(CNN) Magnus Carlsen lost against Hikaru Nakamura in the losers final of the Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters 2023 thanks to a dramatic slip of his mouse in what is his final tournament as the globe champion.
Just after drawing their initially two games, the duo faced off in an Armageddon clash — related to standard chess but black has draw odds, which means that if black draws the game they win, and black begins with significantly less time on the clock than white — to determine who would face Fabiano Caruana in the grand final.
Just after a tight encounter, the match was heading to its final seconds with incredibly tiny to separate the two titans of chess.
And it was a moment of unfortunate luck which separated the two when Carlsen’s mouse slipped which means he place his queen onto F6 which permitted it to be taken by Nakamura and seal the victory.
Nakamura — wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with “I actually do not care” on the front — celebrated with a fist-bump even though 5-time globe champion Carlsen could be observed exclaiming and grimacing in aggravation.
Carlsen reacts as his mouse slips resulting in his loss to Nakamura.
“You happen to be attempting to defend, defend, defend, and he can not win each and every match,” Nakamura told chess.com afterwards.
“I know he’s the greatest player of all time, but he can not win each and every match! Somebody can not just get fortunate each and every single time. It was just good for a transform to have a thing go my way.”
The American went onto equate the pair’s rivalry to two of the giants of Big League Baseball.
“It is like comparing the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Socks. I imply, the Red Socks won a Planet Series in 1918 they did not win once again till, I feel it was, 2004,” Nakamura mentioned.
“You know, the final couple years, I discovered a way to play properly … I feel the most important factor is I do not fall apart against Magnus. In the previous, I would’ve fallen apart incredibly speedily.”
Carlsen exits his final tournament as globe champion with $15,000.
The Norwegian is picking to relinquish his mantel as globe champion this year soon after withdrawing from this month’s Planet Chess Championship exactly where he would have defended his title against globe No. two Ian Nepomniachtchi.
He has mentioned in the previous he would give up title unless his challenger represented “the subsequent generation” and cited Alireza Firouzja.
But Nepomniachtchi’s victory at the 2022 Candidates Tournament triggered Carlsen to announce there would be a new globe champion soon after a extended reign at the major.