Magnus Carlsen will not defend his world championship in 2023 against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi as he is not motivated to play another match, the Norwegian five-time champion said in a podcast on Wednesday.

If Carlsen does not defend his title, Nepomniachtchi is likely to face the runner-up in the recent Candidates tournament, China’s Ding Liren.

“I feel I don’t have a lot to gain, I don’t particularly like (the championship matches), 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,” he said on the podcast for one of his sponsors.

“Ultimately the conclusion stands, one that I’m pretty comfortable with, one that I’ve thought a lot about for a long time now, I would say more than a year... since long before the last match (in which he beat Nepomniachtchi without losing a game),” Carlsen said.

“And I’ve spoken to people in my team, I’ve spoken to Fide, I spoke to Ian as well. And the conclusion is, it’s very simple, that I am not motivated to play another match,” said Carlsen, who has spent over a decade as the topranked player in the world.

Carlsen has long had a love-hate relationship with the World Championship. In The Magnus Carlsen Story, released in early 2021, he had commented: “I will most probably play in 2021, and if I were to win, I’ve no idea whether I would play the next one”.

He did play in 2021, but almost immediately after winning his fifth title against Nepomniachtchi in Dubai, he gave a podcast interview to his friend Magnus Barstad where he commented, “if someone other than (Iranian-French) 19-year-old Alireza Firouzja wins the Candidates tournament it’s unlikely I will play the next World Championship match”.

Instead, Nepomniachtchi set up a rematch by winning the Candidates Tournament in Madrid earlier this month with a round to spare. China’s Liren edged out Hikaru Nakamura of the US for second place in the Candidates tournament by beating him in the final round.

Carlsen has been surprising onlookers since November 2010 when, already clearly the world’s best player, he dropped out of the 2011 Candidates matches.

He published a letter complaining about the system, but few found the explanations convincing, and the Norwegian later confessed it was more about motivation.

His suggested changes were implemented and he did play in the 2013 London Candidates.