 "World No 1 Magnus Carlsen consolidated his lead over Hikaru Nakamura and D Gukesh (left) in the Classical ratings after collecting a hat-trick of wins in the Norwegian Team Chess Championship. Image: X / Chess.com")
Norwegian chess legend Magnus Carlsen had in recent months expressed his disdain for the Classical chess format amid his feud with global governing body FIDE, opting instead to focus his attention on the shorter Rapid and Blitz formats while promoting Freestyle Chess – a private tour that he co-founded in which matches take place in the Fischer Random format.
Despite his dislike for the format, in which he is a five-time world champion and remains the world’s top-ranked player, Carlsen has not completely severed ties with Classical chess just yet – although he has made it clear that he will not be participating in events organised by FIDE going forward.
Carlsen widens gap with Nakamura and Gukesh in Classical ratings
On Wednesday, the 34-year-old made a successful return to the format by scoring 3/3 for Offerspill on the final weekend of the Norwegian Team Chess Championship. And in the process, the reigning world blitz co-champion further consolidated his lead at the top of the FIDE Classical ratings.
Carlsen defeated Grandmaster Simen Agdestein as well as International Masters Kristian Stuvik Holm and Alparslan Isik to complete a hat-trick of wins. His 100 per cent run helped Offerspill finish third in the final team standings with 12 points courtesy five wins, two defeats and two draws and an average rating of 2475.
Valerenga, the team comprising GMs Kaido Kulaots and Borki Predojevic, took the title with 14 points – courtesy six wins, two draws and one loss.
His hat-trick of wins also helped Carlsen earn 4.1 rating points, taking his current rating to 2837.1 – 35 points clear of American Grandmaster and popular streamer Hikaru Nakamura.
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Carlsen is also 50 points clear of reigning world champion D Gukesh, who has been charting a steady rise in the Classical ratings in recent months and had recently entered the top three after his runner-up finish at Tata Steel Chess in addition to his triumph over China’s Ding Liren in the World Championship .
As for the Norwegian Team Championship, Carlsen was rated over 200 points higher than the next highest-rated player – Agdestein (2573).