Magnus Carlsen’s brutal self-assessment: ‘My mind was not working at all today… got two more points than I should have’

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Former world champion Magnus Carlsen poses at the St Louis Chess Club during the Clutch Chess exhibition event. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes via St Louis Chess Club)

Magnus Carlsen started his campaign at the Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown exhibition event with a victory over Gukesh Dommaraju, but ended the day in second spot behind the world champion from India. Out of the six rapid games Carlsen played against Gukesh, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana (two games against each opponent), Carlsen managed just two wins while losing once.

Carlsen is playing in an over-the-board event after becoming a father recently. Asked about his assessment about his form, a candid Carlsen said: “It was terrible, but I’m feeling like really not good at all. I will say that I scored about two more points than than I should have probably today and I’m happy with that. But my mind was not working at all today. So, yeah, hopefully I can feel a bit better the next few days. Today my level of play was extremely poor.”

After the first day of games in the three-day event, Gukesh is the sole leader in the four-player tournament, with Carlsen second, Hikaru Nakamura third and Fabiano Caruana last. The second day today will see players earn double as many points for each win while the final day will have three points on offer for each victory.

World champion Gukesh D poses at the St Louis Chess Club during the Clutch Chess exhibition event. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes via St Louis Chess Club)

Magnus Carlsen says his ‘level of play was extremely poor’

Asked if his form had anything to do with jet lag since the event is happening in the American city of St Louis, the world no 1 from Norway said: “Jet lag is fine. I mean I’ve slept pretty well the last two nights. I just somehow after breakfast today I just started feeling bad. So I just hope I’m not getting sick. And that’s kind of my main priority at the moment.”

Carlsen continued: “Overall the games were were awful. No, that they were absolutely awful, but they were I mean reasonably exciting as well, but today just was not fun at all.”

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