If we wanted any more reason why Magnus' and his private backers' attempts to control the game will be terrible for chess.

I get it. FIDE is corrupt, bureaucratic and comes up with stupid rules. But I find Magnus' antics inexcusable and I see no reason to believe he & his private backers will do a better job in organizing chess events and a World Championship cycle. In fact, I believe they will be even more terrible than FIDE. Here's the list of things he's been doing the past two months before he strongarmed FIDE to split the World Blitz title: 1. Deliberately schedules freestyle launch event in the same location and time as the World Championship. 2. Tweets "Freestyle > Classical" right when the World Chess Championship starts. 3. Posts a harmless congratulatory tweet to Gukesh only to delete it shortly after. 4. Calls the World Championship cycle a "circus" in his Take Take Take recap. 5. Claims classical format lets players "mask deficiencies" on Take Take Take podcast. 6. Insists on calling his tour the "World Championship", despite FIDE raising the issue on naming rights. 7. Disses on FIDE officials like Anand, Sutovsky and an arbiter for not bending to his ways about the dress code rule in World Rapid. It is their clear intention to undermine classical chess's premier achievement right when we have our youngest champion. They have made it amply clear with their actions that they really want to create a competing cycle and not just organize their tour in peace, or just promote a new variant. And speaking of their new "championship" - I am agnostic about whether freestyle chess should someday replace classical chess. But what I will absolutely never get behind is a 'world championship' run by a for-profit corporation backed by venture capital and the Saudi regime. FIDE, for all its many flaws, is a recognized international governing body affiliated with the IOC, with 200 member federations. At least there's accountability and an obligation to the long-term good of the game. This Freestyle venture? It's only responsible to its investors. At some point, when these talking points become clearer in the chess world & media -- it might be a good decision for World Champion Gukesh to withdraw from this Freestyle circus -- as I have no doubt it will be an even worse circus if we have a crybaby who can potentially just make up rules on a whim along with private interests mixed in.