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JESUS J. BOYERO
Updated
Two in the morning. Magnus Carlsen has just defeated Hans Niemannwith whom he had not faced again after two years ago he hinted that he had defeated him with external help in the San Luis tournament, by a resounding 17.5-12.5 in the Speed Chess semi-final organized by Chess.com in Paris. Instead of resting after a tiring day, he uploads a tweet to his account, without any explanatory text, in which a picture of Lebron James and Lance Stephenson appears.
The king of the NBA and a controversial player of another level who is currently in the development league after having defended the colors of 14 teams. Nothing punishable, but it was the world number one’s response to Niemann’s bravado: “Don’t even bother playing if you’re not willing to fix things on the board, Cowardice leads to inevitable defeat (…) You have run, but you can no longer hide”The Norwegian was silent and icy during the 30 games played at a rate of 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1, and he did not even protest when two games (1+1) were suspended due to his opponent’s problems with the mouse, something he did not hold on to when it happened to him previously.
Carlsen clearly dominated the 5+1 games (7-2), and tied the 3+1 games (4-4) and 1+1 games (6.5-6.5). However, in the 5+1 games, Carlsen was the dominant player. 1+1 lost five consecutive games between Niemann’s protests about his mouse and Carlsen’s desire to finish the match. A victory that could have been scandalous, but despite this the champion clearly demonstrated why he is number one in all forms of the game and even more so against an opponent who is “only” 19th in the world. The American declared immediately after the match: “There is no excuse for the defeat; I am determined to do whatever it takes to become the best player in the world.”
Speed Chess@FIDE_chess
Tomorrow, in the endwill face the Frenchman of Iranian origin Alireza Firouzjafifth in the world, who defeated the American Hikaru Nakamura by a clear score of 15.5-10.5.
The duel will be played in three phases starting at 5:45 p.m. and can be followed live on MARCA’s YouTube channel. In the first (90 minutes), games of 5 minutes plus 1 additional second per move will be played uninterruptedly; in the second (60), 3+1; finally, in the third (30) 1+1.
