Faustino Oro and Magnus Carlsen play blitz

by Johannes Fischer
1/12/2026 – On January 6, Magnus Carlsen and the 12-year-old Argentine Faustino Oro, who still has good chances of becoming the youngest grandmaster of all time, played Titled Tuesday at the Take Take Take Studio in Oslo. Afterwards, they chatted briefly and played a blitz game (3+2). Of course, “nothing” was at stake — but of course games between young talents, who may one day become world champions, and established or former world champions are always exciting and a battle for prestige. And this perhaps one day historically significant duel was captured on video.
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Faustino Oro had White, but still seemed to be at a disadvantage from the start, as the two were playing at a huge table and had to stretch to make good moves.

Still, in the opening, it looked as though Oro might be able to put Carlsen under some pressure, as Carlsen had chosen an off-beat variation to avoid theoretical lines, but Carlsen neutralized all of White’s threats and, after a surprising yet positionally justified exchange of his strong dark-squared bishop for a white knight, quickly seized the initiative.

Oro defended tenaciously, but soon ended up in an inferior endgame, which Carlsen converted without difficulty.

Replay the game

Take Take Take on YouTube

Magnus Carlsen and Faustino Oro in the Take Take Take studio...

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Topics: Faustino Oro, Magnus Carlsen
Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".
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