April 6, Five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen We lost in a dramatic and surprising way. The mouse slipped and moved the queen to the wrong place, instantly losing the match. Not only did this knock him out, tournament It gave him the chance to win the colossal $30,000 first place prize, but it was also the last event he will participate in as the reigning World Champion.
You may remember that last year one of the biggest stories in the professional chess world was Carlsen’s stunning defeat at the hands of young grandmaster Hans Niemann.The stunning upset quickly sparked online accusations of cheating, with one particular Reddit (joke) theory vibrating anal beads spread like wildfireCarlsen I believe Neiman is a scammer and Chess.com accused him of cheating, that too. Niemann denied the charges, sued Carlsen in October 2022his chess app Play Magnus, website Chess.com, Daniel Rensch of Chess.com, and streamer Hikaru Nakamura won $100 million.
But before that Carlsen had already announced plans to vacate the chess world championshipAnd Thursday’s match against Hikaru Nakamura was part of his final event as champion.
Carlsen’s misclick costs him the match
As reported by Chess.com, Carlsen was competing with his old rival Nakamura. This duo is considered one of the best online chess players in the world. They were competing in the Armageddon Rules playoffs in the losers bracket. However, in the final seconds of a tense match, Carlsen inadvertently dropped the queen in the wrong spot. According to chess grandmaster David Howell, it was “the worst mouseslip”. Shortly after the mistake, Nakamura took down Carlsen’s misplaced queen and the game ended instantly.
The tournament is still ongoing, with Nakamura out of the losers bracket and on his way to the prize money.
As far as Carlsen goes, the world won’t end here. Although he will soon vacate the world champion title, he has no intention of retiring. In July 2022, he explained in a podcast that he remains an active chess player and has more events and matches to come. He no longer wants to defend his title. Even if you’re winning, it’s starting to be more of a negative experience than a positive one.
Still, the bingo card for how this chapter of his career would close out wasn’t “mouse slipped and lost his final match as world champion in a million-dollar tournament.” do not have.