On April 6, 5-Time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen misplaced in a dramatic and shocking means: His mouse slipped and he moved his queen to the incorrect spot, immediately costing him the match. Not solely did this knock him out of the event and value him an opportunity on the sizable $30,000 high prize, however this was additionally the final occasion he’d take part in because the reigning World Champion.
Last yr, you may do not forget that one of many largest tales on the planet {of professional} chess was the shocking defeat of Carlsen by the hands of the younger Grandmaster Hans Niemann. The gorgeous upset rapidly sparked on-line accusations of dishonest, with one explicit Reddit (joke) principle about vibrating anal beads spreading like wildfire. Carlsen believes Niemann is a cheater and Chess.com accused him of dishonest, too. Niemann denied the costs and in October 2022 sued Carlsen, his chess app Play Magnus, the web site Chess.com, Chess.com’s Daniel Rensch, and streamer Hikaru Nakamura for $100 million.
But earlier than all of this, Carlsen had already introduced his plans to vacate his Chess World Champion seat. And Thursday’s match towards Hikaru Nakamura was a part of his final occasion as champ. I doubt anybody anticipated it could all finish with a easy error attributable to a mouse slip.
Carlsen’s misclick prices him the match
As reported by Chess.com, Carlsen was competing towards his previous rival, Nakamura; the 2 are thought-about to be two of the very best on-line chess gamers on the planet. They have been competing in an armageddon-rules play-off within the Losers Bracket. But within the remaining seconds of the tense match, Carlsen unintentionally dropped his queen on the incorrect spot. According to chess grandmaster David Howell it was “the worst possible mouse slip.” Right after the error, Nakamura took down Carlsen’s misplaced queen and the sport ended immediately.
The event remains to be ongoing, and Nakamura has superior out of the Losers Bracket and towards the prize cash.
As for Carlsen, this possible received’t be the tip of the world. While he’ll vacate his World Champion title quickly, he received’t be retiring. In July 2022, he defined in a podcast that he’ll stay an lively chess participant and has occasions and matches to come back sooner or later. He simply not needed to defend his title, as he discovered it was beginning to be a extra detrimental than constructive expertise, even when profitable.
Still, I wager he didn’t have “mouse slips and I lose my final match as World Champ in a million-dollar tournament” on the bingo card for a way this chapter of his profession would wrap up.
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