In the first round of "Shamkir Chess 2019" Super-tournament, the reigning World Champion, Magnus Carlsen stated that the draw with Teimour Radjabov, the Azerbaijani representative, is quite fair. The Norwegian grandmaster interpreted the first round as such: "The first part in which I played with black figures, my opponent did not make any mistake. As there was not any sound dominance , taking risks would be irrelevant. Teimour competed very well. In my opinion, recording too much draws is quite normal. The number of triumphs is usually less in the super-tournaments, however, they are often too decisive. I have come to win to Shamkir in this time. I hope that the upcoming games will be preferable for me".

Magnus Carlsen stated that playing with black or white figures does not matter for him: "After the toss-roll session, it was defined that I will play with five blacks in the tournament. Actually, I believe that, playing with five blacks in this kind of difficult tournament, will not be easy for me. However, I am not too concerned about this. I mainly think about my opponents. The first is the performance of my opponent, and my preparation for it. Precisely, for this reason, I really do not care about the odd or even number of participants in the tournaments".

As an answer for the question of journalists regarding to marriage, he expresses his opinion in a funny way: "I am partially 28, not 29. All along the year, I only think about games and protecting my title as a World Champion. I would say, I love chess more. Currently, I have not thought about marriage yet. I am married with my game. There is only Chess in my mind".

The Press Service of "Shamkir Chess 2019"