That is behind the unusual move by Magnus Carlsen
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Chess world champion Magnus Carlsen drew attention to himself with his fair online gesture
Source: dpa / Fredrik Varfjell
Magnus Carlsen is the current chess world champion. The Norwegian is also a favorite in an ongoing online tournament, but deliberately loses against his opponent Ding Liren. Because the Chinese is struggling with strange Internet problems.
AAs a gesture of fairness, Magnus Carlsen, world chess champion, made an extremely unusual move. In the online duel with the world ranking third Ding Liren from China, the 29-year-old Norwegian first gave his lady on the third move – and gave up after his opponent’s reply move.
So Carlsen “retaliated” for winning the previous game of their competition in a position that would have resulted in a draw – if the Chinese internet connection had not been lost.
“I have a lot of respect for things as a player and as a person, and that’s why it was the only correct way against him,” said the world champion after winning the match 2.5: 1.5 after two more games. The Norwegian’s sporty gesture was almost unanimously praised on social media.
Chinese censorship as the cause?
It was the first of up to three matches in the semi-finals of the $ 150,000 Chessable Masters on the “chess24” platform, which belongs to the Play Magnus group of companies. The tournament, which features twelve world-class grandmasters, is the third stop on the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour for a total of one million dollars in prize money.
In online chess it often happens that games are decided by unreliable or slow internet connections. Striking: Ding Liren had technical problems in previous tournaments.
This can be due to the “Great Firewall”, which gives the Chinese authorities the possibility of control and censorship, but slows down or breaks connections to international servers.
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