Magnus Carlsen caused a major drama late on Monday night as he withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup, a classical format tournament being held at St Louis, Missouri.
The Norwegian announced his decision --- ahead of his fourth round encounter against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov --- via a cryptic tweet which had a short clip of Jose Mourinho wherein the latter says “If I speak, I am in big trouble” during one of his previous press conference about refereeing.
The 31-year-old wrote, “I’ve withdrawn from the tournament. I’ve always enjoyed playing in the @STLChessClub, and hope to be back in the future.” This is the first time in his career that the five-time World champion has withdrawn from a major tournament.
Carlsen’s decision created a host of reactions from top players with some openly voicing suspicions of foul play. Carlsen was on 1.5 points from 3 rounds and lost his previous game against Hans.