World chess champion Magnus Carlsen faces first defeat in two years

Polish grandmaster Jan-Krzysztof Duda defeated Magnus Carlsen while playing a tournament in his native Norway.

World chess champion Magnus Carlsen suffered his first defeat in more than two years and a record 125 games. This loss forced Magnus to a fifth-round exit in the ongoing Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger.

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The last time Magnus Carlsen left the board with a defeat against his name was on July 31, 2018 when Azerbaijani grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was sitting on the other side. Since then the World No. 1 scored 44 wins and 81 draws, without facing defeat. Carlsen is resting over four consecutive Chess Championships, the last one coming in 2018.

However, on Saturday evening, World No. 15, Duda managed to register his only win in the tournament so far defeating Carlsen.

The 22-year-old told Chess 24 afterwards, “I didn’t expect to win this game.”But he was, he said “extremely happy, obviously”.

Carlsen was the one to set the pace and dominate the game, but Duda no where backed down holding his nerve till the last move was completed.

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Magnus, who is often tough on himself in post-game analysis, offered no excuses. “Extremely disappointing”, he said: “Completely unforgivable”.

The other results saw Levon Aronian win a with black against Fabiano Caruana to take the lead in the tournament and Alireza Firouzja moved into third place with a victory over Aryan Tari.