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Uncompromising Magnus Carlsen forces opponent to remove wrist watch before Freestyle Chess match; watch video
Magnus Carlsen showed no mercy as he spotted his opponent Victor Mikhalevski wearing a wristwatch during their match at the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open. Carlsen leads the standings after five rounds. read more
Fresh from winning the Paris leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, world No.1 Magnus Carlsen is having another good outing at the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open. After five rounds, Carlsen is in the lead and the only player with a perfect score of 5/5.
On Saturday, the five-time world champion Carlsen defeated Grandmasters Etienne Bacrot and Victor Mikhalevski. The match against 53-year-old Israeli Grandmaster Victor Mikhalevski became particularly notable due to a special request that Carlsen made just before their match started.
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Carlsen forces opponent to remove wrist watch
Before both players could engage in an intense battle of chess, Carlsen called for the arbiter as Mikhalevski was wearing a wrist watch. As a result, Mikhalevski was forced to hand over his wrist watch to the arbiter.
Magnus calls the arbiter before the game since his opponent, Victor Mikhalevski, has a watch! pic.twitter.com/AE6vV1MKKr — chess24 (@chess24com) April 19, 2025
It's not strange to see Carlsen complaining about his opponent wearing a wrist watch. Similarly, in 2023, at the Qatar Masters chess event, Carlsen had complained about Alisher Suleymenov wearing a wrist watch after losing to the Kazakhstan player.
Carlsen had clarified on social media X that he was not accusing Suleymenov of cheating, but the wrist watch made it difficult for him to concentrate. He was also angry with the organisers for not taking action against it.
'I was completely crushed in my game today. This is not to accuse my opponent of anything, who played an amazing game and deserved to win, but honestly, as soon as I saw my opponent was wearing a watch early in the game, I lost my ability to concentrate,' Carlsen wrote on X.
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'I obviously take responsibility for my inability to deal with those thoughts properly, but it's also incredibly frustrating to see organisers still not taking anti-cheating seriously at all (no transmission delay, spectators walking around the playing hall with smartphones),' he added.
Carlsen leads Grenke Chess Freestyle Open standings
Coming back to the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open, which is taking place in Karlsruhe, Germany. Carlsen is currently in the lead after five rounds but seven players are behind him by just half a point. Those seven Grandmasters are Awonder Liang, Paulius Pultinevicius, Baadur Jobava, Matthias Bluebaum, Alexey Sarana, Parham Maghsoodloo and Leon Luke Mendonca.
American Grandmaster Hans Niemann, who skipped the Paris Freestyle Chess grand Slam, is also fighting for the title at the Grenke Chess Freestyle Open. He has four points after five rounds.
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