[Interview] Russia has captured world chess, Carlsen’s coach says

Tea with Putin in Sochi in 2014, Peskov pops into New York in 2016, oligarch sponsors in Dubai in 2021, and other ways the Russian elite captured the global chess circuit – an insider’s guide by Peter Heine Nielsen, the Danish coach of Norwegian chess champion Magnus Carlsen.

EUobserver: Why are you in Hong Kong today (16 June)?

Heine Nielsen: I’m Magnus’ coach and he’s playing [in the World Rapid and Blitz tournament] here, so … Also, we had [Russian FIDE president Arkady] Dvorkovich do the opening press conference today, with Magnus and other team members. Everybody on the chess circuit is here.

What does Dvorkovich normally do at FIDE events?

In principle, he’s in charge of the tournament, but, of course, FIDE has other people who deal with organisation. Dvorkovich walks around a bit and mingles with players. He’s quite approachable and I’ve spoken to him. But he’ll also be meeting local VIPs and politicians, some might say to campaign [for his re-election as FIDE head in September], or to exercise Russian soft power. He’d say it was just part of his job.

Do Carlsen and Dvorkovich chat?

Not much, a bit, of course. Mr. Carlsen doesn’t chat much with anybody. He also tries to stay out of chess politics. As for me, I’m more outspoken, but my political views are entirely my own. I don’t speak for him. As his coach, I also have to respect professional confidentiality.

Did you meet Russian president Vladimir Putin when he posed for photos with Carlsen in Sochi (Russia) in 2014?

It was the World Championship match and Dvorkovich was the main organiser. This photo [above] was from the closing ceremony [in November 2014, after Putin’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March]. I was already Magnus’ coach, but I wasn’t there, as I’d recently become a father, so I rushed home after the last match had ended the day before. Putin used to invite chess players for tea back then. It might sound like a joke these days, but it also shows how highly Russian society values chess.

I’ve seen a lot of elite Russian politicians at FIDE championships. In 2016 at the World Championship in New York, for instance, when Magnus was defending his title against a Russian challenger, [Sergey] Karjakin, who is now a senator in Crimea, [Putin’s spokesman Dmitry] Peskov turned up for the match. I had no clue who Peskov was until my wife told me, but there he was, just a few metres away from us, rooting for Karjakin, who lost in the end. I later read in the Mueller Report [on Russian election interference] that the Kremlin had used the World Championship games to try to establish a back-channel to [now US president Donald] Trump.