Time to Think

Speaking to NRK right after his defeat in the semifinal of the 2nd World Fischerandom Chess Championship Knockout Tournament, Magnus Carlsen, without periphrases, called his own play “pathetically bad”. Indeed, he committed an unusual number of mistakes, while instead his opponent, Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi, “played fast and tactically. It was very frustrating. I stood clearly better in all four games, but I was unable to get more out of it”, Carlsen said. “I had neither the time nor the disposition to play my chess. It is also one of the reasons why I advocate to play Fischer’s chess with longer time controls and classical chess at a little faster cadence”. Photo © David Llada/FIDE.