The worst moment of Magnus Carlsen’s career was in 2015, when he suffered four defeats in the first five days of Norway Chess. But the great chess star is close to failing again in his country: this Saturday he lost for the third time in five rounds, against the American Wesley So, and also showed clear symptoms of lack of motivation. The French-Iranian Alireza Firouzja remains in the lead at the halfway point of the tournament, while the leader of the women’s competition, the Kazakh Bibisara Assaubayeva, fell to the sudden death before the Ukraine Anna Muzychuk, resident in Valencia.
