Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

John B. Henderson • Sep 22, 2023

With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship, with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final.

Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

And last year, Nakamura won his fifth successive title in the closest match-up yet in the event’s history, as he dramatically defeated Carlsen by the very narrowest of margins, 14.5-13.5, in what proved to be a gripping final.

Such is the dominance of this event from both Carlsen and Nakamura, that some pundits and commentators have already jokingly suggested that, when both are competing, there should be no knockout qualifiers, and instead the two big speed rivals should be seeded directly into the finals!

And as sure as death and taxes, the two long-time rivals and chess streamers/influencers are set for what’s likely to be another gripping showdown that won’t disappoint, as they easily powered their way into the 2023 Speed Chess Championship Final presented by Coinbase.

Defending champion Nakamura’s route to the final has seen the American beat Yu Yangyi (19-9), Fabiano Caruana (18.5-8.5, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (16.5-11.5). But Carlsen, the self-proclaimed “Final Boss of Chess”, has been even more dominant, and the Norwegian has said he’s going all-out for revenge after narrowly losing out to Nakamura last year. Carlsen got to the final by beating Santosh Vidit (17.5-8.5), Ian Nepomniachtchi (20.5-9.5) and Wesley So (22-7).

Of the two, Carlsen’s path to the final has proved the smoothest - especially his 22-7 semifinal mauling of Wesley So.

In today’s diagram, Carlsen played the innocuous-looking 21.a3! only for So to fall into his fiendish hidden trap, as the game ended abruptly after 21…h6 22.f4 g6? 23.b4! b5 24.Rhe1 Re3 25.g5 hxg5 26.hxg5 Bg7 27.Be4 and, with the rook lost, So resigned.

GM Hikaru Nakamura - GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Speed Chess Championship SF, (1.4)

 A06: Réti Opening

1.Nf3 d5 2.b3 c5 3.e3 Nc6 4.Bb5 After going 3-1 behind in the first blitz 5+1 session, Nakamura restores some order by playing his favourite Reti/Nimzo-Larsen Attack - and after winning this game, and as the time-limits got speedier and speedier, he went on to massacre the Frenchman. But the recovery started with this game. 4...e6 5.Bxc6+ bxc6 6.Bb2 f6 7.d3 Bd6 8.c4 Ne7 9.Nc3 In essence, we basically have a reversed Nimzo-Indian Defence - and one where Nakamura is going to ruthlessly hone in on those weak doubled c-pawns. 9...e5 10.Qc2 Be6 11.Na4 Rc8 12.Ba3 Ng6 13.O-O-O Invariably in such positions in the Nimzo-Indian, Black (here, White) would castle kingside and we would see a battle of ideas where one side goes all out for the kingside attack, while the other tries to consolidate the long-term queenside endgame advantage with the weak doubled- c-pawns. Here, Nakamura - with the extra move with the colours reversed - opts for something more riskier by daring to castle queenside to avoid the kingside push. 13...Qe7 14.Kb1 f5?! If Nakamura had castled kingside, then this would have been the near automatic response - but here, with the White king on the opposite wing, this is weakening and makes no sense. Better was just 14...O-O with the follow-up of ...Rfd8 and ...Ng6-f8-d7-b6, as it not so easy for White to now take advantage of those doubled c-pawns without opening up lines of attack to his own king. But we can't all be purists when we come to blitz, and MVL was probably flying high here with 3-1 start. 15.h4! Hikaru gets right into the root of the matter, and now we see why ...0-0 and ...Rfd8 was the way to go, as Black's knight can't get to the desired b6 square. 15...O-O 16.h5 Nh8 17.h6 g6 18.Rc1 Better would have been 18.Qc3! not only eyeing up the opening of the long a1-h8 diagonal, but more crucially, a sudden flick over to a5 highlights the problems of Black's chronically weak c5-pawn. Not easy to see how Black can cope with this with his knight stuck on h8. 18...Nf7 19.cxd5 cxd5 20.Bxc5 Bd7 21.Bxd6 Nxd6 I can appreciate the opportunity to bring the knight into the game - but the better recapture was 21...Qxd6!? 22.Nc5 Bb5 with more chances for Black to hold the line. As it is, Nakamura has just taken an easy pawn and manages to avoid any complications. 22.Nc3 d4?! Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Black was as well as going 'all-in' now with 22...e4!? 23.Nd4 Rc5 24.Qd2 exd3 25.Qxd3 f4 26.exf4 Rxf4 and take his chances here. Black's pieces are at least active (always a saviour in blitz); but then again, Nakamura would say he has the big advantage by having "the knight pair"! Anyone who has ever played against Nakamura in speed events, where the American has wrecked havoc with the knight pair, will understand this! 23.exd4 exd4 24.Nxd4 Qf6 25.Nde2 Unless MVL can conjure up an attack out of nowhere, Nakamura just has a couple of pawns and all he needs to do is safely transition down to a winning endgame - which he now easily demonstrates. 25...Nb5 26.Qb2 Rfe8 27.Rc2 Nxc3+ 28.Nxc3 Bc6 29.f3 Rcd8 30.Na4! It's basically game over here - not only does Nakamura have an extra couple of pawns, but because of the mating threat on g7, the queens are now forced off leaving an easy endgame conversion. 30...Qxb2+ 31.Nxb2 Bb5 32.Rc7! Nakamura's energetic handling of the transition to the endgame is very instructive. Here, as more pieces are set to be traded, his rook on the seventh rules.

32...Re2 33.Rhc1 Rd7 MVL is a dead man walking - it was either this voluntarily trading more pieces or 33...Bd7 34.Rxa7 Kf7 35.Rcc7 Ke6 36.Nc4 Rxg2 37.Ra6+! Ke7 38.Ne5 Re2 39.d4 Rd2 40.Rb7! and the threat of Nc6+ easily wins.

34.Rxd7 Bxd7 35.Rc7! The second rook continues the domination theme. 35...Be6 36.Rg7+ Kh8 The game is hopelessly lost for Black. If 36...Kf8 37.Rxh7 Bf7 38.Nc4 where the h-pawn could well be the least of Black's problems.

37.Re7 Kg8 There are no tricks with a ...Bxb3+ swindle after 37...Re1+ as White has his own trick with 38.Nd1! Rxd1+ 39.Kc2 Re1 40.Re8+! winning the rook. 38.Nc4 Kf8 39.Rxh7 f4 It's blitz, and MVL is playing on for the sake of playing on. 40.Rxa7 Bf5 41.h7 Re1+ 42.Kb2 Rh1 43.Ne5 1-0 And MVL resigns, faced with

43...Rh2 44.Rf7+ Ke8 45.Rg7 and the h-pawn queens after Rg8+.

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The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • 02 Oct, 2023

Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • 29 Sep, 2023

The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • 27 Sep, 2023

Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • 25 Sep, 2023

Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • 19 Sep, 2023

India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • 14 Sep, 2023

“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • 11 Sep, 2023

With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • 08 Sep, 2023

The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • 04 Sep, 2023

The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.

Vanity Fair

By John B. Henderson • 29 Aug, 2023

The game’s world governing body, FIDE, has launched yet another World Championship event, the inaugural World Team Championship , that was held over the past weekend in Dusseldorf, Germany - but this one is mildly controversial, as the clue can be found in the eventual final result, as it took on the air of a vanity project dominated by the event sponsor’s own powerhouse WR Chess team. It had its attractions though, with forty-two sponsored teams registered to take part in the tournament and a unique blend of professional players, top women, and amateurs on each team. The novel format, faster time control (15 minutes per player, with a 10-second increment per move), and inclusion of amateur players alongside professionals aimed to make the event accessible to a wider audience (and that part failed, apparently).