The reigning World chess champion Magnus Carlsen won’t defend his title against Ian Nepomniachtchi. The Russian GM Nepomniatchi who was the winner of the Candidates tournament will face the World’s 2nd rated player, Chinese GM Ding Liren (2806) at the 2023 World Chess Championship match. The reason why Carlsen will not play the match is a lack of motivation for a rematch, as he stated “I’ve spoken to people in my team, I’ve spoken to FIDE, I spoke to Ian as well. And the conclusion is, yeah, it’s very simple, that I am not motivated to play another match. I simply feel that I don’t have a lot to gain, I don’t particularly like it, and although I’m sure a match would be interesting for historical reasons and all of that, I don’t have any inclination to play and I will simply not play the match.” Also, Magnus Carlsen was quick to assure us this was not a repeat of the Fischer-Spassky incident nearly 50 years ago in 1972. While he won’t defend his title, he is not resigning it as Bobby Fischer did, and more importantly he is neither retiring from chess nor even taking a step back from active play.