How I met Magnus Carlsen in real life

I remember like it was yesterday. I knew in the back of my mind there was a 5% chance I would've ran into the former 5 time World Champion and strongest chess player to ever exist, but the way it played out was in my mind, special.

Now I know what y'all must be thinking - how is this true? Where is the photo evidence? Surely you would've asked for a picture from someone that you might never get to see or meet ever again. And to be fair, all these points are valid. Truth is, I didn't get a photo with him.

And I had a very good reason not to, in my opinion. Bare with me though!

Let's set the scene - it's Toronto, Ontario on Sunday, December 10th, 2023. I'm ready to head out with my Sony ZV-E10 vlogging/streaming camera locked and ready to the hotel where the 2023 Champions Chess Tour Finals was taking place at. I was going with an organization that focuses on teaching chess to youth in the GTA and we were invited by chess.com to have a tour of their studios. Boy both kids and adults were thrilled!

There we met Director of Content FM Mike Klein - also known as FunMasterMike who gave us a tour and talked about all the work going behind the scene, from film protection, to anti-cheating protocols, etc. It was a lot.

I also met my friend Alex Brewer, Director of Operations at Chess.com and we had a good time catching up on everything. Shout out to you Alex!

I also met with FM James Canty III aka GMCanty which is now the 2nd time we've met! We talked about fitness and podcasting and he said to me he's down for being a guest!

(A great photo of him and not a great photo of me)

So a great day overall. After the tour ends some of the members from our organization head to the washroom between the Hotel and Restaurant. As I'm standing in the hallway I notice movement to the left as someone entered the hallway. I then turned around and froze instantly. There he was, Magnus Carlsen! AND HE'S WALKING TOWARDS ME.

I will admit, I am not someone who can be easily surprised with my last career being in public safety for over 13 years. That being said, I was shocked to see him there so casually. All that was going through my head was "HOLY %@#$!"

After I recollected my thoughts there was two things that entered my mind - 1) He just woke up - he looks slightly drowsy and his hair is completely messy and all on his left side of his head. 2) He's tall. (I'm 5'7 for reference)

So there he was walking towards me with the clear intention of heading to the restaurant to get some breakfast. I must admit, I was very tempted to ask him for a photo but deep down, maybe it's just me being a Canadian or maybe a decent guy, I realized there's no way I should be in any way intrusive at this time. The timing was wrong, even when I have to accept I might not see him again. So I didn't ask him for a photo. However, I did say something to him.

Me: "Good luck on your match today."
Magnus: Continues walking with his eyes clearly focused on prep and not staring at me. He then slows down slightly and says, "Thank you."

That's it.

I like to think when he won his matches convincingly that day I contributed to 0.02% of that success by not bothering him in the morning. That being said, I got him to say thank you and I'll take that as a very special chess moment in my life.

Thanks for reading.