Carlsen had married Ella Victoria Malone at a ceremony in Oslo on 4 January. The honeymoon, however, barely lasted a week and the chess icon found himself sitting in front of a board in no time.read more
Chess world No 1 Magnus Carlsen made a winning return a little over a week after getting married, defeating Dutch Grandmaster Max Warmerdam in Hamburg, Germany in his first Classical game in nearly four months. The five-time world champion’s victory helped St Pauli collect their first win of the 2024–25 Chess Bundesliga. This was after the Norwegian GM drew against China’s Wei Yi on Sunday as St Pauli suffered a narrow defeat against co-leaders Dusseldorf.
“It’s of course very, very nice to start off married life as a chess player with a win!” Carlsen was quoted as saying by Chess.com.
Carlsen had married Ella Victoria Malone at a private ceremony in Oslo on 4 January. The honeymoon, however, barely lasted a week and the chess icon found himself sitting in front of a board in no time.
“I’ve had a very, very nice last week and today is kind of back to work,” added Carlsen, who had shared the Blitz world title with Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in New York City on New Year’s Eve.
Magnus Carlsen makes his debut for FC St. Pauli in the German Chess Bundesliga. And in case you were wondering: he’s wearing jeans. pic.twitter.com/Ue2OggO8xC
— Florian Pütz (@FloPuetz) January 11, 2025
Carlsen represents the chess team of St. Pauli, the Hamburg-based club that is primarily known for its football team that currently competes in the Bundesliga – Germany’s top club football division. St Pauli is known for its passionate fans as well as for its left-wing politics – the club had recently joined the trend of boycotting the Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter), following the footsteps of British newspaper The Guardian.
Carlsen is said to be a fan of St Pauli’s football team and had received financial support from Freestyle Chess founder Jan Henric Buettner and the Weissenhaus Chess Academy for representing the club in the Chess Bundesliga.
“The team obviously didn’t have the best start to the season, so I think at this point we’re just trying to climb up the table slowly, and of course I was happy to help today,” Carlsen added.