The world n ° 1, Magnus Carlsen, is not satisfied with his performance in the Freestyle failures at the Grand Slam of Paris. He narrowly escaped the defeat against Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the quarter -finals, admitting that he has trouble adapting to unique format demands.
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Magnus Carlsen had a lucky chance against the Grand Master Ouzbekistan Nodirbek Abdusattorov on Thursday when he went to the semi-finals of The Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 Paris Leg. The world n ° 1 Carlsen hopes to win the Parisian leg of the Grand Chelem after having finished third in the first stage of Weissenhaus.
However, the Norwegian was tested on Thursday at his limits by Abdusattorov, 20, after winning the first match in the quarter -final. Carlsen had an advance of 1-0 but Abdusattorov, who played with white pieces, obtained more active positions of the opening and used a tactical fork in the middle game to win an exchange.
Abdusattorov’s dubious decision to take up the C5 on movement 33, however, led to an end of part where it was made of material but overwhelmed with two sets of dubbed isolated pawns.
After winning match 1.5-0.5, Carlsen quickly admitted that he currently had trouble with the skills required to perform well in the Freestyle failures where back positions are randomized to make games more unpredictable and promote creativity.
Carlsen was the leader of the round tour phase played in rapid control, but he revealed that he was struggling in the control of the classic time used in the Knockouts.
“This is the honestly opposite to Weissenhaus this year. I couldn’t really go very quickly and once we started playing classic, I felt much better. escaped, “he told Freestyle Chess Tour.
Questioned specifically about the reason why he seems to have trouble doing well in Freestyle chess matches, Carlsen said that skills seem to be the problem for him today.
“I think it is above all a problem of competence, to be honest,” he said. “Right now, I can’t understand it. It is the beauty of the game. It’s supposed to be difficult, that’s why we play on this.”
Carlsen will face Fabiano Caruana in the semi-finals in Paris. The American GM beat the French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the quarterfinals.
“I thought Fabiano has organized great performance today and I think it stops in shape, which will be a very difficult match,” he added.
