‘Like a cow ashamed of its body’: Magnus Carlsen invents phrase to critique himself

World No 1 Magnus Carlsen is seen before the start of his second round game against Vincent Keymer at Norway Chess. (Michal Walusza / Norway Chess)In the middle of his second round clash at Norway Chess against Vincent Keymer, Magnus Carlsen walked in the confessional booth for what was his second pitstop of the day. Over the years, the confessional booth — an innovation seen only at this tournament — has delivered multiple moments of virality. Carlsen, looking thoroughly displeased with himself today, delivered one more moment of social media virality. So disappointed was Carlsen with himself that he invented a phrase on the spot to express what he was feeling. Carlsen thought his game against Keymer “felt like a cow that was ashamed of its body”. He then called it an “udder embarrassment”. The world no 1 felt like every move he was making felt like a “positional mistake”. A few hours later, the game ended in a draw, but not before it saw multiple mistakes from both players, none more glaring than Carlsen missing a checkmating opportunity. So dejected was Carlsen at not winning the classical game on Tuesday, that he spent plenty of time after the draw hunched over his own chair in silence. In the Armageddon contest soon after, Carlsen salvaged some pride by winning. But heading into Wednesday, Carlsen finds himself in a spot he’s not used to: second from the bottom of the open section standings. Still smarting from a defeat in the opening round to Alireza Firouzja on Monday, Carlsen was hungry for a win against Keymer. So he tried to catch Keymer off guard by opting for the off-beat English Opening. But very soon it became apparent that rather than be surprised, Keymer was prepared with his lines to fight. Carlsen, during his first visit of the day to the confessional booth, said that the opening idea was “inspired by the man himself”. Carlsen had tried to flip the script on the German grandmaster. He had pulled a leaf out Keymer’s book by replicating lines from the German GM’s game against Maxime Vachier Lagrave last week in Super Classic Chess Romania. But it backfired as the Norwegian soon found himself burning time on the clock out of the opening itself. Once he had managed to navigate out of the choppy waters, Carlsen held an advantage.Story continues below this ad The crucial moment of the game came on move 31 when Carlsen thought his bishop on c6 was trapped. He sacrificed a piece only to see Keymer erring as well. A few moves later, Carlsen was a pawn up and could have delivered a checkmate. Instead, he opted to exchange queens, which saw Keymer wriggle his way out of trouble. Just a day earlier, during the first round, Carlsen had apparently gotten so engrossed in following the Keymer vs Gukesh game that he had lost his way while going home in a city that has been his home for decades. Now, he had lost his way on the board. Alireza defeats Pragg, Divya defeats Humpy The only decisive game of Tuesday’s second round at Oslo’s Deichman Bjørvika was Alireza defeating Indian star R Praggnanandhaa. This marks Alireza’s second win in a row at the tournament. Elsewhere, world champion D Gukesh was held to a draw in the classical portion before losing the Armageddon clash to Wesley So. Story continues below this ad In the battle royale between the two Indian prodigies, Divya Deshmukh managed to fight her way to a draw against compatriot Koneru Humpy before winning their Armageddon clash. After round 2, Divya Deshmukh is the highest ranked Indian, standing at second in Norway Chess Women tournament. Over in the open section, Gukesh, despite being unable to beat So in the classical clash, finds himself third in the standings. The Indian duo of Humpy and Pragg are at the bottom of the pile on both ranking lists. (The writer is in Oslo at the invitation of Norway Chess) Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. He primarily writes on chess and Ol