Carlsen left awestruck by his own skills during 'Titled Tuesday' victory over 3000-rated opponent: ‘A modern masterpiece’

Magnus Carlsen certainly is making headlines for his performance in the latest edition of ‘Titled Tuesday’ even if he did not finish top of the standings – or even among the top-three for that matter.

After all, it was in the latest edition of Chess.com’s weekly online blitz event for titled players in which Carlsen had hoodwinked Russian-Slovenian Grandmaster Vladimir Fedoseev in a space of 11 moves, eventually winning their Round 5 meeting in 22 moves.

That, however, wasn’t the only round in which Carlsen had offered a glimpse into his talent that has helped him dominate the sport for more than a decade and establish himself as one of the greatest of all time.

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The 34-year-old Norwegian chess superstar had defeated over French GM Jules Moussard while playing as black in Round 4, right before his face-off against Fedoseev. And even Carlsen couldn’t believe just how good he was in this round despite his status as one of chess’ all-time greats.

The game developed from a ‘Modern Defense’ opening, with Moussard advancing both of his knights and bishops early on. Carlsen exchanged his bishop for a white knight inside the first 10 moves, and offered a queen exchange in move 26 that was promptly accepted by his opponent.

Carlsen and Moussard were left with a knight and a bishop respectively in the endgame after the two players traded their last rooks in the 41st move (Rxf7+, Kxf7). It was in the business end of the game where the Norwegian highlighted his mastery by moving his h-file pawn (44. h5) for the first time in the game.

The move offered more space for king to not only maintain safe distance from Moussard’s bishop and keep a check on his advancing pawn at the same time. The Frenchman had kept his bishop along the first rank in order to prevent Carlsen from promoting his pawns.

‘Holy f**k, I’m good at chess right now’

Carlsen, however, was galloping his knight dangerously around the white king at the same time, forcing Moussard to address that area with time quickly running out of the clock. He did capture the black knight with his king, only to raise the white flag of surrender with 12 seconds left and the path cleared for at least two other white pawns.

“Holy f**k, I’m good at chess right now. I’m so good right now. That was an absolute joke, how good that was. That is a modern masterpiece,” Carlsen said during the endgame after moving his h-file pawn, scarcely believing the manner in which he shut the door on his opponent’s chances of forcing a draw, let alone collect a win.

And it wasn’t a lowly played he happened to play against – Moussard happens to have a FIDE blitz rating of 2629 and is rated over 3000 on Chess.com’s Blitz leaderboard.

Despite his stellar performances against Moussard and Fedoseev, Carlsen finished sixth in the event with a final score of 8.5. While he won his first five games on the trot, Carlsen could win just three in the remaining six rounds.

American chess star and popular streamer Hikaru Nakamura, the most successful player in ‘Titled Tuesday’ history, finished top of the standings with 10.5 points - collecting 10 consecutive wins before playing out a draw as black in the final round.