Magnus Carlsen won the 10th edition of the Norway Chess 2022, therefore becoming a 5-time Winner of the Norway Chess elite tournament.
Magnus defeated Veselin Topalov in a thrilling final round and in a post-game interview explained it was a tough game: “It was tough. I mean I had nothing much to offer in my game. I was a bit worse and I was just trying to make a draw“. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov had a chance to overpass Carlsen on the final standings if he had won the exciting classical game against Radjabov. “I thought Shakhriyar was gonna win, he was just winning positionally. But yeah, I was lucky“, added Magnus.
“I think my play was pretty good for most of the tournament and then I just completely ran out of steam in the end. I think, in the end, maybe the result is a little bit better than performance, but for the first six rounds it was very good“. He also spoke about the goal to reach a rating of 2900: “If I want to make 2900 I gotta play the way I played, especially in rounds three to six, except the game against Anand, but the result was okay“.
Being asked about his further plans, Magnus said he will follow the Candidates Chess 2022 full time: “I will be following the Candidates full time (laughing) for the next couple of weeks. It’s not like I’ve been playing too much, but I feel like I’ve constantly been a little bit sick, lacking energy… The most important thing for me in next month and a half will be just to gain some energy before playing again“. The World Champion also disclosed that his next tournament will be the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai: “Next will be Chennai, together with Grand Chess Tour events (SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia & Sinquefield Cup). So I’ll play a lot then, but I’ll have a bit of a break now which is really needed. It is always better to have a break after you caught a break” said Magnus for the end. See the complete interview below.
