New York! Manhattan! Wall Street! And Chess! All good news, all combined in the World Rapid & Blitz 2024. Yesterday FIDE announced that for the first time the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships will take place North America, in Manhattan, New York. All good news, right? But the timing is a disaster. FIDE has introduced an extra rest day and the competition extends until New Year’s Eve. As a consequence players who want to visit the event will have to be away from home and families for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, will get to elbow-fight at crowded airports, and will have huge expenses for accommodation, if any is available at all. The audience, especially in Europe, will have to make a choice – to celebrate the coming of 2025 at midnight or see the key games of the tournament.
With criticism piling up, Chessdom asked FIDE Director-General Emil Sutovsky if FIDE has considered the high prices for accommodation. Sutovsky answered, “Yes, NYC is expensive – in particular at this time of the year. But it is the World Championships. And chess benefits having it there and then.” But on the question why public discussion was avoided, no answer was received. See the full story below.
World Rapid & Blitz 2024 to be a financial burden for the player
The first one to raise concern about the financial costs of accommodation around December 31 in New York was ex-FIDE chief marketing and communication officer David Llada. The famous photographer ironically pointed out that “Visiting FIDE World Rapid & Blitz in New York may require getting a loan“
The CEO of WorldChess was also surprised, “Really? Getting hotel on these days in NY is close to impossible, getting construction and team in place — the same, the media is all about the New Year, not chess or anything else, and finishing on the 31st means that you have to spend the New Year in NYC or travel on NYE.”
Tarjei Svensen points out the solution, “To cover hotel expenses, you’ll need to finish at least 26th-35th in both events, which secures a cash prize of $1500 each. (Fun fact: Nepomniachtchi finished 34th in Rapid last year, Nihal 36th & Aronian 37th).” But Josephine Heinemann adds to those costs the travel expenses, “Don’t forget about the flights, which are also quite expensive from most parts of the world at this time of the year.”
Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, board 2 for Norway and teammate of Carlsen for the upcoming Chess Olympiad 2024 (see participants list here) was unpleasantly surprised, “Don’t understand the reasoning behind a free day for such a short event. This is going to be ridiculously pricey for us players”
Read more: David Llada to skip Chess Olympiad 2024 after clash with FIDE
The wrong timing
GothamChess coach Arturs Neiksans commented the timing of the World Rapid & Blitz 2024, “IMHO organizing World Rapid and Blitz during Christmas is not a great idea. I know many players (including myself) who always spend this time with the family. Another thing – the high travel / hotel costs during holidays. Why not do it in the beginning of December?”
The freelance writer Laura Vegh added, “It’s ridiculous. Not to mention it will likely impact live views. With the timezone difference, New Year’s celebrations will literally be happening at the time of the tournament on half of the globe”
MrDodgy pointed the European point of view, “okay if we go off last years schedule, playing the last round at midnight CET is just an incredibly funny bit, well done Emil”
The journalists in trouble
Peter Doggers from Chess.com pointed out an important issue. The coverage of the event is often directly proportional to its success. Having the travel and accommodation difficulties at the festive part of the year, multiple journalists will skip entirely the event.
FIDE communication style continues
When FIDE makes something good for chess (and they do make multiple good advances!) communication is easy. Questions are answered, journalists are paid attention to, and news is easily spread. When FIDE makes a mistake or is not happy about journalists asking for transparency, the communication stops.
In this case, Emil Sutovsky was asked by Chessdom, “There has been criticism that prices for accommodation and expenses around New Year Eve are very high. Has this been considered by FIDE when taking the final decision?” To which Sutovsky answered, “We cover costs for dozens of the top players. We offer discounted prices for others. Also players don’t have to stay in official hotels. Yes, NYC is expensive – in particular at this time of the year. But it is the World Championships. And chess benefits having it there and then.”
The follow up question, “The venue and place is a good choice, kudos. But the timing is bad. High costs… flights delays… audience drops… Was the rest day needed? And why was there no public discussion on this FIDE decision?” remains unanswered, despite Emil Sutovsky being active on Twitter/X and selectively answering other topics.
Criticism into humor
FIDE’s decision to extend the tournament is bad on so many levels, that multiple Twitter/X users started joking with the situation. BlunderMaster said, “FIDE hates Christmas and New Year – Confirmed!” Mig Greengard, living in New York joked, “I should rent out my kids’ rooms for $500/night. We’re in Brooklyn, dog and cats included free!”
