Magnus Carlsen recalls the most painful match of his career.
Magnus Carlsen competed drunk before his first World Championship title. PDO
One of the best chess players of all time Magnus Carlsen revealed in an interview with a podcast called Sjakksnakk that he took it while drunk.
The Norwegian, who has already risen to the top level in the world, participated in the Chess Classics tournament in London in 2012. The day before the opening match was Carlsen’s birthday, so he decided to go with his entourage on a tour of the big city’s nightlife.
The sky that started from the bowling alley was very humid in the end. During the evening, Carlsen’s party refueled with a lot of caffeine and alcohol drinks, which kept the partygoers awake until the morning. The Norwegian was worried that he wouldn’t have time to sleep at all before his match against the world’s best amateur Luke McShane against.
Poorly rested and still intoxicated from the night’s refreshments, Carlsen arrived at the tournament and, according to his words, dozed off in the game room. He woke up quickly when he heard his name during the player introductions.
The chess match against the well-prepared McShane started badly for the best player in the world.
– I couldn’t sleep properly. I felt really tired and sick. I wanted to give up when I was about to lose my bottom nail, Carlsen recalls in the podcast.
Since it was a more traditional long-form chess match, Carlsen had a lot of time to recover from his bad feeling between moves. In the end, he turned the match around and won after six hours of crunching. As a reward, Carlsen was finally able to sleep with a clear head.
Carlsen, who was sharp in the following games, took the championship of the tournament. The following years were the best of Carlsen’s career, as in 2013 he won his first World Championship title, which he gave up voluntarily only last April.
Carlsen adds that he never again participated in top tournaments drunk.
– It was the first and only time I played slow chess drunk.
Source: NRK