Magnusopus: King on Top

Carlsen crowned at home as he talks about what winning the event means, where the next-gen are and more

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

VER since Magnus Carlsen started dominating the World Championship cycle in the latter half of the last decade, the world of elite chess came up with a ranking list to show his giant presence on the rest of the top players.

"The list," the joke went, "was Magnus being the world's best. The No. 2 was a bored Magnus. The No. 3 was a drunk Magnus. The No. 4 was a disinterested Magnus. The No. 5 was a washed Magnus."

Even if the joke was disrespectful to all the other top players, it says something about the world of chess that it kind of played itself out at Norway Chess. In an absolutely loaded field in Stavanger — World Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 — Carlsen was the only one who knew what the future had in store for him, at least in the short term.

The others are very much part of the Classical chess calendar. One of them, D Gukesh, will defend the world title next year. One of the others, Fabiano Caruana, has already qualified for next year's Candidates.

The point is the others were going to use this tournament to see where they stood in terms of their prep for upcoming Classical events. Carlsen? He used this event to remind the world that while his attention lay elsewhere, he still deeply cared about maintaining his status as chess' top dog in town.

Even if this wasn't a 'dream tournament' by his ludicrously high standards, he said 'it's nice to see I can still play'.