Chess, Magnus Carlsen | Carlsen withdraws from major tournament – comes with a sensational message

The message on https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen/status/1566848734616555523 comes the day after he lost to the American 19-year-old Hans Niemann, in the third round of the tournament.

– It must be embarrassing for the world champion to lose to me. I feel for him, Niemann told Chess24 after the win.

On Monday evening, Carlsen announced that he was withdrawing from this year’s tournament.

– I have withdrawn from the tournament. I have always enjoyed playing at the Saint Louis Chess Club (journ. note the club that hosts the Sinquefield Cup) and I hope to return in the future.

Video makes the rumors abound

Most startling, however, is the video Carlsen attaches to the tweet. The message to the chess player ends with a video, in which football manager José Mourinho says in an interview: “If I say something, I’m in trouble.”

This has caused rumors to abound, and several people speculate whether he thinks Niemann has cheated, but that Carlsen does not want to say so outright.

Regardless of what the whole background is for Carlsen’s resignation, this is something new. According to several websites, this is the first time Carlsen has withdrawn from a major tournament.

– Huge scandal

The Norwegian chess journalist Tarjei J. Svensen summarizes the situation as follows:

– In any case, we are talking about a huge scandal here, he writes.

NRK expert Torstein Bae has also written a lot about the situation via his Twitter account:

– The most likely thing is that Magnus thinks Niemann cheated during yesterday’s party, Bae opens in one message.

Bae writes in another Twitter message that Carlsen has probably been advised not to say anything specific about cheating, as he has no proof.

In any case, Carlsen is done with the Sinquefield Cup for this year. The world champion stood with one win, one draw and one loss when he withdrew from the tournament, which also this year has a very strong starting field.

Carlsen has won the tournament twice in his career. It happened in 2013 and in 2018. The Norwegian has several times finished in 2nd place. The tournament is named after Rex Sinquefield and his wife. They founded the Chess Club of St. Louis.