World No 1 dominated every round and was determined to show chess in its best light at Saudi event
Magnus Carlsen was in imperious form at last week’s Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a virtuoso performance both on and off the board. On it, the world No 1 won the group stage, the quarter and semi-finals, and the final, all in dominant style while seeing off the world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura and one of the leading young contenders, Alireza Firouzja. Offboard, Carlsen exuded enthusiasm for the event, and delivered upbeat and articulate responses to interviewers.
The limit of 10 minutes per player per game, without the usual per move increment, was designed for tight TV schedules, and also led to frantic time scrambles and games decided by fractions of a second.
A new chess phrase was coined, “dirty flagging”, to describe playing to win on the clock in a totally lost or drawn position before the opponent with less time can force checkmate. Carlsen himself declined his first two opportunities to use this technique, but accepted a third when the match situation became critical.
In general, the time control favoured Carlsen, Nakamura and Firouzja, who between them have played tens of thousands of blitz and bullet (all the moves in one minute) games on chess.com and lichess.org.
