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The World Champion as a Jokester
February 23, 2020
Joe Holmes has written an article on Magnus Carlsen which he describes this way:
The best chess player alive has been slipping into online speed tournaments behind pseudonyms to crack jokes, let loose, and destroy the competition.
See it at:
https://slate.com/culture/2020/02/ma...h-youtube.html
Some extracts:
“DrDrunkenstein” is one of many aliases Magnus Carlsen has played under during the past two years, when he went on a killing spree across the speed chess tournaments of the internet. Since winter 2017, Carlsen has taken to livestreaming his games on a variety of platforms, which has provided a surprisingly entertaining window into the mind of an all-time great.
Lichess.org is a free, ad-less web platform for chess players, a favorite in the online chess community. On Dec. 14, 2017, the site held its first Titled Bullet Arena, an exclusive tourney for master-level players to play blisteringly fast one-minute games. Lichess’ decision to host top-tier tournaments was viewed by some as a great leap forward toward establishing chess as an esport. In that debut, Carlsen appeared incognito as “DannyTheDonkey” and won, donating his small prize money back to the website.
Carlsen’s first showing as DrDrunkenstein was in Lichess’ second Titled Arena the following month. DannyTheDonkey was missing, and the mysterious Drunkenstein soared to the top of the elite competition. Commentators soon started speculating that the world champion had returned. He won commandingly; Carlsen ended the two-hour match with a score of 199. His three closest rivals were two grandmasters and an international master, who scored 132, 120, and 111, respectively. Carlsen streamed the games on Twitch, where he lived up to his username, pounding Coronas while bantering in Norwegian with his friends.
Chess fans were astonished. There’s something hypnotizing about watching a guy known as “the Mozart of chess”—a player who is quantifiably better than Bobby Fischer—taking a big gulp of beer, announcing his position as “completely winning,” then singing along to Dr. Dre saying “mother***k the police” while coasting into another quick checkmate.
February 23, 2020
Joe Holmes has written an article on Magnus Carlsen which he describes this way:
The best chess player alive has been slipping into online speed tournaments behind pseudonyms to crack jokes, let loose, and destroy the competition.
See it at:
https://slate.com/culture/2020/02/ma...h-youtube.html
Some extracts:
“DrDrunkenstein” is one of many aliases Magnus Carlsen has played under during the past two years, when he went on a killing spree across the speed chess tournaments of the internet. Since winter 2017, Carlsen has taken to livestreaming his games on a variety of platforms, which has provided a surprisingly entertaining window into the mind of an all-time great.
Lichess.org is a free, ad-less web platform for chess players, a favorite in the online chess community. On Dec. 14, 2017, the site held its first Titled Bullet Arena, an exclusive tourney for master-level players to play blisteringly fast one-minute games. Lichess’ decision to host top-tier tournaments was viewed by some as a great leap forward toward establishing chess as an esport. In that debut, Carlsen appeared incognito as “DannyTheDonkey” and won, donating his small prize money back to the website.
Carlsen’s first showing as DrDrunkenstein was in Lichess’ second Titled Arena the following month. DannyTheDonkey was missing, and the mysterious Drunkenstein soared to the top of the elite competition. Commentators soon started speculating that the world champion had returned. He won commandingly; Carlsen ended the two-hour match with a score of 199. His three closest rivals were two grandmasters and an international master, who scored 132, 120, and 111, respectively. Carlsen streamed the games on Twitch, where he lived up to his username, pounding Coronas while bantering in Norwegian with his friends.
Chess fans were astonished. There’s something hypnotizing about watching a guy known as “the Mozart of chess”—a player who is quantifiably better than Bobby Fischer—taking a big gulp of beer, announcing his position as “completely winning,” then singing along to Dr. Dre saying “mother***k the police” while coasting into another quick checkmate.
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