Nakamura chose to meet the eligibility requirements by participating in a series of smaller tournaments across North America. His participation in Washington sealed his qualification through the rating spot.

Speaking during the Freestyle Chess event in South Africa, Carlsen slammed the rule. He said, “The fact that Nakamura is going around playing these — as he calls it himself, referring to something I said many years ago, Mickey Mouse tournaments in order to qualify for the Candidates, in order to play the 40 games that are required by FIDE. I think that’s absolutely… it’s wild.”

“It’s insane, why would you require somebody who’s very clearly good enough to play in the Candidates, why would you require him to play these tournaments which he doesn’t really have time for? Well, you want to have the best players in the Candidates and he’s clearly one of them,” he added.

Reacting to Carlsen’s statement, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky wrote on X, “‘Clearly good enough’ is a bad definition to select a player in FIDE Candidates. Unless we return to wild card system in Candidates (not under my watch!), it can’t work.”

“‘He doesn’t really have time for’ is more alarming though. Really? We are talking about qualification to the most important tournament in two years. How come a top pro, who is supposed to qualify by rating that proves he is still a very top pro, does not have time? It is wrong on so many levels. The requirements were actually very modest – and in a hindsight too modest, easy to game. Our fault. But to call a requirement to actually play chess ‘wild’ is wild.

“Going forwards, I’ll submit a proposal, eliminating rating spot altogether towards Candidates-2028. World Cup, Grand Swiss, FIDE Circuit, and now Total World Championship Tour will be the paths to qualify,” he added.

The 2026 Candidates is scheduled from March 28 to April 16, at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort, near Paphos, Cyprus.