Chess: Poland’s Duda wins in Oslo while tired Carlsen fades at the finish

An overambitious schedule, a heavy cold and mental fatigue finally caught up with Magnus Carlsen at the Oslo Esports Cup this week. The world champion had won the previous two legs of the online Meltwater Champions Tour, and was expected to make it three in his home city, but it was Poland’s Jan-Krzyzstof Duda who edged ahead in Thursday’s final round.

Leading scores were Duda (Poland) 14/21, Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) 13, Carlsen (Norway) and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (India) 12, Shak Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) 11.

A novel format was that the eight grandmasters were all present in the same studio and sat at the table as in an over-the board tournament, but instead of a chessboard between them there were computer screens. Coincidentally or not, the incidence of unintended mouse slips and clicks seems to have been higher than normal.

Carlsen has rarely performed at his best in Oslo, which was the scene of one of his most devastating defeats when he lost 2.5-13.5 to Wesley So of the US in the 2019 Random Chess final. This time he was still in contention on Thursday despite two previous mini-match losses, but played limply against Mamedyarov and the world No 7 won 2.5-0.5. Afterwards Carlsen apologised for his performance: “It’s not nearly good enough … I have no energy in my body whatsoever.”

The No 1’s setbacks began early on and reflected his busy schedule. In the afternoon before his round two match, he led the Norway team in a solidarity match against Ukraine where viewers could donate to war relief. Carlsen beat his old rival Vasyl Ivanchuk, but lost to Yuriy Kozubov and Kirill Shevchenko as Ukraine won 11-5. He then arrived, late and with a heavy cold, for his Esports Cup match and lost 1.5-2.5 to Le Quang Liem.

Carlsen