[Etheryte]

I think motivation really is the key term here. Magnus is a five-time world chess champion, in a complete league of his own even when everyone else was literally only prepping to defeat him. He held the world champion title for ten years and eventually just declined to defend it. And that's relatable, if you're at the absolute top for ten years and no one manages to put a dent to it, what else is there? I think most people would look for new challenges and ways to fulfill themselves after that.

[Taek]

He declined to defend it because he disagreed with the way FIDE was organizing and managing the tournament. I believe this is around the time they threw him out of a tournament for wearing jeans, when he was not the only competitor present in jeans.

I think it's nearly universally accepted that his streak ended on a technicality rather than a legitimate decline/defeat.

[enizor2]

Absolutely not. He refused to defend his classic title in April 2023, citing a lack of motivation for this format.

The "Jeans" controversy happened during the Rapid championship in December 2024, nearly two years after.

It's universally accepted that his streak Classic Championship ended because of his lack of motivation, not on technicalities.

[Pay08]

From what I recall, he automatically lost that one game but was not thrown out of the tournament. Eventually he just stopped playing the world championship altogether, which is when he lost his title.

[davidguetta]

This is plain wrong for anybody that has been actually following chess.

He said like a year before declining that he would only defend against Alireza because he was the younger generation. Nobody believed him, Alireza didn't win the Candidates and he said "no thanks" and then everybody was surprised pikachu.

The Jean thing was way later and in an unrelated event.