Carlsen Back to Playing Classical Chess, Wins TePe Sigeman 2026
photo from fide.com
Magnus Carlsen emerged as the champion of the TePe Sigeman & Co. Chess Tournament 2026 defeating Arjun Erigaisi in an exciting blitz playoff.
Held in Malmo, the 2026 tournament featured a strong eight player round robin field that included world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, world No. 4 Nodirbek Abdusattorov, world No. 11 Arjun Erigaisi, and world No. 16 Jorden van Foreest. He returned to elite classical play there after reducing his participation in classical events over the past few years. Before Malmo, Carlsen had played very little classical chess, this was one of his rare participation in a traditional round robin event outside Norway since 2023.
The game we'll see is against teenage American grandmaster Andy Woodward. Magnus had the Black pieces in this game.
The game started with 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O
The King's Indian Defense, it has a reputation of being an aggressive option for Black. It was very popular in Kasparov's heyday but has fallen out of favor in recent years. Earlier in the tournament, Magnus played the Benoni Defense and now, the KID 6. Be3 a5 7. Nf3 Ng4 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bc1 e5 10. O-O Nf6 11. Be3 Ng4 12. Bc1 Nd7 13. h3 Ngf6 14. Be3 exd4 15. Nxd4 Nc5
We reached a position that has been played by Andy before in 2022. In that game, he played Qc2 which I think is better than his choice in this game. 16. f3 Nh5
The move f3 seriously weakened the dark squares around his King. Magnus will grind this position down and squeeze every advantage to win. 17. Qd2 g5 18. Bd1
A tactical retreat so that one of his Knights can occupy the e2 square and help defend the dark squares. The Bishop can move to c2 and train his sights on Black's Kingside. 18. ...Be6 19. b3 a4 20. Bc2 axb3 21. axb3 Rxa1 22. Rxa1 Be5
The Bishop on e5 reinforces Black's control over the dark squares. 23. Ra7 c6 24. Nce2 Nf4 25. Bf2
Andy declines the pawn sacrifice. If Bxf4 gxf4 Nxf4 Qg5 wins a piece 25. ...Nxe2+ 26. Nxe2 Qf6 27. Be3 Bxh3
Magnus stuns the youngster with a piece sacrifice. Accepting it will lead to an attack after Qxf3. So Andy declined the piece sacrifice. 28. b4 Nd7 29. Rxb7 Be6 30. Nd4 Ra8
The Rook joins the attack via the a file, threatening to invade White's first rank. 31. Nxe6 Qxe6 32. Bd3 Ra1+ 33. Kf2 Nf6 34. Ra7 Rh1 35. Ke2 Nh5 36. Qa2 g4
The can opener, g4 will expose White's King. 37. f4 Ra1
Magnus can already win the f4 pawn but he wants to distract White's Bishop first. But Andy decided to give up his Queen for two pieces. 38. Qxa1 Bxa1 39. Rxa1 Ng3+
Black already has a winning position and converted it after a few moves. 40. Kd2 Nxe4+ 41. Kc2 f5 42. b5 cxb5 43. Ra8+ Kg7 44. cxb5 Qd5 45. Rc8 Nf2 46. Rc7+ Kg6 47. Bc4 Qd1+ 48. Kb2 d5 { Black wins. } 0-1
A masterful game by Magnus Carlsen.
Game link: https://lichess.org/zdLuB9sq#0
Link to Andy's 2022 game: https://lichess.org/qMGsHC2B#27