“Yesterday I think I should have won the match and today I should have lost the match, so I think all is right in the world!” said Hikaru Nakamura after beating Magnus Carlsen in another thriller to take a 2:1 lead in the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour final. The World Chess Champion started the day by winning perhaps the smoothest game of the event so far but Hikaru hit back to win Game 3 and then the first blitz game. It’s first to 4, with Magnus now needing to win 3 of the remaining 4 sets to take the $140,000 top prize.

Day 3 of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour final was almost a carbon copy of Day 2, but with roles reversed.

You can replay all the games using the selector below:

And here’s the day’s live commentary from Yasser Seirawan, Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev:

Geto 30% off a Premium membership purchased during the Finals with the code KIVAFINALS!

Ending the streak

Hikaru Nakamura is the reigning and 5-time US Champion and currently the blitz world no. 1 and the rapid world no. 4. From 2011 to 2018 the 32-year-old spent an almost uninterrupted 7 years in the classical world top 10, peaking at world no. 2 and a 2816 rating in October 2015, but his nemesis has been Magnus Carlsen. Hikaru is far from alone in that, but the statistics aren’t so drastic for any other top player. Magnus has scored 14 wins to Hikaru’s 1, with that single victory coming in Bilbao in 2016 – a record that’s hard to explain by chess strength alone.

It looked like 2020 would be all about Magnus and his next World Championship match, and since Hikaru didn’t qualify for the Candidates Tournament the US star would be only an interested observer. Instead, in the wake of the virus, Magnus remains centre stage, but Hikaru has reinvented himself as a Twitch streamer who during Day 3 of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour finals crossed 500,000 followers.

He’s also backed that up on the chessboard by being the second best performer on the tour, reaching two finals and, above all, being the only player to beat Magnus in a knockout encounter (Anish Giri and Ding Liren won round-robin matches that changed little). Hikaru came back from losing the first set of the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge semi-final 3:0 to win the next two and the match, with the clash decided in Armageddon.

After his win on Day 3, Hikaru talked about the level of his play and referred to that match:

The first two days… I really felt that I played as well as I’m ever going to play, honestly, and so to lose yesterday was disappointing, but again, I guess what I would say is I’ve played Magnus so many times over the years and the main thing is I’ve never really felt like I’m getting good positions or I’m in the game. It seems like out of the opening I’m always under pressure, and so the fact that I seem to be getting good positions out of the opening almost every game really is a big confidence boost, and I think when I get these positions I can just play chess.

I’ve shown at least on the first three days that I can play on the same level as Magnus, and we’ll see what happens going forward, but I guess what I would say, last but not least, is that in some ways I think winning in Lindores kind of broke that streak in a way, because I started to realise that I can play against Magnus and play on the same level. We’ll see what happens, but, if I’m being honest, I think I’ve already exceeding my expectations. I’m just going to keep trying to go from here and keep putting pressure on Magnus in the remaining matches.

When Tania Sachdev objected that Hikaru was being too modest, the US Champion intervened:

You’re saying I’m being humble, but let’s be honest, who won the rapid and blitz? Obviously I’m competitive, but facts are facts and Magnus has won the World Championship in both of them. While I can say I’m competitive and I think I can play on the same level as him, you have to be realistic and give credit where credit’s due.

It is one of the surprising facts of recent chess history that Nakamura has never won the World Blitz or Rapid Championship, while Magnus is a 3-time rapid and 5-time blitz champion. Where Hikaru can claim an edge in the last two years is in consistency, having made all four podiums for those events.

You can watch the fascinating full interview with Hikaru below:

Now let’s take Set 3 game-by-game

Game 1: Magnus is back?

After two immensely tough first days, it seemed like Magnus, much like in his semi-final match against Ding Liren, might begin to take over. He played the Berlin Defence with Black in the first game and was the first to take serious pause for thought, after Nakamura’s 11.h4!?

Making Magnus think has been one of Hikaru’s great achievements so far in the match, and he later commented:

I’m getting good positions out of the opening, the moves aren’t simple, and maybe he’s a little unfamiliar with the ideas that I’m showing - that’s the first thing. And secondarily, as I said on my own show the other day, I’m just trying to take the half-Nepo, semi-Nepo approach where I try to play really quickly. Not as quickly as Ian, of course, but I try to play pretty quickly on the clock and put pressure on him, and also it’s something that I picked up during the Lindores event where I beat Magnus. I also tried to put him under pressure on the clock in that match as well, so I’ve been doing it pretty well, and I think the positions have lent themselves to it, more than anything. If I would be getting certain types of positions this wouldn’t have happened, but I have, and it is what it is.

In this first game, however, the problem was that Magnus’ 3-minute think paid off with 11…Qe8!, “a very good move” (Hikaru), and the h-pawn never got to fulfil its destiny of reaching h5 or h6. Instead with the regrouping 12.g3 Be7! 13.Ne1 Nc5! Magnus began to make a sequence of powerful and far from obvious moves that all got the computer’s stamp of approval. 22.Rad1? (22.Bxc5!) already seems to have been the losing mistake, running into 22…Qh3!

With all Black’s pieces perfectly placed in the centre and directed at the weakened white king, Magnus made the rest look very easy as he confidently took home the full point.

Game 2: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

A day earlier Hikaru had also won an impressive first game with the black pieces, and then in Game 2 he met his opponent’s Berlin Defence by going for a lightning fast 14-move draw with White. Magnus said at the time that had been a reasonable decision, and on Day 3 he did the same, only this time in 17 moves!

Hikaru was among those who criticised the decision:

When Magnus took the draw in the second game maybe that was a mistake, because that kind of gave me a chance to reset and focus as well in the third game.     

Though he also understood it:

I think again the margins are very small and when you get one less game generally speaking you feel like you’re better off, and I think Magnus, just like I did yesterday, felt that his preparation was very good with Black. I had certainly not shown anything against the Berlin in the first four games I had faced yesterday and today, so it made a lot of sense for him just to take one game off the table.

Game 3: Beating the Berlin

This time, however, Hikaru picked 7.Qe2 and was in time to follow up h4 with h5, while after 13.a4 Magnus froze for over 7 minutes.

Black seems to be doing well after moves such as 13…h6 or 13…Nf4, but Magnus chose to fix the pawn structure with 13…b4?!, which Hikaru called, “maybe the worst move in the position”. The way things worked out in the game, with Magnus getting in the f5-break, it didn’t look so bad, but the ending that followed was in fact treacherous for Black, especially when Hikaru’s 27.h6! forced 27…g6 and was met by 28.Bg5!

Round about here Peter Leko pointed out that if the four rooks left the board Black would be in deep trouble after Bd8, with the c7, a5, b4 and e5 pawns all liable to fall. Hikaru had spotted the same:

I don’t know if he didn’t realise how dangerous the position was with the pawn structure, or what exactly was going through his mind, but I think here maybe a computer can draw this, but it’s very, very dangerous for a human, because all the black pawns are on dark squares and the bishop can’t attack the base of the pawn chain on c2, so therefore long-term White always has to be better.

The rooks were exchanged, the bishop did get to d8, and Magnus resigned on move 39, a pawn down and with the white king poised to enter the position.  

Game 4: “One of the best defensive games I’ve ever played against Magnus”

That left the scores level, but Magnus still had White in the final rapid game. This time there was to be no quick draw as he picked the London System, and while Hikaru did well out of the opening the World Champion had managed to take over before he took a radical decision.

26.a4!? was a pawn sacrifice which Hikaru decided to accept with 26…Bxc5 27.bxc5 Nxa4 before correctly meeting 28.Rb3 with 28…b5! From there on an enthralling strategic and tactical battle ensued until the game was drawn in 45 moves, with neither side having made a serious mistake:

Hikaru was proud of his efforts:

I was able to keep my nerve and keep finding good moves and draw that game. I would say it’s one of the best, if not the best, defensive performances I’ve had against Magnus, because it’s very often times that I get in these slightly worse endgames or complicated endgames and we get low on the clock and I naturally have a way of messing them up, so I really would say this fourth game with Black once it got really messy I was very, very happy with the way I defended. For me it’s one of the best defensive games that I’ve ever played against Magnus.

That meant the set would again go to 5+3 blitz.

Game 5: Blunder alert

For the first blitz game Nakamura once again varied his opening slightly as he played 9.Bd2 against Carlsen’s Berlin instead of the immediate 9.h4!?, and only played 11.h4 two moves later. This was a known position in which, for instance, Nikita Vitiugov had beaten Sergey Karjakin in last year’s World Cup, but Magnus now fell into a trap with 11…Ne6?

Unfortunately for Magnus, that move had occurred to Hikaru himself during the break between games:

I think everybody’s played a lot of chess at this point, and 11…Ne6 is a very natural move. I actually looked at it very briefly in between the games, because I also on the fly, without a lot of time, was just like, “what if Black plays Ne6, can you actually take the pawn?”

You can, and here 12.Nxe5! rocked Magnus. The “refutation” 12…Nd4 doesn’t work due to 13.Nxf7! and if 13…Kxf7 there’s 14.Qh5+, picking up the bishop on c5.     

Following 13.Nxf7 with 13…Nxe2 would at least have given Magnus an ending he could try and save, however, while 12…Qf6 may be stronger. In the game after a minute’s thought he continued 12…a5? (11…a5 had been the choice of Karjakin and two more strong players), but with the knight now on e5 13.Qh5! gave White a powerful attack to go along with the extra pawn. Magnus could also have resigned before move 22.

Game 6: So close yet so far

That meant the World Champion now had to win on demand to take the set to Armageddon, and he came incredibly close. The English Opening went like a dream, with Hikaru admitting he was worried “there was something bad that was going to happen” in the position after 11.Bb2! f6. Two moves later Magnus had a wealth of good options.

Hikaru feared 14.e4! Bf7, which does look very strong. He noted that the wild sacrificial line 15.Qxd3! c5 16.e5! cxd4 17.exf6 would have been very unpleasant to meet with a minute less on the clock, though the computer likes simply 15.Qf3 as well.

In the game Hikaru was breathing a sigh of relief after 14.Bxd5 Qxd5 15.Qxd3 c5 16.Qb5+ Qd7 17.Qxd7+ Kxd7 18.Nf5!, but in fact the queenless position was also extremely good for White, as Magnus set about proving. He’d played some brilliant moves and had a winning edge by the time 28…b6 appeared on the board:

Hikaru:

This was the one moment when I thought Magnus could have played a very Magnus-like move and played 19.Kg2, and I was already down like 50 seconds on the clock and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if he’d played this. I suspect I would have lost this game if Magnus had gone Kg2, but he thought for a while and then he didn’t play it.

It took Magnus over a minute to instead play 29.Nc3, when Hikaru was able to tie White up with 29…Rc2! He was happy to get an ending where he’d have, “very good practical chances and moves come very quickly as well,” and Carlsen’s advantage gradually fizzled out until the position was drawn. 

It was still a frantic finale in which anything could have happened, however, with the position after 62…Rb2 a case in point.

Magnus played 63.Re8, threatening checkmate, but after 63…Kh6 there was no follow-up and the game was drawn. Instead 63.Re7! was winning, with 63…Kh6 now running into 64.Nf7+ Kg6 (64…Kg7 would save the day with the rook on e8, but here is impossible due to discovered check) 65.Nh8+ and White picks up the e3-knight. 63…Rb1+ is a better try, but in that case White can trap Black’s knight.

Those were tough resources to find with 15 seconds on the clock in a must-win game, and soon it was all over.

That meant that, as in the Lindores Abbey semi-final, Hikaru had taken a 2:1 lead, but in this case the job is still only half done.

A player needs to reach 4 points to win the final, and while you can make that look extremely tough – Magnus now needs to win 3 of the next 4 sets – it’s also of course the case that the scores will be level if he can hit back on Monday. Hikaru feels one thing he has on his side is the absence of pressure.

I guess what I would say in general is that on the first day after I got some good positions I just started feeling more confident. He seems uneasy and there’s obviously much more pressure on Magnus, as I’ve pointed out many times. Everybody expects me to lose, so there’s no pressure for me. I just play good chess and see what happens, and it’s been working out, but I think certainly there’s a lot more pressure on Magnus and that’s also been weighing on him.

The pressure goes with the crown, however, and we can expect a huge fight. Ian Nepomniachtchi isn’t expecting the streak of quick Berlin draws to continue!

There are no rest days, so tune in every day from 15:30 CEST each day here on chess24.

See also:

• Official website
• All the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals games with computer analysis
• Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals set to begin 
• MCCT Finals 1: Ding Liren shocks Carlsen
• MCCT Finals 2: Naka close as Magnus hits back
• MCCT Finals 3: Nakamura sweeps Dubov 3:0
• MCCT Finals 4: It's Carlsen-Nakamura in the final
• Magnus Tour Final 1: Nakamura draws first blood
• Magnus Tour Final 2: Carlsen is back!