Alua Nurman was 18 years old and had an idea: take a selfie with the best chess player in the world before playing against him.
Magnus Carlsen said yes. He posed, smiled, and even seemed friendly. But as soon as the young woman from Kazakhstan put her phone in her pocket, the Norwegian turned around and told the arbiter: his opponent had her cellphone on her, something prohibited at the Grenke Chess Festival in Karlsruhe, Germany, to prevent cheating. 📱🚫
The arbiter wasted no time and confiscated the device on the spot. Nurman — the world’s No. 1 under-20 player and an Olympic runner-up with Kazakhstan — could have gotten angry, but she chose to laugh it off: she shared the photo on Instagram with the message “Magnus stays Magnus” 😂. She also said that she got the idea to ask him for a selfie after seeing something similar done by grandmaster Etienne Bacrot in 2025.
The result of the game? Carlsen won. At least the board held no surprises.