Magnus Carlsen Is the Star of His Own Show, Thank You Very Much
Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest-rated chess player and current World Champion, is at the bottom of the tournament his company has organized, and he is still the star of the show, because the main topic in chess in the last decade is not only chess theory and performance, but also who will manage to beat Carlsen. Hence Carlsen’s losses generate more buzz than anything else, and those who beat him become instant chess celebrities.
The list of those who managed to win a game or two against Magnus is growing, but Carlsen is still much better than the field because he consistently performs well, and because his company is consistently absorbing the chess players who manage to get better of him in one of the elite events.
Magnus Carlsen apparently built a perfect 365-day training camp where he faces the same opponents who managed to beat him, if by accident, and also gets to evaluate them and hire some of them for his excellent pre-championship training camps. That’s pure genius!
In the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour that started yesterday and consists of 9 events with a total 1, almost all of those who had recently beaten Carlsen, are among the contestants: Andrey Esipenko (Russia), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), and Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) among others.
After Day 1, Ding Liren, World’s Number 3 is in the lead, with Nepo and Esipenko in second and third place respectively. Carlsen is number 11. According to the event’s lead commentator and close Carlsen’s confidant David Howell, the champion is a slow starter and he will probably pick up pace as the tournament develops.
The event will continue on Sunday, February 20, at 6PM CET, you can watch it on World Chess. The official site of the event is https://chess24.com/tour/standings/.
