Magnus Carlsen blunders when being one move away from title; Takes frustration out on bottle
Even the world’s greatest chess player can blunder from a winning position. Magnus Carlsen was one accurate move away from winning his eighth consecutive chess tournament on Wednesday. But, playing against Iran-born French grandmaster Alireza Firouzja, Carlsen blundered to let the game slip from his grasp at the Chess.com Classic.
Firouzja then went on to win the title, thus becoming just the second player (after Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave) to defeat Carlsen twice in a Grand Final of the Champions Chess Tour, organised by Chess.com. The Champions Chess Tour is a series oprganised by Chess.com, with four online events (Chessable Masters, which was held in January-February of this year, the Chess.com Classic, which concluded on Wednesday and two more events). The live final after the four events will be held in December 14-21.
Thanks to winning the Chess.com Classic 2024 event, Firouzja, who had a forgettable Candidates chess tournament recently, won took home a cool prize fund of $30,000, 100 tour points, a spot in the in-person live Finals and a spot in Division I at the next event.
The blunder from Carlsen came in game 4 after the first two games of the finale ended in draws and the World no 1 won the third game.
In move 39, Firouzja, playing with white pieces, moved his rook to the f1 square to protect his king from Carlsen’s attaching rook on c1. If Carlsen had exchanged rooks at this stage, he would have gone on to win. But Carlsen played 39…Rcc2?? (moving his rook away to the second rank). This swung the momentum of the game immediately.
While streaming the event on Chess.com, grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky explained the situation. “We were just one move away from congratulating Magnus Carlsen on an eighth consecutive tournament victory. Had he swapped rooks in that double-rook endgame (he would have won),” he summarised.
Here’s what the board looked like after Carlsen’s move.
After it became apparent that he will lose the game, Carlsen was seen visibly frustrated. He let out a string of abuses and later got up to throw his bottle on the floor.
Watch Magnus Carlsen destroys bottle after blunder
Magnus was NOT HAPPY after blundering away the tournament win in one move 🤬 #ChessChamps pic.twitter.com/2J2x79bbTo
— Champions Chess Tour (@ChampChessTour) May 15, 2024
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“I was lucky that he got so tilted after the game four,” Firouzja later said. “I knew that after that he couldn’t come back.”
Firouzja was also asked what his favourite item was to throw when he was losing.
“I broke my mouse many times. But I never throw things,” he smiled.
