STAVANGER: Ever since Magnus Carlsen started dominating the World Championship cycle in the latter half of the last decade, the world of elite chess came up with a ranking list to show his giant presence on the rest of the top players.
"The list," the joke went, "was Magnus being the world's best. The No. 2 was a bored Magnus. The No. 3 was a drunk Magnus. The No. 4 was a disinterested Magnus. The No. 5 was a washed Magnus."
Even if the joke was disrespectful to all the other top players, it says something about the world of chess that it kind of played itself out at Norway Chess. In an absolutely loaded field in Stavanger — World Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 — Carlsen was the only one who knew what the future had in store for him, at least in the short term.
The others are very much part of the Classical chess calendar. One of them, D Gukesh, will defend the world title next year. One of the others, Fabiano Caruana, has already qualified for next year's Candidates.
The point is the others were going to use this tournament to see where they stood in terms of their prep for upcoming Classical events. Carlsen? He used this event to remind the world that while his attention lay elsewhere, he still deeply cared about maintaining his status as chess' top dog in town.
Even if this wasn't a 'dream tournament' by his ludicrously high standards, he said 'it's nice to see I can still play'. "Honestly," the Norwegian had said a day before the final round, "it could have meant a lot to me if I had finished off the game against Gukesh and then played a really good tournament. Now like regardless of what happens, it would kind of be like stumbling into a win. The dream of playing a really good tournament burst with that game (against Gukesh). Of course I want to win, but it's not that important."
A day later, in the final round at Stavanger, the 34-year-old grinded out a draw from an almost lost position against Arjun Erigaisi. With his clock ticking down, he stole glances at the game between Gukesh and Caruana before deciding he would take his chances. That decision may have come back to bite him but the Indian teen made a blunder and resigned on the spot after fighting so resolutely for a long time.
It's kind of why the five-time world champion said that the kids aren't ready to take over. "At the very least, it's nice to see I can still play," he after his seventh crown in Norway's southwest. "And it's nice to see that at least in parts of the game, I can still be quite a lot better than the guys who are trying to take over."
Carlsen's views on the Indian kids
Two of those — Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi — featured in the event. Both players actually did beat the Norwegian (the former in Classical and the latter in Armageddon).
"There is no one," the World No. 1, who abdicated his throne in 2023, added. "No one at the moment. That's the honest answer. There could be, but at the moment it's not likely. I think Gukesh showed in this tournament that he's on track, he's doing fantastic, but he's maybe not way ahead of track as we may have thought. I think he's kind of a little bit where I was 2008. You can do extremely well, but you can still see that there are that great results, like they come not only with the quality of the positional play, but it's a lot of fighting qualities. But that is what kids are supposed to do.
"You're not supposed to master everything at that age. As for the others, yes, they are good, but the likelihood of one of them becoming like a very clear number one. I don't see it very clearly at the moment." Carlsen also reminded the world that once-in-a-generation players are once in the generation for a reason.
Gukesh, who flat out refused to speak to the media in Stavanger, can see the 10-round tournament through two ways. One, would be to look at through the positive lens of finally beating Carlsen and Erigaisi in Classical, something he had never managed to. Two, and a more negative way to look, would be wonder why he allowed himself to fall behind out of the opening in a lot of matches. At this level, it's a bit like trying to stop a car without working brakes.
He did it a few times but when you are so fall behind the eight ball, the pressure of having to defend in almost every game will tell.
Carlsen's views on Norway Chess
While the local favourite did mention that the strongest emotion he felt during the event was his loss to Gukesh, he said he was 'relieved' that he had won it in the end. "It definitely was a very memorable tournament," he said.
Considering this is now the only Classical meet he plays on a year on year basis, why does he keep coming back? The answer lies in the pacier time controls. He has long held that four hours is more than enough time to play a good game of chess in this format. "It's rare to see so many twists and turns and of course... the quality wasn't perfect but there was still a lot of good chess. In terms of the format, the reduced time control helps a lot. It's not supposed to be easy to defend. You are not supposed to be helped by increments."
In the short term, he remains the world boss across formats. What should concern the others is that he won this event while playing golf for pretty much three-to-four hours on an almost daily basis while some of the others prepped for games.
"At the very least, it's nice to see I can still play. And it's nice to see that at least in parts of the game, I can still be quite a lot better than the guys who are trying to take over."
Final standings: Open: Magnus Carlsen 16, Fabiano Caruana 15.5, D Gukesh 14.5, Hikaru Nakamura 14, Arjun Erigaisi 13, Wei Yi 9.5; Women: Anna Muzychuk 16.5, Lei Tingjie 16, Koneru Humpy 15, Ju Wenjun 13.5, R Vaishali 11, Sara Khadem 9.
