Chess: Carlsen wins with 1 f3 as Play Magnus raises $42m in Oslo listing

Magnus Carlsen has won yet another speed chess final, defeating Wesley So 5.5-3.5 after the world champion won the first game with the bizarre opening 1 f3 and 2 Kf2.

Meanwhile, the Play Magnus Group, a tech company which incorporates the chess24.com website, the Chessable learning platform and the Play Magnus chess app, will start trading on the Oslo stock exchange on Thursday. Its $42m initial offering has already been subscribed. The largest investment in chess has been backed by respected New York financial institutions.

Carlsen and So have history. In 2019 the American scored a crushing victory in front of a stunned Oslo audience in the Random Chess world final, while last month So tied for first with his rival in the St Louis online rapid and blitz. Arguably So rates as the world No 2 on form, although he failed to qualify for the official candidates eliminator to decide Carlsen’s next challenger.

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The opening 1 f3 and 2 Kf2 is known as the Bongcloud, a play on the device for smoking cannabis. The name has also been given to 1 e4 and 2 Ke2, which the blitz champion Hikaru Nakamura has used several times. For both, the intended effect is primarily psychological and as such it worked brilliantly against So, who stood better but eventually lost on time.

So could not get that defeat out of his mind. Two games later he said: “It’s hard to forget the game when someone plays f3 and Kf2 and just crushes you. That’s so humiliating.” At the end of the match he said: “If you lose a game against 1 f3 and 2 Kf2 it’s just very psychologically draining.”

Earlier, Carlsen dominated his old rivals Anish Giri and Levon Aronian, defeating the Dutchman and the Armenian by elegant play.

This was Carlsen’s ninth major tournament victory since the start of the pandemic but none made any difference to his No 1 over-the-board rating of 2863 or to his record unbeaten run which stands at 121 games.

The moment of truth comes on Monday, when Carlsen begins play in the traditional Altibox Norway tournament at Stavanger. The tournament, which ends on 16 October, has been reduced from its normal 10 players to a double-rounder of six, and its names have been largely dictated by Norwegian rules which restrict entry to the country by individuals from outside EU/Schengen nations and also require a 10-day quarantine.

Carlsen’s opponents will be led by the world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, who has dual US/Italian citizenship, and include Armenia’s Aronian, Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda, the former Iranian Alireza Firouzja, 17, who lives in France, and Norway’s No 2, Aryan Tari.

As in 2019, drawn games will be immediately replayed as an Armageddon (White five minutes, Black four, draw on the board counts as a black win) with scoring 3 for a normal win, 1.5 for an Armageddon win, 1 for an Armageddon loss, and 0 for a normal loss.

3691: No. The obvious try is 1 Rb8 Rxb8? 2 Qxb8+ and mates or 1...Qg4? 2 Qd8+! but Korchnoi had prepared the response 1...Qxf2+! 2 Kxf2 Ne4+ 3 Kg2 Nxd6 when the knight guards the c8 rook and it’s still a draw. Another winning try is 1 Qc7 Rxc7? 2 Rb8+ and mates , but after 1...Rf8! 2 Qd6 Qe4! White has nothing.