Carlsen struggles amid controversy at $1m Global Chess League in London

The world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, is having a rare sub-par tournament in the six-team $1m Global Chess League, in which two qualifiers from the group stages will meet in the double-round final on Saturday (2.30pm BST start, live on kick.com).

The Norwegian, who radiated optimism in a pre-tournament interview, has been unexpectedly below form, with only two wins to his credit after nine rounds and a 4.5/9 points total.

The franchise-based league, which aims to make international chess a mainstream spectator sport with live television coverage, has opted for a time limit of 20 minutes each on the clock for the entire game without, crucially, the normal two seconds per move increment, so creating frantic time scrambles in the final stages of several games, with the arbiters conspicuously absent. A spectating grandmaster described games without increment as “like football without yellow and red cards”.

Carlsen’s controversial second-round defeat against Alireza Firouzja, 21, a leader of the new generation, triggered his poor run. The No 1 was in control on the board and on the clock for most of the game, but his thought process in the final moves seemed disorganised. He had a bishop pair on the board, plus a 30-second time advantage, which should have enabled him to flag his opponent.

At the very end, Carlsen lost on time despite being a queen ahead, due to a clause in the rules which states that a time forfeit wins as long as it is legally possible to construct a mating position. In this case, a checkmate with WK h1, WB g1, BK h3 and BN g3 would fulfil the condition. The final frenzied stages were caught on camera. There have been claims that Firouzja was moving in Carlsen’s time, but judge for yourself.

After nine of the 10 rounds were completed on Thursday, PBG Alaskan Knights had won seven of their matches, and are already qualified for the final. PBG’s leader, Anish Giri has 50%, while the team’s other five players all have plus scores. None of their rivals can boast such team consistency.

Alpine Sg Pipers v Triveni Continental Kings, the final group stage match on Friday afternoon, (5.05pm BST start) will decide who meets Alaskan Knights in the final, and this match also features the return Firouzja v Carlsen game following their controversial encounter at the start of the tournament.

Carlsen needs a win for a plus score for the tournament and for revenge, while Firouzja needs a win to confirm his top board supremacy. The game could also decide which team reaches the final.

The best top board scorer of the tournament so far is Firouzja with 6.5/9, and that has a significance beyond this event. The Global Chess League is officially rated by Fide for its monthly rapid list, and the daily 2700 Chess updates show a jump by the 21-year-old from world No 11 to No 5, and within easy range of No 2.

Firouzja is already No 2 behind Carlsen in the Fide blitz ratings, while Gukesh Dommaraju, who is the hot favourite to capture the world crown from Ding Liren in Singapore next month, is up to No 4 in the classical list and closing in on the No 2 spot.

For Carlsen to be No 1 in all three time control formats, followed by Gukesh as No 2 in classical and Firouzja as No 2 in rapid and blitz, would be seen as a widely accepted statement of true strength at the peak of world chess, and could spark mega-bids for showdown matches which fans everywhere would want to watch.

Carlsen, in his interview, said that it was “very unlikely” that he would meet Gukesh in a match (Firouzja was not discussed) but chess currently has several major sponsors who are financially able to put up millions for such a seriously interesting project.

The Global League includes two women’s boards, which have featured a rare appearance by Hou Yifan, the all-time No 2, who now has an academic career as a professor at Shenzhen University. Hou was rusty, but has still totalled 6/9, including an elegant win against the current women’s world championship challenger, Tan Zhongyi, where Hou’s white army combined for a fluent attack.

The Global Chess League ends on Saturday and on Monday London hosts another important international tournament – the WR Masters Cup (named after its sponsor Wadim Rosenstein), to be played at the Langham Hotel, Portland Place.

Unlike the Global League, which has no English players, the WR Masters has local participation, and of a special kind at that. It is a four-day, 16-player knockout, with a €58,000 prize fund and two games a day.

England is represented by its youngest ever grandmaster, Shreyas Royal, who takes on the top seed, India’s world No 5, Arjun Erigaisi, in the round of 16, and by the nine-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivananandan, who will set a record as the youngest player ever to compete in a world class invitation tournament when she meets the former women’s world champion and “chess queen”, Alexandra Kosteniuk.

The previous youngest was Samuel Reshevsky, who played in New York 1922 aged 10 (although there are claims that he was really 12 at the time), while Arturu Pomar, then 12, drew with the then world champion, Alexander Alekhine, at Gijon 1944 and could have won the endgame. Realistically, Royal and Sivananandan have a slender to minimal chance of reaching Tuesday’s quarter-finals, but it should be a fruitful experience for them.

Meanwhile, the US Championship starts on Friday in St Louis, with the holder and world No 3, Fabiano Caruana, challenged by a strong field which includes the controversial Hans Niemann.

There is welcome news for fans of the London Classic, which was a major event in the capital up to 2019 but was slimmed down after a break for Covid. The Classic is returning in late November at the Emirates Stadium and will include an invitation GM tournament, an open with international title norms, plus other events for players of all standards.

3941: 1 Rc1! The black queen is overloaded. If 1…Qxc1 2 Qe6+ Kf8 3 Rh3! (better than 3 Rf3+ Qf4) and Black gets mated. If 1…Qxe4+ 2 Qxe4 Rxd3 3 Qxg6 R3d5 4 Qf5 followed by g5-g6 mates or wins more material.