Magnus Carlsen to play in the Bundesliga this weekend

by Johannes Fischer
1/10/2025 – In 2024, FC St. Pauli, which had just been promoted to the top division of the Bundesliga, pulled off a coup: they were able to convince Magnus Carlsen, a football fan and the world's number one, to become a member of their team. But it remained unclear how often Carlsen would play in the coming season. But the time has come sooner than expected, as Carlsen will play in St. Pauli's home matches against Solingen and Düsseldorf this weekend. And if Düsseldorf choose not to go to Hamburg with their best lineup, Carlsen could even face Gukesh, the newly crowned world champion, on Sunday. | Photo: Nils Rohde
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The strongest chess league in the world

The Bundesliga is stronger than ever this season. This is reflected, among other things, by the fact that Gukesh, the world number 4 and new world chess champion since November, is registered with Düsseldorfer SK on board 3, behind Arjun Erigaisi and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Düsseldorf are therefore among the favourites this season and are also favourites against St. Pauli, Carlsen or no Carlsen. Düsseldorf have started the season with three wins and are currently in third place in the standings. St. Pauli have started (without Carlsen and never with their best lineup) with three defeats and one draw and are in 14th place. If Düsseldorf want to keep their ambitions of winning the championship, they should not give up any points against St. Pauli on Sunday.

St. Pauli should have a better chance than against Düsseldorf in their match against SG Solingen, whom Carlsen & Co will play on Saturday. Although Solingen also started the season with three wins, they are nominally weaker than Düsseldorf.

However, the actual top match of the 5th round will not take place in Hamburg, but in Baden-Baden, where OSG Baden-Baden will face SC Viernheim. Baden-Baden are at the top of the standings after four rounds and are playing with their best lineup featuring Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Richard Rapport and Peter Svidler on boards 1 to 8.

Viernheim started the season with one win, one draw and one defeat, but with Hikaru Nakamura, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Parham Maghsoodloo, Alexey Sarana, Aravindh Chhithambaram and David Anton Guijarro they also field a world-class team.

Crosstable - Bundesliga 2024/25

Düsseldorf, Chess Bundesliga

The Düsseldorf squad: Wei Yi, Praggnanandhaa, Javokhir Sindarov, Andrey Esipenko, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Jorden van Foreest, Victor Bologan, Anish Giri. | Photo: Jan Werner

Carlsen in the Bundesliga

Carlsen's performance in the Bundesliga this weekend may be spectacular, but it's not Carlsen's first appearance in the Bundesliga. In 2004, he played two games for Schachfreunde Neukölln (one loss, one draw) and from 2006 to 2009 he played three seasons and eight games for the the OSG Baden-Baden.

Here is Carlsen's first win in the Bundesliga.

And here are the ten games Carlsen has played in the Bundesliga so far.

Links

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".