Upset

Magnus Carlsen was, as he said, ‘completely crushed’ in the second round of the Qatar Masters earlier this month. His opponent, 23-year-old Alisher Suleymenov from Kazakhstan, is a grandmaster, but on paper nowhere near to the level of the world elite. He played the game of his life, but his achievement was undermined by Carlsen’s intemperate comment (on X) that ‘as soon as I saw my opponent was wearing a watch early in the game, I lost my ability to concentrate’.

Predictably, this began a frenzy of gossip, though the world no. 1 soon clarified that he was not accusing his opponent of cheating. The sad truth is that a miasma of mistrust is encroaching year by year. That paranoia is not baseless – technology is getting smaller and cheaper, and there is a perception that the sporadic reports of busted miscreants represent only the tip of the iceberg.

In top-tier tournaments, players are familiar with a few standard measures.