Magnus Carlsen gives an in-depth discussion on his experience at Shamkir Chess 2014, Gashimov Memorial in Azerbaijan.
Talking about the back-to-back losses, Carlsen said that his head didn’t work well, partly because of the long games and partly because he was watching too much TV – football, NBA, reality shows.
The football game on the rest day “helped him to get some aggression out”.
Carlsen also repeats what Vladimir Kramnik said – it was important for him to win at something, be it chess, football, or cards.
He proceeded to discuss his games from the second half of the tournament.
Carlsen talked a bit about decision-making process in his game with Nakamura. He also briefly mentioned the games with Karjakin and Radjabov.
About the last round clash with Caruana, Carlsen said he didn’t want to play for a draw even if it would secure him first place on better tie-break. He added that he came up with 5.c3 during the game and thought that it was very creative.
