Magnus Carlsen sinks to historic low after horror rapid campaign in world team championship

World No.1 Magnus Carlsen is currently facing a scenario that he has hardly faced before in his legendary career. At the ongoing FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships in Hong Kong, the Norwegian superstar was repeatedly defeated even by far weaker opponents.

Carlsen's form took a stunning downturn as he lost four consecutive games while representing WR Chess in the rapid section of the tournament. For the former world champion, even losing one match is a headline and four back-to-back defeats has sent waves across the chess world.

The string of losses have also pulled Carlsen's ratings down to a historic low.

Carlsen touches historic low

With four defeats on the trot, Carlsen lost 29 points in the rapid rankings. This brought his live rapid ratings down from 2832 to 2803. This is the lowest his rapid rating has dropped since the global chess governing body introduced official ratings in this time control in 2012.

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The event had begun on a normal note for Carlsen. He had started with a draw against Indian GM Raunak Sadhwani and followed it up by victories over veteran Ukrainian GM Vasyl Ivanchuk and Xu Xiangyu. Another stalemate, this time against Russian GM Vladislav Artemiev, followed before it all turned around.

Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi delivered a stunning 30-move defeat to Carlsen which derailed his campaign. Armenia's Shant Sargsyan, World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov and Aydin Suleymanli, a 21-year-old from Azerbaijan rated 2556, all then forced the World No.1 to taste defeat on the chess table.

The string of results is the worst ever for Carlsen who had never suffered four back-to-back losses since he became a GM at the age of 13 in 2004. The last time the Norwegian GM had suffered such a fate was at the Gausdal Classics tournament in 2003.

Carlsen had also had a tough time at the recent Norway Chess where he could not finish in the top three on his home turf.