As soon as the fuss about the allegations of cheating in the chess scene subsided a little, world champion Magnus Carlsen made the headlines again. The Norwegian suffered a bitter defeat in the “Aimchess Rapid” tournament. He lost to 16-year-old Indian Donnarumma Gukesh on Monday. Never before has a younger player defeated the world champion.
“Winning against Magnus is always special, but I wasn’t very proud of my game today,” the “Spiegel” quoted the teenager as saying. As the “Kicker” reports, Carlsen had an advantage in the game – until he made a momentous move “that put him completely behind”.
After the game, the world champion found words of praise for his opponent. “He recently played extremely impressively in classical chess. This rapid chess victory was perhaps not his proudest achievement. But winning is always nice,” the sports portal quoted the 31-year-old as saying. A few days earlier, Carlsen had already lost to a 19-year-old who also comes from India. Aimchess Rapid is the eighth of nine tournaments on the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, which is worth $1.6 million. Carlsen is currently in first place on the tour.
In the past few weeks, the Norwegian has caused a stir, mainly because of the dispute with the American Hans Niemann. The 31-year-old had long suspected that Niemann was cheating in chess. At the end of September he made his assumption public for the first time. The Norwegian had previously met Niemann in the middle of the month in a top-class online tournament and ended the game after a move without comment.
The “chess.com” platform also suggested that the 19-year-old American had “probably cheated in more than 100 online chess games”. A discussion that will keep the chess world busy for a long time: the world federation announced that it would set up an investigative commission.
Sources: “Der Spiegel”, “Kicker”, “Tagesschau”
