Playing white, Carlsen won the first game of the first set by sacrificing a knight to capture a rook in the middlegame. After drawing the next two games, the world number one checkmated his younger opponent in the final game to win the first set 3-1. The Saudi Arabian audience applauded Carlsen, even though Firouzja played for the home team, Falcons.

Carlsen with the chess championship trophy at the 2025 eSports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the evening of 1/8/2025. Photo: Chess

The Liquid team player surprisingly lost the first game of the second set despite having a significant advantage on the board and the clock. He made a critical error when he captured the e4 pawn with his black knight. Firouzja moved his white rook to e2, forcing the black queen on c2 out of position to defend the knight. At that point, Carlsen had 4 minutes and 36 seconds remaining, while the 22-year-old had only 36 seconds. However, Black lost his queen and couldn't defend his position.

In the second and third games of the first set, Carlsen had a time advantage but didn't pressure his opponent, accepting draws. In the first game of the second set, he attempted to pressure Firouzja's time but was unsuccessful. Firouzja's speed was impressive, as the French-Iranian player is the reigning world bullet chess champion.

However, that was Firouzja's only bright moment. Carlsen won the remaining three games of the second set, finishing the match with 3-1 scores in both sets. He won the title in chess's debut at the eSports World Cup, receiving 250,000 USD. Firouzja finished second, earning 190,000 USD.

After the match, Carlsen said he felt he was in good form and confident of victory. "When I'm in good form, I have more opportunities against my opponents, and everything went perfectly," the 34-year-old added.

Carlsen hopes chess will continue to be featured in future eSports World Cups. According to him, this tournament "was unlike anything I've experienced before". "Hopefully, next time the playing hall will be even bigger, as it seems many spectators wanted to come in," he said.

The chess tournament at the 2025 eSports World Cup had a prize pool of 1.5 million USD, shared among the 16 participating players who competed over just four days. The players all praised the organization of the tournament. Even those with the lowest scores received 50,000 USD.

Xuan Binh