Magnus Carlsen faced off against former Norwegian national champion Frode Elsness in the opening round of the the 2025-26 Norwegian Team League in Oslo. And given the unsual manner in which it unfolded, the world No 1 isn’t likely to forget it anytime soon.
Chess icon Magnus Carlsen has faced a wide variety of opponents throughout his illustrious career, from all-time legends such as Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Viswanathan Anand to current stars such as Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, D Gukesh and more.
Having occupied the number slot on the FIDE ratings since July 2011 and won the World Championship five times, there aren’t too many players of note out there the Norwegian has not defeated more than two decades on since he became a Grandmaster at the age of 13.
One of Carlsen’s most recent games also turned out to be among the most unusual he’s been part of in recent memory. The game in question had Carlsen going up against International Master and former Norwegian champion Frode Elsness in the opening round of the 2025-26 Norwegian Team League, the former representing Offerspill Club.
Carlsen’s face-off with Elsness took place on the outskirts of Oslo, where he had arrived in a fairly tired state after winning the ‘Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown’ event in the United States. The 34-year-old was thus a little apprehensive heading into the contest, due to the tendency of his defeats making headlines more often than his victories of late.
“I’m always a bit apprehensive because I know that me not winning a game is big news, and it’s happened before in the Norwegian league,” Carlsen said in a video posted by Take Take Take recently.
Carlsen vs Elsness off to an unusual start
The game against the 2445-rated IM, who had won the Norwegian Championship in 2008, began with Carlsen playing as white and starting with an English opening (c4) that was reciprocated by his opponent.
Carlsen then pushed his ‘g’ pawn forward followed by his bishop for the long diagonal before indulging in some unusual moves. When Elsness replied with a pawn break (d5) to try and block the path of his opponent’s bishop, Carlsen replied by capturing the piece with his c-pawn, which then quickly got captured by Elsness’ knight.
Instead of then developing his other pieces, the world No 1 opted to continue attacking the knight at the centre, pushing his queen’s pawn forward to d4, only for it to get captured right away in a pawn exchange. Carlsen continued his unorthodox style thereafter, capturing the advancing black pawn with his queen to place it right next to his opponent’s knight.
Elsness’ response to the early queen move was to bring out a bishop and his other knight, forcing the white queen to move from one side of the board all the way to the other, only to later find itself under attack from it’s black counterpart.
A player of Carlsen’s calibre wouldn’t face much difficulty in handling the tricky situation, and managed to force his opponent to make a couple of defensive moves while protecting his queen.
World No 1 stamps his authority on home turf
Elsness later attempting to mount a charge towards Carlsen’s half of the board with his queen, putting it in line with the white king (b3) with just a knight standing in the way. Carlsen responds by threatening the black queen with his a pawn (a3), forcing his opponent to retreat his most powerful piece.
The 52-year-old then potentially committed a blunder by placing a bishop right in front of his king, moving it from f8 to e7. Carlsen, however, did not did not capitalise on the mistake by capturing the black bishop either with a knight or with one of his bishops. Such a move could have unlocked a plethora of attacking formations against the black king with his knight or with one of his rooks.
The five-time world champion, however, was gaining ground on his opponent at this point. And the writing was on the wall after Elsness committed another blunder – moving his king away towards the corner after castling Kingside instead of moving his other rook closer for further fortification.
Carlsen would go on to knock both black rooks off the board and had a four-pawn advantage over his opponent along with a rook and a queen. Realising the hopelessness of his situation, Elsness finally raised the white flag of surrender and shook hands, bringing the curtains down on an unusual 36-move contest.
So much for being tired out of his mind and worrying about making headlines over a defeat.
Watch the full game here:
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