World No. 1 chess player Magnus Carlsen’s latest tantrum led to his defeat against Armenia’s Haik M Martirosyan in the World Blitz Championships on Tuesday, with the former looking visibly disturbed from his defeat to Arjun Erigaisi on Monday.
Carlsen was locked in a tense blitz match against Martirosyan when the incident unfolded. With just two seconds left on the clock, he tried to make a move under intense time pressure, knocking over multiple pieces in the process.
Under blitz rules, a player must restore the position before stopping the clock. Carlsen halted the timer while still rearranging the pieces and couldn’t reset the board, prompting Martirosyan to call the arbiter.
After a brief review, officials ruled in the latter’s favour and handed
Carlsen a forfeit defeat. Watch the video here:
With few seconds left on the clock, Magnus’ pieces got scattered – he pauses the clock with 2 seconds left, but he was not done rearranging the position before pausing, and is given a loss against Haik Martirosyan in Round 14 of World Blitz 2025!
Video: @adityasurroy21 pic.twitter.com/b8QLu0mLzy
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) December 30, 2025
Carlsen accepted the ruling, but the episode capped a tense outing for him in Doha. Video clips soon went viral, showing him attempting to rearrange the pieces with both hands as the clock ran down, another violation of blitz rules, which require players to make moves and press the clock using only one hand.
“Carlsen dropped the pieces when he had two seconds on his clock and then pressed the clock without the pieces in the correct position. According to the regulations, the player must put pieces back in the correct position before stopping the clock,” a FIDE official later said.
The forfeit defeat followed another heated incident earlier in the championship, underlining the razor-thin margins and intense pressure of elite blitz chess.
