Magnus Carlsen playing at our university bar | Damien Ribière (2061) vs GM Magnus Carlsen (2864)

Full story:

We (EPFL Chess club) organized a tournament before the Easter break, Thursday 14th April.
At 22:00 when we left the club, we saw that the logistics manager of the club sent us a picture of him with Magnus Carlsen at UNIL Sorge (university of Lausanne) metro station 2 hours before. We thought that it was a joke, then one of the participants who left earlier asked if it was possible that the World Champion was the guy he saw at the bar.
After rushing to this place (HC Tap House), we sat at the table next to Magnus and his friends, realizing it was real, and asked for a photo.
Then the treasurer brought a chessboard from the club and played a friendly blitz game with Damien, the winner of the Easter tournament (FIDE 2061, lichess 2600). At the end of the game Magnus and one of his friends suddenly moved to our table and the world champion challenged Damien. The rest is history! Note: We cheered after 2.a3 because it is Damien's (@SuperHumeanism) favorite opening.
Reddit link: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/u44hsx/magnus_at_my_university_bar_yesterday/
Lichess link of the game: https://lichess.org/study/U44F6CZQ

Later, he also played with FM Niels Willems, another strong player from the club. You can check Agadmator Chess Channel for the analysis : https://youtu.be/pLQfpp2cLRE and Reddit for a video of the game with funny trashtalk in french: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/u4m0zj/another_game_magnus_played_against_a_friend_in/?sort=new.

Credit for the videos :
From 02:27 to 05:27 : Emmanuel Blanchard
Montage : Damien Ribière
Channel, Subtitles & Thumbnail : Wissamorick

#chess #carlsen #magnuscarlsen