Carlsen reveals how he almost ceded FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship to Caruana – Firstpost

Magnus Carlsen added another world title – his 21st to be precise – to his collection on Sunday, defeating Fabiano Caruana to win the inaugural FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship in Weissenhaus, Germany. Carlsen held Caruana to a draw in three out of the four Rapid games and pulled off a dramatic victory in Game 3 to win the final by a 2.5-1.5 scoreline at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort.

The turning point of the contest was in the third 25+10 game, in which Carlsen snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Carlsen was desperately moving his king around for safety after a series of errors, allowing his 33-year-old American opponent to seize control of the game and close in on a victory.

Caruana, however, committed a couple of blunders of his own (32. e4 and 35. Qb3), and a player of Carlsen’s calibre was not going to allow him to wriggle away from that position. The Norwegian Grandmaster ended up winning Game 3 in 37 moves to move into the lead for the first time in the final, and held on to that lead until the end to be crowned champion.

Reacting to the see-saw final against Caruana, Carlsen admitted that he thought the game was over for him at one point.

“I thought that I was doing reasonably well for a long time, and then I missed one of his resources there with knight h4 and I reacted poorly. Usually when you get a completely lost position, it happens gradually. But in this case, I captured his knight and I realised that he has an in between check and I can resign,” Carlsen said in the post-match interview with Freestyle Chess.

“I had a little bit of hope still, but then when he found these very nice moves with king d2 and then f5, I thought this is over. It is a bit strange when it happens so suddenly that you just go from thinking that your position is completely fine and then it’s just lost. You don’t really have that much time to think about what has happened,” he continued.

‘I was smelling blood’

The world No 1 then revealed how Caruana missing a couple of opportunities to seal his victory, allowing him to fight his way back into the game and tilt the balance of the contest in his favour.

“There were a couple of early knockout punches that he missed. When I got in the c3 move, I thought my position has little bit of potential now. I couldn’t see a very clear knockout at that point, and I was hoping he couldn’t either. I thought as soon as he gets very low on time, the quality of his play drops very significantly,” the 35-year-old continued.

“At that point I was hoping I might have a chance, He made a few checks back and forth, it seemed he was getting more and more frustrated. Towards the end, I could have probably forced a draw with the move queen to e6 instead of rook to f8, but at that point, I was smelling blood.

“I’d been on the ropes for this game, and the second game wasn’t easy either, and I just that I’m probably not going to get a better chance than this one. Fortunately he collapsed in a matter of moves there. I’m very happy with that part that I managed to psychologically reset and play for a win when I could,” he added.

Carlsen had previously won the FIDE Classical World Championship five times before deciding against defending his title in 2023. He is also the reigning Rapid and Blitz world champion, and has now added a the tag of ‘Freestyle Chess world champion’ following his victory in Weissenhaus.

“It feels great. Obviously the format and everything isn’t too different from what we’ve played on the tour but I’ve had one really, really off day each time in these championships, and I lost soundly to Wesley and then to Ian Nepomniachtchi as well on those days. I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t bring the level that I showed yesterday. It feels great to win, but I still feel like I can do even better. But it’s very nice to win,” Carlsen signed off.