– I had no chance to be there anymore. I had to get home to Norway and to the doctor. That’s what Johan-Sebastian Christiansen says about when he had to withdraw from the European championship for club teams at the beginning of October. The club he is a member of, Offerspill with Magnus Carlsen at the helm, is yet to win EC gold. But when the gold was awarded, Christiansen was already at home in Norway, where he had to visit what he himself calls a “specialist”. And you have to go back to the beginning of September to find the reason for that. At the time, the 25-year-old was visiting the island of Nauru. A country that is only visited by around 130 tourists every single year. Nauru has previously been referred to by globetrotter and author Gunnar Garfors as “one of the world’s least visited countries”. – I’ve been a bit all over the world this autumn. Played chess, promoted chess and actually learned chess, says Christiansen to news. From August to the end of November, Christiansen traveled to Nauru, Singapore, Fiji, Bermuda, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Albania and the USA. All countries have been visited to play chess. This Christmas, you can follow Johan-Sebastian Christiansen as he fights for wins in the World Cup in blitz and rapid chess on news. Hospital visit on Nauru He was invited to the island of Nauru and a chess tournament there as guest of honor after a meeting with the chess federation on Nauru during the Chess Olympics in 2022. – It has been a childhood dream since I was little to visit Nauru, actually, says Christiansen. And for a long time all was joy and fun on the exotic island. Christiansen played chess with local players and vacationed with his girlfriend when the pieces had been moved. One morning he was invited along on a fishing trip and a subsequent barbecue evening with what they caught. – I “forked” one exotic fish after another. And it tasted so disgusting, says Christiansen, laughing. GRILL: Johan-Sebastian Christiansen prepares a meal he will later experience the consequences of. Photo: Hans Andreas Solbakken / news And it was exactly this meal that presented major challenges for the chess set in the following weeks. The next day he was out riding the scooter he had rented. Suddenly a wild dog jumped out into the road. Christiansen says that he saw no other option than to swerve away at a relatively high speed. – Then I went straight to the ground and ran along the road. I scratched up my whole body. The dog got away, so I probably sacrificed myself in many ways for the dog. Then he ended up in the hospital on the island, where he had to be bandaged and given both antibiotics and pain-relieving tablets. – The day after that I started to feel really, really sick. I have never felt so bad before. Both body and stomach were bad. I had to stay in the hotel room the whole time. TREATMENT: Christiansen received treatment at the hospital on Nauru for the injuries after the traffic accident. Photo: Privat Withdrawn from the EC Therefore the flight from Nauru to Fiji was postponed for a few days. But even though he made it to Fiji, where he was supposed to continue his chess tour, he did not get better. Christiansen said that he was lying in the hotel room in Fiji for over a week without getting anything done. – I never got better, I was completely devastated, says Christiansen. But he had to get to Europe again. Soon it was the European Championship for club teams in Albania. The chess profile made it back to Europe, and after a couple of days in Norway, he traveled to Albania to play for EC gold with the club team Offerspill. – I won my first game, had to stand over the second, but then I managed to play the third again and won that too, says Christiansen. But then it was over. He had to throw in the chess pieces and withdraw from the team that later took the EC gold in the tournament. Johan-Sebastian Christiansen has also had health problems in the past: The answer When he visited the health care system at home in Norway, he quickly got the answer to why he had felt so terrible in recent weeks. WC-READY: Johan-Sebastian Christiansen meets news before the WC in blitz and rapid chess in Space Christmas. Photo: Erlend Havsgård Martinsen / news – I thought it was the tablets I had been given at the poor “field hospital” on Nauru that had made me crazy. But the answer was somewhat simpler: Christiansen had contracted salmonella after the fish feast on Nauru three weeks earlier. – It’s a terrible experience then and there, but funny now in retrospect. Now I’m fortunately in OK shape again, says Christiansen.
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Played chess in one of the world’s least visited countries – even in the nightmare of illness
