Magnus Carlsen's FULL INTERVIEW After Becoming the CHAMPION of The FIDE World Cup 2023

Welcome back to the 2023 World Cup, and we have the man himself, the 2023 World Cup winner, Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, is here in the studio to offer his insights on an incredible run. Magnus, this is the final feather in your cap. We congratulate you warmly on an amazing final match against Prague. First things first, there's already a lot of buzz over the tweet that you put out shortly after winning. That tweet contains a GIF. We're going to play that tweet here really quickly for the chat. Let me start by asking, can you elucidate the deeper meaning behind that tweet and that GIF? Yeah, I told my social media guy, I don't want to jinx this too hard. I told him yesterday, I don't want to jinx it too hard, but I've been thinking that this is what I want to post if I win. So I think it's kind of self-explanatory in a way. Let me ask a slightly more philosophical question, Magnus. This is, of course, the final feather in your cap. You've now won every significant chess tournament, at least once, including the World Championship, of course, and now the World Cup. Does this victory in any way change your relationship to classical chess, and does it change your motivations and desires as you continue your chess career and your focus? That's a very good question. Maybe it changes something a little bit with regards to the World Cup specifically. I wouldn't say it increases the chances that I'm going to play this event again. That's for sure. Apart from that, I think that already, at least for a bit, maybe for a year or so, I've felt that I'm only really playing classical chess on sort of special occasions, either because it's at home, like in Norwegian chess, or it's a massive tradition, like Tata, or it's either for family or for social reasons that I play. I think in terms of the World Cup, winning the World Cup wasn't really a thing for me before 2017. After I did so poorly, I was thinking that I cannot let this be my legacy from the World Cup. I felt that I corrected quite a bit of that in 2021, when I had a very good event. I was third, winning six out of seven matches, and I won a lot of classical games there as well. I didn't have any particular plans of playing this year, to be honest. I mean, I did have other plans during the event that fell through. I only really registered at the last moment, after Norwegian chess, when the other plans had fallen through. Then it was maybe a bit of an emotional decision after Norwegian chess, thinking that I played so poorly now in classical, I don't want to let that be the impression of me in classical, so let's play something else, try and give a better account of myself. To be honest, I was regretting the choice a little bit along the way, because I was thinking coming up to the tournament that I didn't particularly want to play, and I even expressed it during the event that I wasn't really sure what I'm doing here. Of course, as the tournament went along, it was clear that the only goal here was to win. I could have a good event again, but really the only thing that would to any extent satisfy me is winning the event. I don't think that's necessarily a good attitude to have, but that's what I felt. Now that I've done it, I can relax a bit. Yeah, Magnus, let me also enter the stage. First of all, a very big congratulation. I understand what it means to you, winning the World Cup, the only missing title. My very first question is that giving up the classical title last year, did this add the pressure that now that you play the World Cup, you have to win it at all costs? I think to some extent it does add a bit of pressure, but I felt like what was adding more pressure is that I've done so poorly in classical recently. Even if I was not world champion, if it was very clear from my results in classical chess that I'm still comfortably the best player in the world, then to be honest, I wouldn't have played here. I think it was more my poor results in classical this year that gave me some pressure and led me to play here more than the World Championship title, or lack thereof. My follow-up question would have been that you have faced tons of brilliant youngsters. What is your take on Vincent Keimer, Gukes and Pragnananda? It was sensational what we have witnessed during the World Cup. Yeah, it's a little bit funny that I faced almost zero players in their prime. I played Chuky and then I played three youngsters. So obviously they are very, very strong. I think I was lucky that I feel like I had by far my best day and game of the event against Gukes on the first day. I think otherwise that match would have been extremely tough. As for the others, you know, they're very, very strong. Vincent pushed me the hardest. He was one move away from eliminating me and leaving everything else moot. So I think they're all very, very good. Gukes is clearly the strongest classical player right now. And then you have Prague and Abdusatorov, who are really strong, but also mentality monsters. And then I think on a tier slightly below, we have Vincent and a few others. But what I think is very clear is that chess is in good hands for the future. I think this generation of players born from 1990 to 94 really have dominated for a long time. And finally now with these youngsters born 2003 and after, we have sort of a generation that's worthy of successing us when the time comes. And the time could be fairly soon. Magnus, let me put one personal curiosity to bed. Back to your match against Vincent, where you had that very impressive endgame conversion in the second game. So two related questions. The first, I'm assuming that you spotted NxE4 the moment that you allowed Bxc3. So my first question is, did you in fact see that during the game? And what goes through your head as you're waiting for Vincent to make the move? And then related to that, at what point in that game did you start believing that you had a serious chance of coming back? Was it the moment that he took your queen on c3? Well, first of all, my move a3 was incredibly stupid, because there was really no upside to it. I could have made a move like Bxc3, instead kicking the queen away and then played a3. I think it just speaks to the fact that it's really, really hard to play for a win on demand. And I know that I'm usually not in the right state of mind when I do, and I usually play significantly worse. And I think that's how you make these sorts of oversights, that you sort of tense up and you start to think about the result rather than the process. And I mean, I've been around for a long time, so I know these things, but it's still kind of hard to do. As for the moment itself, as I explained another time, he flinched a bit when I played a3, which is usually a tell that you've done something wrong. And then, of course, I spotted the trick immediately, and I thought I was out of the tournament. In terms of when I thought I'd get chances, I thought when he chopped off my queen, that was such a huge relief. And I thought at that moment that the endgame was a bit better for me. It took me just a little time, though, to realize that even the endgame is pretty much unwinnable, which just speaks to how poor a move a3 was. And then for the next few moves, I was really just trying to play a bit psychologically. I was seeing that he was a little bit tense, a little bit nervous. Some of his moves were, I thought, overcautious, so I thought I should try and give him as many choices as possible. And he was clearly hesitating, for instance, whether to play a5, which more or less forced me to play a4. And I very much understand why he wouldn't do it, because it looks like the structure is closed, and there is some potential for white to get the knight to b5, and then afterwards start moving on the king side, and you sort of feel that you're just going to have to wait. And I think, move by move, it's not realistic that I can get these setups, but I think he just didn't want to clarify that situation immediately. And once I got in the break f4, e5, I really started to believe. And there, after the time control, even though I thought the position was obviously still a draw objectively, I had a pretty clear target to push the ape on, it was hard for him to create real counterplay on the king side, because it was just really slow. So I thought he would have to find a way to hold rather than to get serious counterplay, and that's very unpleasant psychologically. So I felt, from that moment on, I felt really calm. I thought, as long as he cannot force the draw or get obvious counterplay, then I should eventually get winning chances. So, you know, the rest, I guess, is history. Yeah, Magnus, one thing about today's rapid match, we have heard that you had food poisoning, you have been suffering the last couple of days, but yesterday you shocked the world by playing on the CCC qualifier. You have played eight games, that kind of, and you scored seven and a half points against incredible players, that was kind of a clear statement for the chess world that, yes, I'm ready to fight. What were your thoughts by playing that qualifier? Well, first of all, apologies to the players whom I beat and may have taken some chances away. I really just wanted to play a few games to warm up. As I've spoken about before, rapid chess is a mix between classical and blitz, so getting some blitz warm-up, I thought, would be good. And I also wanted to see if my brain actually works, and thought the answer was, eh, kind of. Because even though I had a good score, the games weren't so good, and there were several reasons why I quit when I did. First of all, I could see that, well, my level was not so good, but it was okay, I'd sort of gotten the answers I wanted, I didn't want to exhaust myself, and I knew as soon as I started to lose, I would get pissed. So I thought, yeah, let's leave it at that with some good warm-up. Magnus, another feature chat question that I'll piggyback off of from Harry Osborne72, who's asking about your mentality going into the Speed Chess Championship, and on top of that, you've been playing online tournaments on chess.com regularly, from Title Tuesdays to the Bullet Brawls, unfortunately for some of us. Just kidding, of course. Could you tell us your favorite regular online event? Is it the SCC, or is it something else? And these days, what is your preferred time control online? Yeah, I would say the Speed Chess Championship is by far my favorite event on chess.com. I really think that it's sort of the pinnacle of Speed Chess, really, and it's the tournament that shows who's who. So I'm excited to be participating in that again, and try and do even better than last time. One question from the chat as well. Magnus, could anything change your mind to play in the World Championship if the format changes, from Phantom Lover? I think specifically the games would have to be shorter. If I were to... Let me preface this by saying that I'm not intending to put any pressure whatsoever on FITA or trying to change the format. This is just my thoughts and my opinion. The one non-negotiable point for me, if I ever were to play the World Championship again, is that there would have to be more games and shorter time controls. And I think specifically two games in a day is very, very interesting. And then time control could be, for instance, an hour per player, and then some increment at some points. So with the classical time control, I think there is just no way that I'm returning to the World Championship. That's unambiguous enough, Magnus. We appreciate your insights. I think it's time for us to let you off for your well-deserved rest. One more massive congratulations on your first World Cup victory. And thank you so much for offering your insights and your thoughts here in the studio. Thank you, Magnus, and congratulations. Yeah, thank you guys so much. You do an awesome job. And I've enjoyed listening to you guys a lot on the rest days I've gotten, or the tie breaks, rather. So keep up the good work. And the thanks to everybody who's watching us as well. Much appreciated.