Inside the Oslo chess pub where Magnus Carlsen can hide in plain sight

Those Thursday evenings usually end with the world no 1 player winning the fortnightly competitions. Ordinarily, the world’s greatest chess player of the current era winning a game night at his local chess pub would not be news. But Carlsen’s Thursday jaunts are not to play chess. It’s the weekly trivia nights he’s made a habit of winning.

“Magnus is a pretty clever guy, not just in chess. There are in fact no chess questions on those trivia nights,” says Kristoffer Gressli, one of the co-owners of The Good Knight, the world’s first chess-themed pub. “He just knows a lot of things, you know? Maps, flags and capital cities. He’s generally very updated. But when he doesn’t win, everyone who’s here loves it because they can say they beat Magnus Carlsen once at a chess pub.”

Kristoffer Gressli, one of the co-owners of The Good Knight, sits at the bar counter of the world’s first chess-themed pub in Oslo. (Express Photo by Amit Kamath)

Carlsen has been a frequent visitor at the pub since 2018, first dropping by when it opened its doors even though it was just two days before he was scheduled to begin his world championship title defence against Fabiano Caruana. The strain of preparing for a World Championship battle was at its peak. But Carlsen could not resist the lure of going to a chess-themed pub in his backyard.

“He’s such a chess nerd. Even though he was about to play the most important games of a two-year cycle, he wanted to check our pub out. It’s great to have an ambassador like that for chess in Norway,” says Gressli, who used to work for the Norwegian Chess Federation, but says that he’s just a ‘scrub’ when it comes to playing chess.

These days the pub is playing host to the Norway Chess Open tournament. But the pub, which is also co-owned by Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen, who was the first coach of Carlsen, sells chess books and streams chess tournaments like any sports bar would. The pub’s owners were tempted to stream Norway football team’s matches at the FIFA World Cup next month. But they resisted, wanting to have chess as the pub’s centrepiece.

The pub is also co-owned by Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen. (Express Photo by Amit Kamath)

The pub had streamed all world championship games since 2018, including the world rapid and blitz championships on the TVs. Games of that world championship saw the pub being packed to full capacity, just over 200 people watching a game of chess. The pub is divided into multiple rooms so some rooms have commentary on, while others have music playing with the games being shown on mute.

The fact that Carlsen doesn’t play in the classical world championship doesn’t daunt Gressli. He points out that streaming a classical tournament at the pub is like streaming a “talk show”. But the faster and wilder rapid and blitz chess are perfect products to be beamed at a chess pub.

Oslo has a culture of pubs catering to niche sports activities. There are pinball bars, mini golf pubs and even bars that allow people to race mini cars while enjoying a beer.

The pub had streamed all world championship games since 2018, including the world rapid and blitz championships on the TVs. (Express Photo by Amit Kamath)

“Norwegians are quite introverted. It’s great for us to go to such pubs so that they can fill those awkward silences with some activity while drinking,” he says.

Gressli says that the pub is one of the rare places where Carlsen can be himself too.

“He’s one of the biggest celebrities in Norway. When people come here, they expect to see him here. So he’s usually left alone when he’s with friends. No one clumps around him. Or asks for autographs,” says Gressli. “He can just be himself.”

Unless he wins a fortnightly trivia night. Then Carlsen is the star of the show again.

(The writer is in Oslo at the invitation of Norway Chess)