Blitz

Nine wins in a row. What are the chances? That’s how Magnus Carlsen began on the first day of blitz (fast) chess at the the Zagreb Grand Chess Tour. My guesstimate is that Carlsen wins no more than half of his blitz games against the standard of opposition that he faced in Croatia, where his toughest rivals included Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi. So I think you would be more likely to see a coin land on heads nine times in a row than for Carlsen to repeat that achievement. (In slower games, where decisive games are less frequent, his chances would be lower still.)

Of course it took some luck here and there, as blitz chess always does, but the former world champion looked dizzy with delight, beaming like a child and describing his achievement as ‘really special’. On the second day of blitz he scored ‘only’ 6/9, but combined with a strong showing in the rapid event that was enough to leave the Norwegian as a comfortable winner in the combined standings.