
STAVANGER (Norway): Minutes after surviving a final day thriller to stand top of the leaderboard, Magnus Carlsen was coy when asked if he would continue playing Classical chess.
“It’s a huge relief after a day like this and in a tournament like this," he told TakeTakeTake. "My struggles have been well documented here. At least I fought till the end, I’m happy with that."
Asked if he was going to keep playing classical chess, Carlsen said: “Not a lot for sure. I’m not going to say this tournament was my last. I enjoy other forms of chess more.”
How he prevailed to pocket his seventh Norway Chess title may be made into a movie in time. On a day of high drama, Carlsen and Gukesh, separated by 0.5 points before the last and final round on Friday, were under pressure for vast swathes of their respective games against Arjun Erigaisi and Fabiano Caruana respectively.
Gukesh knew he could ill afford a loss as he was trailing. So, he soldiered on, even in an almost lost position. But he knew he could win the tournament because Erigaisi had put the World No. 1 under tremendous pressure for over three hours and change.
But once Erigaisi made small inaccuracies, the Norwegian suddenly engineered big counter play chances for himself. When he had the one winning move staring at him in the endgame, he didn't find it. The eval bar restored parity and they repeated their moves three times, signalling a draw.
The 34-year-old, who has time and again said that he finds Classical chess a chore, would have likely pushed on for a win if the Indian world champion, Gukesh, was not in a terrible position. But moments after Carlsen and Erigaisi called truce, Caruana blundered and Gukesh had chances of winning the tournament.
But under severe time pressure and having defended so resolutely for so long, he jumped at the chance of queening his d pawn rather than holding on to his position.
Once he queened, the US player pressed his knight into service to set up a deadly fork. It was game over. The 19-year-old knew the game was up with seconds left on the clock. The defeat in Classical also means that Gukesh will finish third in the standings, a mixed bag of a tournament.