Carlsen denies Nakamura sixth straight Speed Chess title
GM Magnus Carlsen ended GM Hikaru Nakamura’s incredible run of five titles in a row with a thrilling 13.5-12.5 victory to clinch Chess.com’s flagship 2023 Speed Chess Championship Presented by Coinbase. The Norwegian got off to a strong, two-point start, but the ever-resourceful Nakamura fought to take a three-point lead in the 3+1 portion. After changing shirts, the former world champion evened the score just before the bullet section. Just as Carlsen started pulling away in the second half of the bullet, Nakamura won on demand. The latter was on the verge of winning the last game to tie the score but allowed an unforgettable double rook sacrifice that sealed the deal. Fans will not wait long to see this pairing again. They two speed demons are paired on the first day of the Champions Chess Tour AI Cup 2023 which starts on Monday at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST. This was far from their first Final in the SCC—it was their fourth. Carlsen led their encounters 2-1, but Nakamura won his first in 2022. That match went down to the wire and was decided in the very last bullet game too, where Carlsen was a hair’s length from reaching overtime. Nakamura celebrated his victory while down two queens as the match clock expired. Going into this year’s match, Carlsen led their head-to-head encounters on Chess.com in both bullet and blitz time controls. He was clearly the statistical favorite, but we have seen reality take its own form time and time again. SmarterChess agreed, showing a slight preference for Carlsen’s chances. While it estimated their chances to be equal in the 5+1 and 1+1, it forecasted Carlsen’s edge to lie in the second portion. Curiously, that was the one segment he didn’t win. “This is as good as it gets. Speed chess matches between Hikaru and I, be that blitz, or rapid, or even bullet, that’s as good a show as it gets,” said Carlsen after last year’s exhilarating Final. And this year only raised the bar again. 5+1: Nakamura 4-5 Carlsen The first half of this portion was the calm before the storm. In the first five games, Carlsen scored one victory and four games were drawn. The last four, on the other hand, were all decisive. Carlsen took the first full point in game two, a Ruy Lopez Berlin Defense that took on the shape of a Benoni Defense. The world number-one hit his rival with the ol’ “sealer sweeper” sacrifice, 27.e5! followed by 28.f5, and closed out the game with a satisfying blow 32.Rxe7!, winning a piece. 1-0 The next three games ended in draws. But on the other side of that equilibrium, the games were decisive at every turn. Carlsen took a two-point lead after finding a tricky resource, 51.d6!, in mutual time trouble. But Nakamura proved his resilience as well, bouncing back in the next by winning the objectively drawn rook and bishop vs. rook endgame. Carlsen won the next after firing the cannonball 21.Bxh6! followed by a winning attack. The last game of the match was nervy and explosive. Both players were winning at various points, although the psychological trend was certainly in Nakamura’s favor for most of it. In mutual time trouble, the American GM prevailed. 3+1: Nakamura 5-4 Carlsen Before this year, Carlsen had never lost a 3+1 portion against Nakamura in the SCC. It was a great start for the five-time SCC champ as he scored four wins in the first five games. At the halfway mark, Carlsen changed shirts and, when he returned, evened the score. Nakamura played a gorgeous attack in the first game, finishing it with a lustrous queen sacrifice on the last move, 24…Qxg3!!. This would have been our Game of the Day had it not been for the last game of the match. Nakamura won with an attack just as crushing in the next game. Suddenly, he led the match for the first time. After a draw, he won two more. Both were defensible endgames where Carlsen, with almost no time, collapsed. The first one was a rook endgame, and the second featured a piece sacrifice by Nakamura for two connected passers. “This was the most unbelievable endgame yet,” said Naroditsky about the second, while Hambleton added: “Have you ever seen a mic drop in chess? This was one of them.” Nakamura stood up emphatically and walked away as Carlsen remained in his chair looking at what went wrong. “Carlsen” and “losing equal endgames” are frankly never uttered in the same sentence, unless the latter refers to his opponent. Carlsen returned from the half-point break wearing a new shirt, the same one he had worn when he beat So on Tuesday. It seemed to work as he won two consecutive games. Then a draw. And, finally, came the last game of the segment, where he pulled the vintage Magnus endgame squeeze to tie the score. Carlsen, when asked whether changing shirts helped, responded in the post-match interview: “The result sort of speaks for itself.” The score was 9-9. One half-hour left. The stage was set for drama, and the players delivered. 1+1: Nakamura 3.5-4.5 Carlsen The only other SCC Final tied at the end of 3+1 portion was Nakamura vs. So, 2018, which was tied at 10-10. Nakamura went on to win in the bullet. In this one, Carlsen had a lousy start; then he picked up speed. The first game was a terrifying one for Carlsen fans as he hallucinated and gifted his opponent a queen. He would later say: “I did feel that from last year and the Bullet [Chess] Championship this year, that I know I could come back from a reasonable deficit. So I knew that it was all about whether my brain could start working.” And start working it did. He won three of the next four games. First, it was a same-colored bishop endgame, then a razor-sharp heavy-piece endgame, and finally, a conversion of two pigs on the seventh.Carlsen led by two. But Nakamura won on demand after Carlsen’s clever but
FIDE World Senior Team Championship: Day 4 recap
The fourth round saw tense matches and exciting turnarounds in the duels of the favourites. Two teams with the perfect score 6/6, Iceland and England 1, clashed in the central match of the day in the S50 category. The English players didn’t pose serious problems with the white pieces, as Emms (2448) couldn’t create anything against Hjartarson’s (2432) French Defence, and Arkell (2352) was similarly toothless against Thorallsson (2382). All the action happened on the odd-numbered boards. Facing Olafsson (2491) with Black, Adams (2662) chose an old favourite of his, the Queen’s Indian. The opening went surprisingly well for Black, and soon enough, he started to think about being better. Black jumped 16…Nc3 and after 17.Bxc3 dxc3, the pawn on c3 became a dangerous asset, especially as it could be supported by …Bf6. Both sides placed their pieces on natural squares, and on move 21, White embarked on a strange-looking manoeuvre. In view of White’s last move 20.h4, Adams expected 21.Ng5 here, with ideas like Qh5 or Nge4, but instead of that White played 21.Bh3 with the idea of Bf5-b1! The plan was to control both a2 and c2 in view of the impeding …Nb4, but Adams already felt that this wasn’t quite right for White. The critical moment came on move 25. Adams expected the exchange of rooks on d8. Black should still be winning, but it would have been more difficult than in the game. White played 25.Bd3? and after 25…Nb4 was forced to go back 26.Bb1, which obviously only helped Black. After 26…Qg4 White’s position collapsed, and he resigned after 27.Re1 Bxc4 28.bxc4 c2 as Black wins material. During the post-game interview on the live broadcast, Adams showed a fantastic line, which, although far from forcing or even very relevant, I have to show. Michael calculated this during the game, though he realised White’s last move 29.Qd6? was bad (better was 29.Nd6). But here he was quite happy to find 29…Qxf3!! 30.Kxf3 Nd4 31.Kf4 Nd2 mate! A position that deserves a diagram! Unfortunately for the English team, on board three, Flear (2405) couldn’t withstand the pressure in spite of defending well for some time against Petursson (2396). Here, the only move was to exchange queens by 28…Rxd4 29.Rxc7 Ra4, though White is certainly still better. However, the retreat 28…Qc8? lost on the spot in view of 29.Qd6 and after 29…Be8 30.Bxe5 fxe5 31.Qe7 Black resigned as mate will soon follow, even if he gives up a piece to postpone it. USA were very lucky to beat England 2, and for that, they had to thank Shabalov’s magic on board one. Shabalov’s (2465) attack was finely repulsed by Dishman (2304) who obtained a winning position. The price he had to pay was time-trouble. It was here that Shabalov used all his imagination to sow chaos on the board. By that point, the position became unclear and a total mess, with both players making. The best for White would have been 32.Rfd1, but instead of that, Shabalov took the pawn with 32.Rxf5. Here Black was winning with 32…Rc4!, although 32…Rxg2 and 32…Nd4 were also tempting, though not winning. In severe time scramble, Black simply blundered the pawn on f6 with 32…Ne7?? and after 33.Qxf6 White won. Before this win, USA was leading 2-1 thanks to a technical win by Novikov (2513) against Clark (2278). Black sacrificed a pawn as early as move 4 (!) in the Grunfeld. Instead of the usual 4…Nxd5, Black played the surprising 4…c6!? and obtained some compensation for the pawn after 5.dxc6 Nxc6 6.e3 e5, but didn’t make the most of it. White consolidated and converted the extra pawn. The games on boards two and four between Lewis (2238) and Kaidanov (2549) and Stebbings (2257) and Yermolinsky (2419) respectively, ended in calm draws. The match between Italy and North Macedonia Alkaloid saw incredible twists and turns. The first game to finish was David (2523) – Georgiev (2542) where Black masterfully outplayed his opponent. Black risks ending up in a passive position, and after a long thought Georgiev came up with what he called “the only move” 14…f5! Black must create activity and inject dynamism into the position. Over the next several moves, Black gave up the bishop pair to wreck White’s structure by taking on c3, making all White’s pawns isolated. The key moment was on move 20, when Black found a wonderful manoeuvre. After 20…Nd8! Black achieves beautiful harmony – the knight defends both weaknesses on e6 and b7, and Black threatens …Bc6 to exchange the defender of the white king. White’s situation was compounded by the severe time-trouble that he entered. David resisted but still blundered in the end. White’s last move was a mistake, though his position was not one to be envied. Black wrapped up with the cute 28…Rg3+! This win gave the Macedonian team the early lead. They had great positions on the remaining three boards as well. However… Thanks to his good preparation Nedev (2465) achieved an advantage both on the board and on the clock against Godena (2429). Here, White should have played 21.Rxe5 Nd7 22.Re7 Nxb6 23.Rxb7 Nxa4 24.Bxc4, but instead of that, he blundered with 21.Bc7? After 21…Nd7! the tables suddenly turned around – Black consolidated his position, and the bishop on a2 and White’s pawns became easy prey. Although Black had only a couple of minutes to reach time control, he was up to the task and scored a full point. On board three, again, thanks to very good preparation, Bogdanovski (2385) obtained a better position with Black against Ortega (2410) in the Exchange Variation of the Slav. He correctly avoided a move repetition that White was seeking but faltered at the critical moment. Instead of finally getting rid of the backward pawn with 24…c5!, with a clear advantage, Black played 25…Bb5? and allowed White to take a grip on the c5-square with 26.Nb3. The position was equal and continued to be so for a while before Black committed a horrendous blunder. Black’s last move was 35…Kd6?? (any rook move would have kept the balance) and White struck with 36.Nxa6! winning a pawn. The conversion wasn’t very difficult for Ortega. On board four Stanojoski (2351) got a small edge against Bellia (2388), but that