‘I told Magnus to lose… he tried, just wasn’t possible’: Magnus Carlsen’s wife Ella jokes after world no 1 wins at Zagreb

Carlsen was trailing tournament leader Gukesh by four points after the three-day-long rapid section, but ended up winning by a 2.5-point lead over the rest of the field after the 18 games of blitz over the weekend. It must be noted that every rapid game offered two points for a win and one point for a draw, while in blitz, a win got you one point while a draw was worth half a point.

Carlsen says he “struggled through event’

After winning the title, the world no 1 from Norway himself admitted that he had struggled to get any “flow” during the five-day-long event.

“I felt that I struggled most of the event. Partly because it was a very strong field this year. There weren’t a lot of weaker players at all. It wasn’t obvious who was going to score poorly and who was going to score well against the others. It felt like, especially in rapid, chances were kind of hard to come by. I had one good day yesterday (the first day of blitz section on Saturday) and that turned out to be enough,” Carlsen said.

Magnus Carlsen takes on Gukesh in a game at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz chess tournament in Zagreb. (PHOTO: Grand Chess Tour via Lennart Ootes)

He went on to add: “It speaks to the fact that it was a fairly even tournament overall. Nobody could really break away from the pack. It doesn’t feel like I won. It feels like I just came here and played alright. Nobody really did anything special in the end. Then I usually end up winning.”

The world no 1 also said that he had played some “old man chess” which he explained was playing without any real tactics in games.

Carlsen had flown to the event after spending a few weeks with Ella on their honeymoon. The duo had been in Stavanger before that playing in the Norway Chess, which is the only classical tournament that Carlsen is likely to play in this year.