World No. 1 chess player and five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen will be in action at the ongoing Esports World Cup 2025 in Riyadh, representing Team Liquid. Ahead of the event, Carlsen spoke about the unique time format (10 minutes with no increment), which creates additional pressure with no increment, unlike the many rapid and blitz events played online.
Carlsen said his mouse speed is slow, and if he runs into someone like young Indian Nihal Sarin, it might turn into a dangerous match-up. “I only played the two qualifier events to get here with this time control, but for me, it worked out okay. My mouse speed is not necessarily the best, but I play fast and well enough that it doesn’t usually bother me,” said Carlsen to Chessbase India ahead of the Esports World Cup. “We will see, however, you could run into really dangerous matchups here. For instance, we saw in the qualifier how incredibly good Nihal (Sarin) is with very little time on the clock. There could be certain players like him and Alireza (Firouzja); I think, especially if they have a good event, they can use that mouse speed to their advantage,” he said.
Speed demon, Nihal carries a moniker for being one of the best players when it comes to speed chess.
“But overall, it is entertainment, but it’s also esports, and therefore, motor skills should matter a little bit more in over-the-board play. I generally like events that are unforgiving in terms of time control, where time management actually is an important part of the game. So overall, it may make the players uncomfortable at times, but that’s part of the game, and overall, I like it.”
Speaking on the players he should be wary of in the 16-player event, Carlsen said: “I think the Falcons players, Hikaru and Alireza, are on paper the most dangerous. Hikaru is probably quite clearly the most consistent among the others. But there are many players who could make a dent. I would say practically all the players here have some sort of chance to make a deep run. There really isn’t that much in between them. I might have personal preferences about whom I would like to play, but if you talk to one of the other top players, they might be different. So, it’s a really stacked field, and everybody’s very strong.”
Nihal and Arjun Erigaisi are the two Indians who will feature in the EWC 2025.
