Carlsen loses on chess financing
Norwegian authorities have allowed the state-sanctioned Norsk Tipping to have a monopoly on betting for years, in return for funneling most of Norsk Tipping’s money into funding for sports. Revenues from various Norsk Tipping gambling ventures are allocated among Norwegian sports federations including the one for chess (Norges Sjakkforbund). Carlsen hasn’t been impressed with the funding provided to the chess federation, however, and thus supported a bid by the gaming company Kindred, which owns Unibet. It offered to provide the equivalent of NOK 50 million over five years in return for support to effectively bust Norsk Tipping’s monopoly. Gave up delegates The offer was up for a vote at a chess federation meeting on Sunday, just after Carlsen established a new chess club and personally financed membership fees for the first 1,000 people to join it. That in turn would have given him the delegates needed to influence voting at the meeting. In the end, however, Carlsen seemed to bow to criticism that he was threatening Norwegian sports federation’s democracy by giving up 35 of the delegates his new club’s membership would have allowed. A total of 132 delegates voted against Kindred’s financing offer Sunday…