Magnus Carlsen finds himself as the only unbeaten player at the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open 2025 with an unblemished record after five games. Carlsen has had an interesting event so far at the German city of Karlsruhe, which has included being asked for a selfie by an opponent right before the start of a game. Then, before the start of another showdown, Carlsen has had to call on an arbiter to make sure his 53-year-old opponent takes off his wrist watch.
There are seven players who are in the chasing pack behind the former world champion, just half a point behind the world no 1: Alexey Sarana, Parham Maghsoodloo, Leon Luke Mendonca, Awonder Liang, Paulius Pultinevicius, Baadur Jobava, and Matthias Bluebaum.
On Saturday, Carlsen played his first game of the day against French grandmaster Etienne Bacrot, who is a eight-time French Champion. But before the start of the battle, there was a surprising request for Carlsen: Bacrot wanted a selfie on the board with the five-time world champion. This brought a grin on the face of the Norwegian, who gladly obliged before defeating the Frenchman with black pieces in 30 moves.
WATCH: Carlsen gets asked for a selfie by opponent
8-time French Champion Etienne Bacrot asks Magnus Carlsen for a selfie before their game! 😀#FreestyleChess #GrenkeChess pic.twitter.com/dcDiE5Y9YF
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 19, 2025
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Here’s what the selfie turned out like:
MAGNUS CARLSEN !!! pic.twitter.com/Z32XLYA8BU
— AlphaEchecs (@AlphaEchecs) April 19, 2025
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At the Grenke Freestyle event, all players are playing two games in one day, which meant the world no 1 found himself facing off against a 53-year-old grandmaster Victor Mikhalevski in the fifth round, which was Carlsen’s second game of the day on Saturday.
There too, something unusual happened right before the start of the game: Carlsen was seen beckoning an arbiter before the game started. When the arbiter arrives, the world no 1 pointed at his opponent’s wrist watch. Mikhalevski then took it off and handed it over to the arbiter.
WATCH: Carlsen complains to arbiter about opponent’s watch
Magnus calls the arbiter before the game since his opponent, Victor Mikhalevski, has a watch! pic.twitter.com/AE6vV1MKKr
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 19, 2025
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In the past, Carlsen has spoken up about him getting distracted by an opponent wearing a wrist watch. At the Qatar Masters chess event two years ago, he had lost to 23-year-old Kazakh GM Alisher Suleymenov and later said he lost his concentration because his opponent ‘was wearing a watch in the game’.
The World No 1 was swift to clarify that he was not accusing Suleymenov of cheating, but had gone on to lament that the organisers were ‘still not taking anti-cheating seriously at all.’
