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Magnus Carlsen ended 2025 on a dominating note, clinching the World Rapid and Blitz titles in Doha. The World No. 1 was at his best, once again justifying why he is considered the GOAT by many fans. Carlsen had plenty of exciting fixtures during the year-ending FIDE tournament, and his showdown against Arjun Erigaisi in Round 9 of the Blitz C’ship was arguably the most entertaining.
Carlsen, running out of time, ended up having a viral moment with Arjun, which also reminded fans of his Norway Chess loss against D Gukesh. Carlsen was very low on the clock, and he picked up his queen to move it, but it instead fell from his hand to the ground. But just as he tried to retrieve it, his clock ran out of time.
Just like how he reacted after his defeat against Gukesh, Carlsen smashed the table with his fist in Doha too.
Arbiter Chris Bird, who handled the Carlsen-Erigaisi situation, took to X, sharing a video of Carlsen smashing the table. He further wrote, “No pieces, chessboards or tables were harmed during the filming of this video and for those wondering, Magnus immediately apologized to his opponent and me.”
Veteran GM Levon Aronian didn’t see the post’s humour and urged the arbiter not to normalise tantrums. “Chris, I don’t think we should be normalizing tantrums like that. It does affect players who are in the middle of a game who hear loud noises. In many sports such acts are penalized as unsportsmanlike behavior in order to send a message to younger athletes,” he wrote.
Defending himself, Bird replied, “Certainly not my intention to make it seem like I was OK with this behavior. I think in the video you can see I briefly spoke with Magnus, who like I said apologized. Beyond that point the issue was handed to my superiors to deal with as they saw fit.”
