Believe it or not: Say cheese! Carlsen smiles, poses, & rats out

What looked like a fan-girl moment quickly turned into a rulebook reality check. During a match at the 2026 Grenke Chess Festival in Karlsruhe, teenage chess player Alua Nurman got a chance to click a selfie with world No 1 Magnus Carlsen – only for him to (very politely) report her minutes later.

Smiles off, game on!

Before their game, Nurman seized the moment and asked for a selfie. Carlsen, cool as ever, smiled and posed — giving her what looked like the perfect pre-match memory. When the game was about to begin, Carlsen got up, returned with an arbiter, and suddenly, her phone was illegal! Turns out, this wasn’t a mood swing — it was the rulebook. Under FIDE regulations, phones aren’t allowed in the playing area. At all. Even if you’re just there for vibes and selfies.

A selfie with conditions

Naturally, the internet had a field day. One user joked, “He is smiling at the camera and saying inside: ‘I am gonna tell arbiter now,’” while another summed it up perfectly: “He smiled and reported.” A third painted the full scene: “‘Sure! I’ll take a picture with you’”… A few minutes later… ‘Judge, she has a cell phone…’” Despite this, Carlsen did what he does best – winning, proving that in chess, the game starts long before the first move – and apparently, even selfies can be part of the strategy.

Times when Carlsen called the arbiter

• At the 2025 Grenke Freestyle event, Carlsen beckoned an arbiter before his game against GM Victor Mikhalevski over the opponent’s wristwatch, prompting Mikhalevski to remove it.
• In a 2024 Champions Chess Tour game, he claimed a draw by threefold repetition but the arbiter failed to recognise it, allowing the game to continue; sparking a debate over how arbiters should respond when players call them for draw claims.
• At the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York, Carlsen argued with the chief arbiter over the tournament’s dress code, refused to change his jeans, was fined, and later disqualified, resulting in him quitting the Blitz section.

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