With the Play Live Challenge on Thursday as the highlight, this week GM Magnus Carlsen is touring the east coast of the U.S. where he is playing lawyers and ambassadors and attending the Queen of Katwe Premiere. GM Jon Ludvig Hammer reports from New York.

Carlsen at IS 318 as Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg watches| Photo Cara Metz.

It’s only seven more weeks until the World Championship begins in New York. This week, reigning champion Magnus Carlsen is on a tour of the east coast of the U.S. It has been a busy week for him: In addition to inspecting the playing venue—most of which is still under construction—Carlsen has been...

...playing lawyers in Washington D.C. 

At the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Carlsen defeated 18 lawyers. Carlsen's sponsor (one of them anyway) Simonsen Vogt Wiig hosted the event (the fourth that Carlsen has attended) on the occasion of the 2016 IBA Conference.