Magnus Carlsen, the chess grandmaster, and the reigning world champion, just suffered an unexpected loss in his final match as world champion when he mistakenly moved his queen to the wrong square in what could be characterized as a freak occurrence.
During the Armageddon match, the reigning five-time World Chess Champion was up against his rival, Hikaru Nakamura, after their previous two games resulted in draws. As the clock ticked down, Magnus aimed to capture one of Nakamura’s pawns by clicking on his queen. Unfortunately, he made a mistake and placed his queen on the wrong square due to a mouse slip, which ultimately handed the victory to Nakamura.
This blunder prompted fellow grandmasters David Howell and Robert Hess to express their shock, with Howell exclaiming, “What’s happened there? Magnus has mouse-slipped!” and Hess adding, “Unbelievable!”
Surprisingly, Magnus has experienced a similar mouseslip mishap before. In April of last year, during the Oslo Esports Cup, the 32-year-old grandmaster committed the same mistake against Vietnamese grandmaster Le Quang Liem.
As a consequence, he lost his queen and subsequently surrendered the match.
In a post-match interview with Chess.com, Nakamura compared the game to the MLB, saying:
It’s like comparing the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Socks. I mean, the Red Socks won a World Series in 1918; they didn’t win again until, I think it was, 2004. You know, the last couple years, I found a way to play well … I think the main thing is I don’t fall apart against Magnus. In the past, I would’ve fallen apart very quickly.
Although the chess tournament was not of great significance, it drew interest from fans of the game as it marked Magnus’ final competition as the reigning World Champion. The Norwegian grandmaster, who won his first championship in 2013, opted not to defend his title this year, explaining that he wanted to pave the way for a “new generation.”
Following his victory over Magnus, Nakamura emerged as the winner of the Chessable Masters tournament, walking away with a cool $30,000. The American grandmaster is the most widely followed Twitch chess streamer, boasting a fanbase of over 1.8 million followers.
