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Denis Lazavik wasn’t too upset with himself when he walked into the content hub for his post-game interactions following his loss in the Esports World Cup final to Magnus Carlsen. After all, there is no shame in losing to the world’s best. The Belarusian teenager was the breakout star of the Paris event, taking down Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Hikaru Nakamura on his way to the final. But there, he found a dead end. Carlsen swept past him without dropping a single game, successfully defending his EWC title in clinical fashion. While Carlsen adding another championship to his long list of accolades should come as no surprise, what stood out most was the efficiency with which he operated. He steamrolled the field even while battling illness. Carlsen went unbeaten against a series of elite opponents, which had Andrey Esipenko, Hans Niemann, Nihal Sarin, Alireza Firouzja, and Lazavik, to cruise to his second straight Esports World Cup title. In many of those match-ups, he simply gave his opponents no room to breathe, let alone make progress. Lazavik observed that Carlsen is not the same player he once was. He no longer enjoys fighting in complex positions; instead, he wants to shut the door and move on. “Like a couple of years ago, he was trying to play more fighting chess, he was enjoying it more. Now I feel he doesn’t like to play so much. He just trades everything and he is just way better in the endgame. So he doesn’t try to create any complexity for him,” Lazavik told The Indian Express. Carlsen didn’t disagree with Lazavik’s observation; rather, he embraced it. The Norwegian explained that his approach in Paris was a deliberate choice, not a sign of fading ambition. He said, “I started watching the Mourinho documentary on Netflix the other day. They were talking about the first season that they were just winning 1-0 every match. And I was thinking, well, that sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it? It’s certainly the case that in this tournament I stayed very, very true to not trying to do much. “I obviously wanted to save energy when I could. There were some boring games because of that, but that’s how it is. I don’t know if it’s a general change, but for this tournament it was a very conscious choice.” Being the face of the Esports World Cup as a global brand ambassador, Carlsen had a tonne of commitments towards the event like fan meet-and-greets, press conferences, side events. But he chose to save energy and didn’t oblige to most of them, keeping his game the priority. Carlsen said, “My main thought leading into this tournament was that I was going to be a lot more conservative with my choices. Especially considering the match format here. Obviously with feeling under the weather as well, following that path became a more obvious choice as well.” His recent performance at Norway Chess had raised questions about his form, his mental space, and even his future. He lost an unprecedented four games, two of which came against the eventual champion, India’s R Praggnanandhaa. Carlsen admitted that his motivation fluctuates, but he was firm in his belief that he wasn’t going to let a poor showing in Norway define his Paris campaign. “Norway Chess was an unusual tournament in the sense that I lost the first round in a fair, fighting game against Alireza. It was a bit of trying to catch up after that. And I probably did some things there, played in ways that didn’t necessarily optimise my chances. But I kind of wanted to create chances, and I ended up in a lot of positions which I’m not used to. And I got beaten a lot of times. And I made sure not to do the same things here, that’s for sure. But it’s hard to compare completely because they’re very different formats.” “However, I wasn’t going to play poorly here because I played poorly in other tournaments. My motivation comes and goes a little bit at times. But for this one specifically, it’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I enjoyed last year a lot, and I was always going to do everything in my power to win this one,” he added. Carlsen came to Paris sick, tired, and carrying the weight of expectation. He left with another trophy and the same quiet certainty that no one is catching him anytime soon. Or as he said, “This is certainly a very big title for me. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and I really, really wanted to get this one.” (The writer is in Paris at the invitation of the Esports Foundation)