Chess: Magnus Carlsen enjoys narrow win in Malmö during rare classical outing

The Guardian Sport1h ago6 min readOriginal source →

TL;DR

Magnus Carlsen secured a narrow victory at the TePe Sigeman tournament in Malmö, Sweden, after a blitz playoff against Arjun Erigaisi. He faced a significant challenge from 14-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, who blundered in a drawn position.

Key points

Magnus Carlsen won the TePe Sigeman tournament in Malmö
He tied with Arjun Erigaisi at 5/7 and won the blitz playoff
Carlsen lost to Jorden van Foreest in the fourth round
Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus blundered in a crucial moment
This was Carlsen's first classical loss since Norway 2025

Mentioned in this story

Magnus CarlsenArjun ErigaisiYagiz Kaan ErdogmusJorden van ForeestMalmöGukesh Dommaraju

TePe Sigeman tournament

The world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, making a rare return to classical chess this week at the annual TePe Sigeman tournament in Malmö, Sweden, squeezed through to a blitz playoff in Thursday’s final round after Turkey’s 14-year-old talent Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus blundered fatally in the late stages after reaching a drawn position.

Carlsen tied on 5/7 with India’s Arjun Erigaisi and won the blitz playoff 2-1. This was the final sudden death game.

Earlier, Carlsen was defeated in Monday’s fourth round in a fluctuating marathon 88-move game by the Netherlands GM Jorden van Foreest, whose predatory rook finally trapped a Carlsen knight which had wandered too far from base. It was a grind of a type which Carlsen himself has won many times in his career.

This was Carlsen’s first classical loss since his defeat against India’s reigning world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, at Norway 2025, when he famously banged the table in frustration.

4023: Javokhir Sindarov v Rinat Jumabayev, Moscow Aeroflot 2020. White to move and win. 4023

Carlsen previously played in Malmö as a 13-year-old in 2004. His return in 2026 was sparked by a desire to get into shape before Norway Chess at Oslo, which starts in two weeks and which he has won for six of the past seven years.

Carlsen was taking a risk, for seven rounds was a sprint where dangers lurked. He played conservatively against his two top-12 opponents in the first three rounds, but chose the aggressive King’s Indian, Benoni and Najdorf Sicilian with Black against the lower rated players.

His reasoning was that, with a fast classical time limit, there would be a period of 20 moves or so before the move 40 clock control where the game would effectively be rapid chess, a genre at which Carlsen is supreme.

Carlsen called his win with the Benoni “a fun game” as the Swede Nils Grandelius went strategically wrong with 13 f4? after which his pawn centre became static while the world No 1 mobilised his queen’s wing by 17…b5! There was a thematic end to the game as the black a pawn marched right down the board to a2 and White resigned in the face of imminent queening.