Just weeks after Magnus Carlsen shocked the chess world after resigning against Hans Niemann on the move 2 during the Julius Baer Generation Cup, the Azerbaijani grandmaster Rauf Mamedov had the same reaction during the Titled Tuesday played on October 11th, on chess.com. Mamedov had white pieces and started with 1.e4, when Carlsen answered with Borg Defense – 1…g5. Rauf decided to resign.
In the interview for sports.ru, Mamedov revealed he almost got banned from the platform for resigning on the second move: “Fillimonov from Crestbook wrote to me asking why I left the tournament. I answered that because of 1…g5. And on Wednesday morning the journalist got in touch and told me that I’d almost been banned [from chess.com] after this incident on Chess.com“.
Rauf explained that he didn’t want to continue the game after seeing Carlsen’s 1…g5 as he didn’t want to allow Magnus to make fun of him: “Titled Tuesday gathers strong lineups, all people come here to play chess, maybe someone will make money. And then – 1.e4 g5! Well, I decided not to continue … If you come to mock us, then without me. I don’t think I’m right and so on, but I definitely don’t want to participate in something like that. (…) The move 1…g5 in a prize tournament, moreover when the World Champion makes it, is wrong… There are always more expectations from a game against Carlsen than anyone else, but instead of that, mockery“.
Commenting on Mamedov’s decision to resign on the second move, Ukrainian grandmaster Mikhail Golubev said he liked the game and that maybe Rauf’s resignation will inspire Magnus to change his repertoire for the Titled Tuesday tournaments. See the tweet below
