Magnus Carlsen, a machine to win chess tournaments and thousands of dollars during the pandemic

Hernan Sartori

10/17/2020 7:01 AM

• Clarín.com

• sports

Updated 10/17/2020 7:01 AM

That the coronavirus pandemic

, which can only reap its head with spectacles without an audience or with a very limited capacity, is a part of history.

It happened.

Of course, there was and is a world champion who did not stay still and

in the middle of a health hecatomb.

Just as chess showed that its

modality

empowered it like never before in its history, Magnus Carlsen, the king of chess for a decade,

.

With his consecration in

, the first closed super championship played face to face between grandmasters, the Norwegian, number one in the world ranking since July 2001,

, nine virtually, and

.

A figure that only 38 male tennis players could win in the singles tournaments of a season cut short by the pandemic.

Carlsen and the chess world quickly realized that this would go a long way and assumed that the ease of playing

would translate into more users on the platforms and more possible spectators for elite tournaments.

told it

in a special report with unpublished figures.

Number one, quick for business, put together the

in partnership with Chess24.com.

And he won it.

And he deposited about

in his bank account

in May.

After winning the

and

, he lost the

semifinal

to American

but took another

greens.

From then on, it was a winning machine and raising dollars in fast-paced or

tournaments

.

Carlsen won the

(

), the

(

), the

tournament

(

) that he played with

,

and

, among others, and the Grand Final of his

, with

for his savings account.

Organized by the

, pure history was written in

, a tournament played with the Fischer Random system, because none other than the Russian Garry Kasparov returned to compete and Carlsen could not beat him.

The title was shared with Nakamura and both took

greens.

The same happened with American

at the

, with

each.

And the last virtual victory was in the

(

).

Virtuality ended, but King Magnus's domain did not end.

In Stavanger, the fourth most populous city in his native Norway and with

a country that idolizes him, Carlsen was crowned in Norway Chess one date before the end, thanks to his triumph against the

exiled Iranian

prodigy

in France.

An incredible end as Magnus Carlsen fights back from a hopeless position and then wins on time to beat Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon!

https://t.co/RWn5EdkNdi # c24live #NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/yl3c5Oo6iF

- chess24.com (@ chess24com) October 6, 2020

There he pocketed his last

of this

streak, but there, too, he suffered

.

The Polish

defeated him in the fifth round with white and took away an undefeated in games at a pace thought that had

.

More than two years had passed since the Azeri 

 beat him with white in 57 moves of a King's Indian Defense, at the Biel Festival, on July 31, 2018.

And on Friday, in the last round, he suffered the second blow when he fell to the Armenian

in his first loss with White at this rate since December 2017, after 88 games (40 wins and 48 tables), as he reports specialized journalist Tarjei Svensen.

Boy, did Carlsen take advantage of the non-stop chess activity during the pandemic.

His $ 556,450 in prize money alone is enormously worth when compared, with the obvious caveats, to tennis players.

According to the latest ATP earnings rankings, released on Monday, October 12,

during the year in singles tournaments.

Norwegian Chess King Magnus Carlsen, star of Norway Chess Photo: @NorwayChess

Novak Djokovic tops this ranking with $ 5,926,959 in prize money, followed by Dominic Thiem (5,114,678), Rafael Nadal (3,278,577) and Alexander Zverev (2,738,591).

Tenth in earnings in singles is Diego Schwartzman, after his semifinals at Roland Garros, with 1,291,934.

And in 38th place is the Japanese

(580,784), who this year won 11 games and lost 10, with the final in Delray Beach as the best result.

No one can unseat Carlsen from number one in the chess rankings in 9 years and three months.

He has been world champion at a classical pace since November 2013, when he took the title from Anand in India itself by 6.3 to 3.5.

And he defended his scepter three times: against 

in 2014, against Russian 

in 2016 and against Italian-American Fabiano Caruana in 2018.

Not counting those four games, the three fast-paced world titles and the five

mode

, according to Svensen, who follows in his footsteps, Carlsen

, including 7 at Wijk aan Zee, 4 at Shamkir and at London, 3 times Norway Chess and the Sinquefield Cup, and 2 times the Grenke Chess.

Magnus Carlsen, a winning machine.

And of billing in the middle of a pandemic.

HS

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