What a wonderful thought it is to wake up as World Chess Champion in all 3 formats viz. Classical, Rapid, Blitz! Superb? Unthinkable? Am I joking? Is there is anyone like this? Answer is yes!It’s only and only GM Magnus Carlsen who is holding all 3 world titles from Dec 2019! A feat is achieved in 2014 also. Wow, isn’t this insanely fantastic?So, it was Carlsen’s 4th Classical title where he won against GM Fabiano Caruana (world no. 2 then) in tie breakers as all 12 classical games ended in draws in a hard fought match!
Just to remind you it was a thriller performance from Carlsen at both events with his clash against Alireza grabbing lot of attention with small controversy but also shows class nerves of Carlsen! You can revisit that game. Of course, final game against GM Nakamura showed great fighting attitude and focused approach of Carlsen!
Carlsen with Classical World Championship Trophy – 2018
So, we looked back at some key details so far. Now, in December 2021, Carlsen has a simple task at hand – defend all 3 titles!What? Why?
Yes, Classical championship is against Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi 2021 at Dubai and from 25th Dec to 30th Dec we have world rapid and world blitz championships announced by FIDE!
Carlsen with Rapid & Blitz world championship titles (2019)
Now, just think what kind of emotions, delivery and task at hand is with Carlsen. Stupendous! So, isn’t it that higher the stake, higher the ask. We want our side to be greener but then what it takes to make it green? Every envelop has 2 sides – efforts and rewards. It’s easy to look at rewards and get excited about it, what we need to focus on is efforts!
Some might crack with such daunting task. Some might inspire. Outcome is not something we need to focus. What’s most important and special is the experience. Imagine, in 7.9 billion people on the earth, it’s only 1 out of all these Carlsen who can experience this. Can we find some such resemblance in our life or our journey? Let’s wake up like the World Champion!
