Chess: Magnus Carlsen wins yet again while British Championship prize fund soars
The world No 1 won his 21st global title by defeating his old rival Fabiano Caruana in Freestyle chess at Weissenhaus in Germany
Magnus Carlsen notched up yet another world crown last weekend when the Norwegian, 35, continued his decade-long campaign aiming to edge ahead of Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer on the game’s absolute pantheon.
This time it was Freestyle chess, where the back-row pieces start in randomised positions to eliminate pre-game prep. Carlsen, who also holds the Rapid and Blitz crowns, abdicated his Classical title in 2023 citing lack of motivation. His total titles, now 21, include five at classical chess, six at one-hour rapid, and nine at three-minute blitz.
The event at Weissenhaus, a luxury resort on the German Baltic coast, was the first recognised by Fide as an official Freestyle world championship. Eight invited elite grandmasters met in a group stage, which Carlsen won with 4.5/7, then in knockout matches, where Carlsen beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the recent Wijk aan Zee victor, 3-1.
In the best of four games final, Carlsen met Fabiano Caruana, the 33-year-old US champion and his old rival from the 2018 world title match in London. In that series all 12 classical games were drawn for a 6-6 total, but Carlsen outclassed his opponent in the speed tie-break.
Games one, two and four in the final were all drawn, but game three was astonishing. Carlsen was completely lost with his king a sitting duck for Caruana’s attacking army, while the Norwegian had only two minutes left of his original 25. Yet somehow he mobilised his pieces, turned the tables, and launched a winning counter.
Afterwards, Caruana said: “It’s easily won in many ways, there are very practical ways to do it, but I just didn’t choose any of them.” Carlsen explained why he had the edge: “As soon as he gets very low on time, the quality of his play drops significantly, so at that point I was hoping I might have a chance. I was kind of smelling blood and I thought: ‘I’m not going to get a better chance than this one.’ I’m very happy that I managed to psychologically reset and play for a win when I could.”
First prize was $100,000 (£74,000), a generous reward but much less than for the 2025 Tour, which had financing from the venture firm Left Lane Capital. The plan had been to involve local partners, but few were forthcoming.
The English Chess Federation has just announced a huge increase in the prize fund, to more than £34,000, for the 2026 British championships at the University of Warwick, Coventry, from 1 to 9 August.
The previous record was £25,000 at Sheffield in 2011. For the full congress, including national championships for over-50 seniors and juniors of all ages, plus amateur-only events, the total exceeds £50,000.
The British women’s championship will have a more than doubled first prize of £3,000, and a total of £7,000, by far the most for any all-female British chess event. More than 1,000 participants are expected, and online entry is already available here.
Jan Timman, the world No 3 for the last part of the 20th century, died on 18 February aged 74. Timman played and lost three matches at the chess summit. In 1990 and 1993 he lost in Candidates finals to Anatoly Karpov and Nigel Short, while after Kasparov and Short broke away from Fide, he played an official title series against Karpov, losing 12.5-8.5.
“I would not choose chess as my profession these days,” Timman said in 2023. “They just sit behind computers all day. It’s not just travelling around and having a fun life, like I did. It was a hippie life, but with a purpose.”
England’s GM Gawain Maroroa Jones is top-seeded for the £5,000 Isle of Wight Masters, which reaches its sixth round (of nine) on Friday at Ryde school and which has daily coverage on Lichess. After five rounds England’s GMs Matthew Wadsworth and Shreyas Royal share the lead with GM Thomas Beerdsen (Netherlands) on 4.5, while Jones is in the larger group on 4.
A strong international tournament is currently in progress at Graz, Austria. Scotland’s Freddy Waldhausen Gordon, 15, won his first three games and reached 5.5/7, losing only to the leader, India’s MR Lalit Babu. Gordon drew with the top seeded Indian, GM Pranesh Munirethinam, in round eight and now needs at most a draw in the ninth and final round for the IM title.
Gordon is heading towards greatness. His career is on a higher trajectory than the iconic trio of Scottish chess, the three-time British champion GM Jonathan Rowson, whose career rating peak was 2599, Scotland’s first grandmaster, Paul Motwani, and the 19th-century master George Mackenzie, who won high prizes at the elite tournaments of Vienna 1882 and London 1883. The Edinburgh teenager’s handling of the black side of the Winawer French at Graz was subtle and instructive.
A win with White against Poland’s No 3 seed, GM Bartosz Socko, in Friday’s final round (viewable on Lichess, 8.30am GMT start) would give Gordon his first grandmaster norm. Three norms are needed for the GM title, plus a 2500+ rating.
Bodhana Sivanandan, just 10 years old, started at Graz with 2.5/3. After eight of the nine rounds, she had 4.5/8 with only one loss. At Monaco last month in the European women’s Rapid, Sivanandan was unbeaten. Her first WGM norm, achieved in France last year, was a world age record, beating the performance of the all-time No 2, Hou Yifan, at 11. Sivanandan has met only 2300+ opponents at Graz and is assured of another impressive result close to a 2400 rating performance.
4012: 1 Rg8+! Kh7 2 Qe3! wins. The threat is 3 Rh8+! Kxh8 4 Qxh6 mate. If 2…Re6 (to block the white bishop’s diagonal) then 3 Ra8! Qd6 4 Bxe6 Qxe6 5 Qd3 and White soon swaps queens for a simple RvB endgame win. The commentators all fell for 1 Rg8+ Kh7 2 Rxg6? when 2…Kxg6? 3 Bf7+ wins the queen but 2…Rd6! is a resilient defence. Nowadays Stockfish finds the right move instantly.
