Magnus Carlsen's first interview on ChessBase India after becoming a Dad!

Magnus, first interview with you after you've become a dad. So, very nice and congratulations to you. How's the feeling? No, thank you. It feels really good. Yeah, he's a good boy and doing really well. Well, we are so excited to see you back in action over the board. How excited are you for this format? Clutch chess, top 3 in the world and Gukesh playing. Your thoughts? Yeah, I enjoyed the tournament. I think it was in 2020, a lot that I played online. I had a really, really exciting final against Fabiano. For this year, it's a great field. I'm excited to play some chess for sure. Do you feel like in the flow of things, you feel a bit rusty? How is your feeling overall? No, I definitely feel a bit rusty. I played a bit of online chess both casually and in tournaments. But apart from a little bit of preparation for this tournament, I haven't done much chess in the last couple of months. We'll see tomorrow. Is Ella here? Ella is at home. We are hoping that we'll all be able to travel to South Africa for freestyle. But for now, I think it's sensible for them to be at home. Magnus, you see the chess club here has been renovated. It's huge, it's bigger. What are your thoughts on this chess club? You've played here many times. 2013 is the first Sinkfield Cup that you won. Your memories and emotions of this place? No, it's definitely somewhere where we've had a lot of good tournaments. My play, my results have been a bit up and down. Very much played second fiddle, of course, the year that Fabi won. Generally, chess players are treated really well here. I'm happy to be back. And this position that I have in front of you, do you recognize it? Yeah, this was my very first game in St. Louis back in 2013 against Kamsky. It was a slob with an early a6. A lot of people played that back then, I think. I seem to remember that I played an early Bd3. We had kind of an equal-ish position. I thought maybe even he was taking over the initiative at some point, but then managed to get some counterplay. I guess in this position I played the move 3e1. Which was a very strong move. Yeah, this was a very good move. It protects this pawn. It prepares the queen for some action. I think he took. Rook c7, rook e7, bishop f6, king f6. I think probably I rook c8 first just to protect this. Queen goes here. Queen h4 here. Queen h5 check. Now the point is that rook g6 I think loses immediately to move rook to g8. He must have gone here. I think he played rook g6. Maybe it's not losing. Oh, maybe he can go here. Yeah. Because he did play rook g6 and you played f4. I played f4, yeah. This is the point actually. He has queen g3 so I have to play f4. And now this is essentially an unstoppable threat. So what did he do? Queen a3. Yeah, and then queen h8, rook g7. Rook g7. Check again, you repeated. Oh, I repeated and then rook f8. I think queen f8 you played. I played queen f8. And then I just took the pawn, yeah? Yes, slow but it's fatal, yeah. Yeah. And then my rook gets into g5. What did you do here? Rook gf7. Queen d8. Rook h7. Rook g1, right? Rook g1, yeah. Queen a2, king f3, king f6, queen g8. Rook h3. Sorry, king. Oh yeah, now I remember this. This was very far from easy. Rook h3, rook g3. It was queen g3. And he resigned. And he resigned, yeah. It was not easy to break through this position. No, this was not easy at all. I'm thinking these days, especially in a faster game, I'm not at all sure I would have found all of this. Because I think there were a lot of only moves in there. Yeah, it was a great game. I was good back then. And you also went to the World Championship after this. So this was your maybe last event. Last event. So I remember I won that game. And then I think I beat Goethe with the black pieces as well. And some Ruy Lopez exchanged. Exchanged variation. And then last game against Lavon, I only needed a draw. I kind of played a poor game. I got under some pressure. But then I managed to equalize. And then he famously offered me a draw at some point. But I thought at that point I could not lose. So I refused and I won the game. So overall it was a nice win. Yeah, it was this very nice a5 pawn, this Ruy Lopez. Very cool game. Magnus, we have one more position if we can try to get your thoughts there. Maybe a little bit tougher for you to recognize. No, so this I actually saw. This I actually saw online just the other day. This is my game against Naroditsky. And I guess he went here. He went here. Because I do remember this. I mean I saw it online the other day. So I do remember it well now. But I also remember playing it. And I blundered a rook early on. Got back in the game. And it's a fascinating position really. Three pairs of double pawns. But actually I was fine just a couple of moves ago here. But yeah, Nh5 happened. And then eventually he took an e4 with the bishop. Knight takes e4. I think he maybe repeated the position or something. I think Ng2, yeah. Ng2 here and then takes. Now it's winning. You have a great memory. No, but as I said, I saw this the other day. But you played so many games with Danya, especially in speed format. What about his play was special for you as his opponent in blitz, bullet? What was really interesting for me about playing Naroditsky was that he has, or had sadly, a style that's very different from mine. So I generally do well in faster formats unless I somehow get mated. I can play very good positional moves quickly. And that's what was interesting about him was that he was able to drum up attacks out of nothing. And he would quite often actually checkmate me. That's often how he won games. And so for me, that clash of style was extremely interesting. Amazing. And Magnus, we have one final segment for you that we've prepared to ask you if you could. We have Aditya here. So the segment is interesting because we have dates for you. It's about important things in your life. But if you get the dates correctly, you get 10 points. But if we have to tell you the year, then you get half the points. Okay, okay. Sure. We just saw that how good you are at your chess memory. Let's see the dates. The first one, 27th September. Yeah, it's the birth of my kid. A quick 10-pointer then, okay. Next one, we take a little higher, 30th November. It's my birthday. There's one more important thing. Oh, okay. It's my birthday and it's also when I won the playoff in New York against Karjakin. Actually, in Norway, it was 1st of December, but in New York it was still 1st of November. 30th November. Two 10-pointers you got. 15th November. 15th of November. It's probably the day that I got my first win against Rishi, considering that the match ended on the 22nd, I would guess. Yes, another 10-pointer. 20th June. What on earth? Probably Triple Crown. Oh my God. Yes, 2014. Okay, 4th of Jan. 4th of Jan? Oh, yeah, wedding day. Sorry. Should have gotten that a bit faster. I was thinking in just terms. Okay, 18th March. 18th of March. What did I do on 18th of March? I actually have no idea. My dad's birthday is the 17th. Very close to that. I can give you the year. It can be a little complicated. 2004. 2004? What did I do on the 18th of March? Was I against Gary? Gary was earlier, wasn't it February? No, it was 18th of March. It was in February. Okay, I guess. We can double check. I ever thought it was February? Could be. Okay, and the last one. 9th of October. Oh, boy. 9th of October. It could be the first time I was ever live number one in the world. I think that was not quite then. Is this chess related? And you're very close to where you're getting. 9th of October. Maybe, was that Nanjing? Yes, 2009. Yes, 2800. Excellent, excellent, Magnus. One second, prove that why you are the best. No, no, no. Please cut out the part about the wedding day. Thank you, Magnus. Thank you so much. Thank you.