In chess, a “zevok” is when you hang a piece and then stare into the void for a long time, trying to understand: why did I do that?
But at the World Rapid Championship in Doha, Magnus Carlsen gave the term a second meaning—human. Because before his game with Vladislav Artemiev, he looked like someone woke him up not for a “15+10” round, but for “15 hours without sleep.”
And then the main thing happened: in round 7, Carlsen lost to Artemiev.
Artemiev is not the guy who “won’t take advantage”
Vlad is exactly the kind of grandmaster who feels most at home in faster formats: no extra theater—fast, tenacious, businesslike.
And here the Norwegian really gave him a chance—FIDE explicitly writes that Magnus made a gross mistake as early as move 15, and it cost him dearly.
In rapid, that’s basically fatal: one careless moment—and the game drives away like a taxi in Doha when you blink.
The camera caught some collateral damage too
After the loss, Carlsen didn’t pretend “everything’s fine, it’s sport.” He left the hall abruptly—and on the way out, he pushed a camera aside when they kept filming him almost right in the face. Reuters describes it as an emotional reaction to the defeat and confirms that FIDE won’t blow the story up without an official complaint.
This, by the way, isn’t the first time Magnus’ emotions have shown—Reuters also points to his recent flare-ups at tournaments.
So what about the standings—“it’s over” or are we still playing?
Spoiler: we’re still playing.
After two days (9 rounds out of 13), the situation looked like this:
- Artemiev and Hans Niemann — leaders, 7.5/9
- Carlsen — in the chasing pack with 7/9, i.e., half a point back
And yes—after that loss, Magnus pulled himself together and won the next two, getting back into the race without any long “searching for himself.”
Why this episode landed so perfectly
Because it’s chess in its purest form: you can be number one, you can be tired, you can be “not feeling it”—but the board still asks only one question: are you accurate right now, or not?
And in that moment, Artemiev was more accurate. And Carlsen… well, at least he woke up.
