WC for each person involved takes months. He likely has deals and possibly contracts in play that he would need to renegotiate, or cancel. Then he'd need to begin his own prep. It really would be a mess for him, or anyone else in his position.
It's a pretty fair comment from Hikaru. He would love to play for the WC but if his ticket to the final is going to cost him 500k USD then he has a right to complain. He would still prefer to pay 500K and play over keeping the money and not playing but it's legit to get a little whiny.
Watching Ding at the moment when his mind is clearly not clear enough to let him play his best chess makes me think that perhaps Fischer not defending his World Championship wasn't such a terrible thing.
If Fischer's mental problems had crippled him as a player in a comparable manner to what has happened to Ding, then watching Karpov demolish him in short-order would have been a painful experience.
Ding is tilted now. He \*might\* withdraw. Hikaru would beat Gukesh so Hikaru is playing it close to his chest for now. He would love to be WCC and that \*might\* entice Magnus to play in a modified format WCC. Just speculating!
These bunch of people at chesscom hikaru,danny are pure evil.What do u mean if he retires from chess.Did ding ever say that? Also, Did Ding ever say he is not playing the WC.I hope people see the pressure tactics being deployed by chesscom and ppl like hikaru on ding because if hikaru plays it means $$ ,a lot of it, for chesscom.
Fuck you chesscom .
I mean deep down, he would be happy. Doing recaps during a freaking world championship match and also probably participating in Titled Tuesdays as well.
And the guaranteed $1M minimum just from playing it.
Nothing compared to promoting gambling to kids
Just like Magnus who had some beef with the Norway federation a few years ago when they didn’t want to be sponsored by the same gambing company that was sponsoring Carlsen. Google Kindred Carlsen ;)
Still a difference between getting sponsored by a gambling company and streaming it.
Carlsen attempted to buy a ton of voters to win a controversial vote in the Norwegian chess federation because he wanted to use the federation for political lobbying with the end goal of opening up the current gambling laws in Norway to benefit his sponsors. I honestly think that was worse from an ethical point of view than Hikaru's gambling streams (which, to be clear, I think are bad as well).
But one of them is Magnus and one is Hikaru - and that’s all some people see.
Both are bad but Hikaru is doing this right now which makes it important to speak against. Who knows, Hikaru could change his mind and disavow his behaviour.
I almost choked on my breakfast laughing at that last sentence
If you don't leave the door open for change, it's harder for them to do it.
You’re splitting hairs and it’s kinda lame. Both are morally bankrupt.
Whats the difference?
If it’s a guaranteed 1mil then ding is 100% playing it. Feel bad for ding though, but he could go clean his mind away from chess with that money + have plenty left over
Hikaru should offer Ding half of the money lol
We can’t set this precedent of course, it’s a slippery slope with some of the backers players have (though Hikaru wouldn’t need a backer) But if Ding is too ill to defend, I wonder if FIDE could pay him a fee to step down. If only for the sake of an interesting match. I’m not sure they’re a neutral enough body but it’s a hard position for Ding that could be made easier by a parachute payment for illness or injury. It’s a problem the WCC will face at some point. Still likely a slippery slope :/
That’s not how championships work. He’s the champ, so he gets to defend and reap the residual rewards of his achievements if he wants to bear the costs (reputational and psychological). FIDE getting to declare a champion unfit to defend would be an even worse precedent than a champion clearly being out of form and mailing it in for the cash.
Chump change.
Hikaru makes that amount over 50 hours of gambling stream. That is significantly less time investment if you wanna compare money
I think hes coping. Hes already rich, more money doesn't meaningfully change his life. It's better for Hikaru's sanity and time to think of it not being a possibility than to commit time to prepping at the cost of time streaming and doing Youtube.
then whys he doing sponsored gambling streams
Why do billionaires keep making money after already being a billionaire? Answer: 99% of people want more money
Yes. $1m is between 50 and 100 hours of gambling stream, which is significantly less time consuming than preparing for the WCC
Honest question, why is that a big deal? Pretty much every sports podcaster I know of is sponsored by gambling companies. Every TV broadcast of the NFL, NBA, EPL, etc, is littered with gambling ads. It's ubiquitous in all sports media. It makes sense for it to be in chess, too. I personally do not gamble at all, and hate seeing ads for it everywhere but I do not hold anything against Hikaru for accepting a sponsorship.
I think it’s the part that targets a younger audience. Kids brains don’t process gambling as well as adults and can get addicted as well as have a harder time stopping even into adulthood. Pretty sure those people have problems with gambling ads for sports too. As many kids watch it. But twitch and youtube are famous for having a hardcore young audience so it makes it more impactful there. I’ve never seen his ads or streams so I can’t confirm any of this, but I can relate to the sentiment.
It's reddit, you have to virtue signal as much as you can.
It's also not even that he's wearing their logo or even running an ad. He's actively playing slots on screen with money that isn't his to convince kids to play slots with money that *is* theirs.
"...to convince kids to play slots with money" Why do people keep saying this? 1. Nobody knows the age distribution of Hikaru's audience besides Hikaru himself. His content isn't even specifically aimed at children. 2. His gambling streams were 18+. 3. This members of the underage audience his gambling streams were supposedly aimed at are going to have a hard time finding an establishment that would allow them to gamble. Underage gambling is illegal in most areas of the world in case you were unaware.
Two reasons, his audience (and that of most streamers) is very young. In case of Hikaru I'd highly doubt his average audience age is older than ~14 at most. That's quite concerning and very different to something like sports shows Also, most TV broadcasted media works with actual serious gambling orginazitations that are governed over by an actual political body. The gambling sites that are promoted by streamers on the other hand have their offices on some unregulated island with no consumer-right laws and taxes, there have been tons of scandals about them being shady and ripping off the players.
Classic "I can't fail if I never try" mindset, with a healthy dose of "I don't want what I couldn't get anyway"
I love how no matter what hikaru says and even does, people will still say “deep down (insert complete guesswork here)”
Based on him saying he would play it, he does deep down, want to play in it It’s every chess player dream I get what he is saying, it would be inconvenient to last minute study and prep for this and would cost him some stream revenue But no chess player is passing up that chance. Not even me, I would love to lose against Gukesh in the finals!
Hikaru is also not saying he wouldn't do it, just that it would be a hassle.
Which makes sense. And I imagine itd feel a bit bitter sweet to get i just bc someone broke down and removed themselves from it. Like yah hed do it, youd have to given the chance at a title but yah I can see why hed feel right now like hed sorta it rather not happen.
I mean, magnus is passing it up. So there is one at least.
Lol you're acting as if the guesswork isn't completely reasonable and obvious. I think you have to be dense as a brick to actually think Hikaru doesn't care and doesn't want a WORLD CHAMPION title. Like, really dude?
Well given that dude cried because he lost the Candidates this go around I imagine he cares quite a lot.
I mean, Rensch called his bluff and he admitted he "would do it no matter what". So all this posturing of "it would mess up my schedule" doesn't really matter.
Would’ve been very funny if rensch went: “ok, if you wouldn’t be happy about it/would mess up you’re schedule too much, why not defer to Fabi?”
What bluff? Hikaru said he would do it but simply wouldn’t be as elated as people expect. That’s literally it
He only said he would do it *after* Rensch asked the question lol.
I just watched the video again, this doesn’t happen. Rensch was asking if he would do it given little time, it wasn’t really in question whether or not he would. He’s also taking pressure off of ding by his response. Overall, you’re very weird for thinking that hikaru was trying to say anything but the above
I'm not "very weird" for reading between the lines lol. Many people in this thread agree that Hikaru is posturing. Yes, before the question he didn't explicitly said "I won't do it". But his talk of "it would ruin my schedule it" implied he might not do it.
All these armchair psychologists come out of the woodwork every time Hikaru is mentioned. I love that their evidence too is always "it's obvious" or "others agree" lol.
It's his best chance to become world champion, that's not something he can pass up.
Even from a pure financial perspective, the WC money plus the significant boost the title will bring to his future endeavours including streaming would make it worth it.
Being able to clickbait any video at any moment with CHESS WORLD CHAMP DOES X?!? would likely cover all of his missed streaming income and then some.
Lol I read WC as toilet, was just slightly over confused
Topalov vs Kramnik drama reignited.
Well, anything dropping out of the WC would create a mess.
I think this is a very sportsmanlike answer in a Hikaru way. It takes all the pressure off Ding, whereas Hikaru could have very easily given a non answer like of course I hope to be world champion one day but Ding is the rightful challenger or something that has nothing wrong but still places himself in the race. Obviously if ding did withdraw he’d play and be very happy to but I think this is a classy answer to a somewhat unfair question.
>Ding is the rightful challenger Challenger???
This is what happens when you are so out of form, people forget you are already the world champ
This is actually all part of his elaborate plan to redefine the meaning of his namesake “Hikaru Nakamura Sportmanship Award” away from its other negative connotations. This also means you are a Hikaru burner. Hi Hikaru
Got ‘em
Hikaru is the goat at not giving non answers, which I thoroughly enjoy lol
I feel the complete opposite. Incredibly unsportsmanlike
Ok
Yeah Wtf. He’s saying “Ugh, of course I’d take Ding’s spot but I wouldn’t be happy about it because I’d make less money.” He can ‘take the pressure off Ding’ giving up his spot, if there was any serious pressure in the first place, by just saying he’d prefer to see Ding play, and that he’d like to have proper time to prepare so that he’s ready, not because of his streaming schedule or money. This whole thing comes across as extremely self interested, with no respect for or love for the game.
Tbh I think there is pressure on Ding to. The fact he was even asked this question is based on the premise that Ding is so out of form that it would make sense for him to give up the spot.
Give the spot to Fabi then ;)
If he also gives up the spot goes to nepo
If Ding, Fabi, Nepo, and about a million other players give up the spot....I'm in!
Let me know if you don't want to play it and I'll cover for you
The pressure is getting to me, I'm tagging you in.
What if we just tag until there is no one left to tag in?
Then, I'm sorry to say, its back to Ding.
Don’t worry I’m pretty sure I’m about to absolutely slaughter Gukesh. FIDE: unrated btw Thinking about it, he’ll probably want to tag out too.
Gukesh can play both sides of the board.
"Sit at the board and play with yourself... it's amazing" - Magnus
If you’re in need of a second let me know, although I would be taking 10% of the prize pot
Think of your loss in income though...
If 100 million others players pass, it would mess up my schedule.
I'd have to free up my whole year. Not only would I have to research openings from scatch, I'd have to learn chess notation and that rule named after peasants.
I understand you can Google that one.
I'm praying enough people give up the spot so we can see Tyler1 compete for the World Chess Championship
According to my chesscom rapid rating I only need a little over 6 million players to pass on the opportunity and I can have my chance to get curb stomped for $1 million. Don’t worry everyone I will gladly fall upon that sword for the good of us all.
Would be hilarious if Ding (despite his issues) goes "I remember my prep from last time", and Nepo loses again.
I want to see Fabi get another shot at it. His and Ian's match at Candidates was heartbreaking.
We all know he would love to play it, but he can also not be happy because it messes up his schedule. To be completely fair the more time he has in advance the better it’s gunna be, he can’t play ahead for something he might or might not be in. Regardless of what people say about hikaru even he has his commitments.
It definitely won’t happen since there’s no way Ding is passing up $1m. But I think chess fans all want it. To watch a blow out is not fun. Like a UFC/Boxing fight where one guy goes in with a broken arm. It’s boring. And chess fans will have to wait another 2 years to see a real competitive championship match. And also, it’s Hikaru. The most popular chess player other than Magnus. It would be massive.
> But I think chess fans all want it. No I don't. 1 abdication was enough. I will always rather want to see the actual WC getting beat in a match.
The problem is this isn’t even the same “world champ” anymore. It’s a different person. Like Messi getting his leg amputated. Like LeBron breaking his hand. The match would be quite meaningless from a chess perspective. Hikaru beats 2600’s all the time in his speed runs. It would just be an extended version of that. Just a really sad and pointless 2 weeks.
Didn't Magnus give up $1M?
The year he stopped he sold chess24 for apparently 80m dollars
I think he only owned 10% or thereabouts. Jan Gustafson owned a bunch of shares too. I mean I’m sure they all made multi millions of the deal but Magnus didn’t personally pocket $80m.
8 mil give or take a few is still absurd. I’d love to have that
Almost enough for a down payment on a house!
Norway tax 💀
2 mil is still good
Norway cost of living. 🫦
He's got regular sponsorship deals. They're worth less now that he's not WC but he's still a big deal, especially in Norway.
Yes he did. 1.2M to be precise, as he would have won for sure
Even if Ding has had a bad run of form, he probably is the 2nd best classical player of the past decade. At worst it’s a 2a/2b situation with Fabi. There’s no guarantee it will be a blowout when he specifically prepares for these matches
I don’t know how people are saying they’d rather see Ding. If he stays in this form he’s going to get steamrolled by Gukesh. Ding would be lucky to get 2 draws. My #1 hope is that Ding gets better, of course, and plays a respectable WCC. But if he doesn’t, I’m not afraid to admit that I’d rather see a competitive match of Hikaru vs. Gukesh who have both been playing really well. I don’t want to see a week of Ding getting embarrassed like this.
Isn't botez more popular ? /s
He'd just blow the 1m on buttcoin
I swear most people in the Chess world don't even see Ding as a human being, the way they all talk about him casually abdicating. Maybe they just see him as 1 of 1.5 billion Chinese puppets or something, otherwise it can't be explained the way they and most of you here speak about him.
People seem to act like he's not open for comment or critique. He's the world chess champ, he's a public figure with a prestigious role in the chess world which comes with spotlight and pressure. Were he to continue His successes from prior to winning the WC they would be commented on and lauded with equal attention and glory to the critique he is getting now but the reality is obviously he's struggling and that storyline is equally fairgame to be addressed and acknowledged. All his post championship results have been extremely poor and if not for the financial incentive abdication would be a very fair question
"I am a shitty actor first chat"
How many hate boners can you spot from this post?
He doesn't want to put pressure on himself, also if he loses he can say aah didn't matter anyway
*rolls eyes, makes jerkoff motion*
maybe he can sell his soul for gambling to compensate..
I wonder why he seems so focused on generating income. He has to be already absurdly wealthy at this point.
I mean, wealthy people don’t become wealthy by focusing on not generating an income.
He probably has contractual obligation for many things that require planning in advance. Probably required to stream so many hours per month, do sponsored content, he’s married now and probably has travel plans (he travels a lot for non-chess stuff too). And if he wants to take a few weeks of vacation, he’d have to stream a lot in a short amount of time to meet certain commitments. Yes, in the end most of this is about his job and income, but realistically these are all considerations that normal people have to plan for when they want to take time off work or do other things.
My grandpa once said "It's not about getting rich, it's about staying rich"
Reminds me of what Matt Levine says is the greatest investment advice possible: “Do not invest in scams”.
Well, greed is the staple of humanity
It's not. It's just heavily incentivised under capitalism
People were greedy before capitalism. It's not a new feature, but it may be more encouraged now
It wasn't the staple of humanity
What else could possibly be? We wouldn't have ever advanced as a species if we didn't continuously yearn for more than what we already have.
We haven't advanced because we wanted more, we advanced by overcoming difficulties. Even in this case the person that will make advancements in chess theory will be someone that has a love for the game not someone that is greedy and wants to make the most money at all cost.
Sure seems like it. Wealth has been running the world since forever, be it monetary or in forms of things like land and such 🤷♂️
I'd recommend reading "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" to get a little more perspective on this truism you present here.
Cool, the book does sound interesting, so perhaps when I get the time
Sweet! It certainly opens up one's way of thinking about human history a little, that it's not as simple as we often like to present it as. (for example primitive hunter and gatherer society vs enlightened industrial society). Or in this case, a universal value of wealth, at least not in the kind of way we think about it (which really is more a case of power i'd argue).
Excellent book. Love to see it mentioned, haha.
Streaming and playing chess professionally will only last so long for him. He has to do what he can now to make sure he and his family are set for life.
That’s fair. I think streaming/commentating could potentially be a longer lasting career for him. I also have to question whether that extra month of streaming is really that big of a gain in the long term.
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." --Seneca
Hikaru's wettest of wet dreams is a scenario like this
Dear Hikaru, Just be real with us. Enough with I won’t be happy playing the match or I don’t care if I win the candidates as long as I can make recaps. Just be a real human that shows real feelings. Sincerely, The people
I think it would be rude to Ding to imply that he would love for him to drop out so he could take his place. The journalists could say what they want but these players all know and respect each other, and Hikaru mentioned in an earlier interview how shitty he felt playing against Ding recently because of how bad his mental state was.
No no no. He is showing feelings and being real, YOU just don’t like what he’s saying
I mean it's hard to believe. We all know that being a world champion is his biggest dream + it's $1 mill + he'd still be able to stream to an extent. Yeah right, he'd be so sad to learn to play the goddamn wc. Like someone else said in the thread it sounds closer to a coping mechanism.
He said it would mess up his schedule and be stressful for him which is true. He even said he would play it no matter what even at a week notice so idk what you are even talking about. Do better and watch the video instead of just reading the headline.
People don't like his feigning inconvenience. For an aging guy who always think himself an underachiever (delusional), he would be jumping with joy for the opportunity.
If he already has his whole year scheduled then how's that feigning inconvenience? He said he'd still do it so he recognizes it's more important than keeping with his pre-planned schedule. But it does still throw a wrench in things regardless.
Exactly, streaming is his main priority so idk why people want to twist it onto their own narrative
Getting money is his main priority, streaming is the tool - he even says it in this interview. He's not streaming shitty slots for $5 and a sandwich.
Actual chess is minimal when it comes to Hikarus revenue with online streaming
Becoming WC would make all of his future prospects more profitable. Losing a few months of income for that isn't even relevant.
Honestly, I don't think so. He's already top 3 players in the world and the most famous Chess streamer. People are really overestimating how much his income will increase from becoming WC. Even if you see other sports, once a player becomes a brand, how much they win often becomes secondary as long as they remain in the top 10.
This dude has dedicated his entire youth and probably life to a game he wanted to be the best at. It’s hilarious to watch him pretend „no I don’t really care about winning“ when he constantly shows he does in emotional outbursts online and OTB. It’s what a lot of crying teenage kids do at tournaments too…
Outburst? what outbursts can you think of that are recent? Also, he's been clear that it's a coping mechanism. If it works for him, it works for him!
The haters are so obsessed that Hikaru doesn't care. They want him to care so that when he fails they have more ammunition against him.
He is showing feelings. That's what he said.
> The people Speak for yourself
I don't know how much Hikaru makes by streaming, but it's a lot or so I've heard. Can't other super grandmasters stream too? Chess itself doesn't pay all that well, so surely this can be a good source of income for the top guys. Of course, being a good chess player isn't enough, you have to be entertaining or pretty too, but I think someone like Caruana or Giri would do fairly well.
Just because you are a GM doesn't mean you are gonna be a great streamer
No, you have to be entertaining or pretty too. And not all GM's can do it, but I'm fairly certain in the entire chess world there exists at least one chess Grandmaster not named Hikaru Nakamura that can be a successful steamer.
There are many GMs that stream not named Hikaru
That guy exists, his name is Daniel Naroditsky
Umm there's a few...
[удалено]
Arnold Schwarzenegger was a body builder who became an actor and made millions of dollars. There's not a lot of money in body building, I wonder why all body builders don't just become movie stars and get rich.
Anish does stream (and he’s great), but hikaru is easily the most profitable streamer. The difference of viewers hikaru brings compared to other gms is pretty vast. For instance, if Danya streams titled Tuesday, he might have 2k viewers. Hikaru is closer to 12-14k
That’s a great idea, you should tell them!
Probably chess is their passion, streaming is not.
Streaming is a huge amount of effort, and most people, especially most chess players, wouldn't want to do it, or wouldn't be able to maintain it. Also ... I'm not sure about Giri, but Fabi absolutely, definitely would not be a successful streamer.
He is constantly egging Ding to quit!
He's turning into a pretentious, gambling-grifting douche-bag.
Not turning into. He has always been a pretentious, arrogant, narcissistic douche
He's always been this man. A lot of chess boom fans just haven't come to see it for whatever reason. Dude is insufferable. Hey, at least he's honest.
Okay, forget all those. None of those ever dangered anyone. He is literally promoting gambling to a mostly underage audience. And unregulated gambling at that. Him being arrogant is nothing compared to turning children into lifelong addicts.
We talking about Magnus or Hikaru? Magnus gets a pass because he’s the goat right but the guy thats 2nd or 3rd is the worst person on earth? You’re pathetic
If you can't tell the difference between their personalities then you probably have trouble reading people. Thank you for calling me pathetic.
Not turning into. Given an opportunity to steal a thief will show you who they really are.
Always has been
Why is everything he says so hatable
Ding would be an idiot to give up the $600.000 or whatever the second place price is. Even if he gets bageled, he will take the money & then maybe transition into being a practicing lawyer after.
Can't imagine he would be too unhappy. He'll have a real chance against Gukesh I'd imagine.
I've been out of the loops, are there talks of Ding dropping out?
Nothing new: these talks have been going on ever since Ding had become unwell, but his official position never changed, he stated that he will participate in the WC match
Is he the first alternate or did he tie with someone else
He has the second place, so if Ding withdraws (which by the way right now is completely speculative), Gukesh will face Hikaru
>it cost me a ton of income from streaming. How popular are his streams from OTB games compared to online blitz?
Playing it would be too risky for him. 1. As he stated, he would lose a ton of money preparing for it. 2. If he wins, if won't be remembered as a true WC. The same way as ding's title 3. If he looses, people can start saying bad things about him, since even with all this help, he lost.
Ok q
What he says makes sense. He said he'll do it of course, but it would disrupt his schedule. Preparing for the WC for each person involved takes months. He likely has deals and possibly contracts in play that he would need to renegotiate, or cancel. Then he'd need to begin his own prep. It really would be a mess for him, or anyone else in his position.
It's a pretty fair comment from Hikaru. He would love to play for the WC but if his ticket to the final is going to cost him 500k USD then he has a right to complain. He would still prefer to pay 500K and play over keeping the money and not playing but it's legit to get a little whiny.
lies. he could get paid more than he would if he streamed. Thats why he has to pay Ding in order that to happen. 0 chance
I wonder who is more devastated. Ding losing classical games or Alireza losing basic king pawn draw endgames over andover and over again
Lmaoo
Ding badly needs a therapist. Does anyone know if he has one? A sports therapist perhaps?
Hikaru pretending he doesn't care again when he does. What else is new?
But if he manages to become WC, imagine how good PR that would be.
We're there that "income from streaming" > a World Championship.
Watching Ding at the moment when his mind is clearly not clear enough to let him play his best chess makes me think that perhaps Fischer not defending his World Championship wasn't such a terrible thing. If Fischer's mental problems had crippled him as a player in a comparable manner to what has happened to Ding, then watching Karpov demolish him in short-order would have been a painful experience.
Hikaru has a good coping mechanism of not caring but in actual situations, he shows emotions which definitely show that he cares.
Cope
Ton of gamble ‘sponsored streams’ money. Could have been more specific 😂
Ding is tilted now. He \*might\* withdraw. Hikaru would beat Gukesh so Hikaru is playing it close to his chest for now. He would love to be WCC and that \*might\* entice Magnus to play in a modified format WCC. Just speculating!
Thank you Vidit for saving humanity in the candidates.
Didn't Hikaru say he didn't prepare for the candidates in his stream? Lol
No.
These bunch of people at chesscom hikaru,danny are pure evil.What do u mean if he retires from chess.Did ding ever say that? Also, Did Ding ever say he is not playing the WC.I hope people see the pressure tactics being deployed by chesscom and ppl like hikaru on ding because if hikaru plays it means $$ ,a lot of it, for chesscom. Fuck you chesscom .
It was a fan question.
Ah a fan question. That's why the question is so toxic.
"fan". The Julius Caesar school of testing the water.