Excitement at an online game between chess superstar Magnus Carlsen and Rauf Mamedov from Azerbaijan. After the Norwegian’s opening move, the grandmaster resigns and leaves the game – in protest. Then Mamedov found clear words.
Rauf Mamedov was right on course in last week’s Tuesday tournament organized by “chess.com” and led the field until the penultimate round. Then the 34-year-old met Magnus Carlsen – and simply gave up after the first move. The hopes of victory were gone.
What happened? Mamedov had opened with White with 1.e4, Carlsen answered with 1…g5 – a statistically very bad opening move. For the Azerbaijani, this was tantamount to such disrespect that he unceremoniously clicked the “Resign” button and left without comment.
A few days later he expressed his reaction in conversation with “sport.ru“explained and found clear words: “If you want to make fun of us, then without me.”
“In a blitz game, Magnus definitely wouldn’t play like that”
Mamedov elaborated with a smile: “Imagine a very young Kasparov or Karpov coming into the Central Chess Club, faced with a 2650 grandmaster and playing 1.e4 g5. Well, they’re going to beat you up”.
He knew that Carlsen could bring that train and prepared his reaction in advance: “I promised myself that if something like this happened to me, I would resign and stop.”
Bitter: Mamedov missed out on the win because of his resignation. In addition, the chess professional may face a ban from “chess.com”. But he could hardly imagine such a sanction.
How bad Carlsen’s move is has been hotly debated online since the most recent duel. If the four-time World Cup participant has his way, he is “very bad. Magnus would definitely not play like that in a blitz game,” said Rauf Mamedov with conviction.