Magnus Carlsen admits making 'shocking' mistakes in Norway Chess: 'I still have so much to learn'

World No 1 Magnus Carlsen had an underwhelming run at the Norway Chess recently, suffering four Classical defeats at his home event and finishing fourth out of six players, with India's R Praggnanandhaa going on to win the tournament on the final day.

The Norwegian Grandmaster was expected to win the tournament for a record-extending eighth time despite being semi-retired in the Classical format in recent years. Given how Carlsen has dominated the sport for more than a decade, his underwhelming run at the 2026 Norway Chess, which included back-to-back losses against Praggnanandhaa, was a massive upset indeed.

Also Read | How Magnus Carlsen’s underwhelming Norway Chess campaign raises questions on future in Classical format

Carlsen returns to action at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships that takes place in Hong Kong this week from Wednesday to Saturday, in which the 35-year-old represents the WR Chess team.

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And ahead of the tournament, the five-time Classical world champion opened up on what motivates him to continue playing the sport at the highest level and the "shocking" mistakes that he made recently.

"My main motivation is that I really like playing chess. I don’t have any particular things I want to achieve except for what’s in front of me at the time. Right now, I’m here and I really want to do well and help my team win this tournament," Carlsen was quoted by RookReview as saying.

"I actually played two classical tournaments in recent months, and it was very interesting from exactly the perspective of learning. There turned out to be a ton of decisive games, and a lot of them strayed from the known paths early on. That kind of shocked me.

"Not the mistakes I made — because that can be disappointing — but the number of times where I mis-evaluated something was, first of all, shocking to me, but also very interesting, because it told me that I still have so much to learn. That certainly broadened my horizons," he continued.

Carlsen not thinking about 'stopping point' anytime soon

Carlsen has limited his participation in Classical tournaments beyond Norway Chess since opting against defending his world championship in 2023.

He had, however, taken the chess world by surprise by participating at the Tepe Sigeman and Co Chess Tournament in Malmo Sweden in May ahead of his home event, beating India's Arjun Erigaisi in tie-breaks after both players finished level on 5 points.

As for his future in the sport, Carlsen added that he isn't thinking about retirement at the moment after the Norway Chess shocker.

"It’s probably not a super long perspective on me playing very actively, but we’ll see. I don’t have a definite stopping point or anything like that for the moment. I enjoy playing, so I don’t really think about a definite stop," Carlsen added.