Hikaru Nakamura has now won five Speed Chess titles in a row, but more than that, he’s finally defeated the one player to have beaten him in the format — Magnus Carlsen. Hikaru got off to a stunning 6.5:2.5 start in the 5-minute section, and although Magnus, who said, “I can’t believe how much I enjoyed the match,” took the contest right down to the wire, he ultimately lost 14.5:13.5.
The rivalry between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura has been intense since the pandemic struck and made chess a serious online sport. Both players referred to the spectacular final of the original Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour, where the players traded blows over seven mini-matches before Magnus emerged victorious by the narrowest possible margin.
Hikaru told Robert Hess and Daniel Naroditsky:
There was this 2020 final against Magnus in the chess24 event where we played a best-of-seven match, and I would say that was probably the best that I’ve ever played, and unfortunately I had this heartbreaker. I won the first blitz game, lost the second one, then I couldn’t win the Armageddon game. I think after that it’s hard to know whether it’s possible to beat Magnus.
The 2022 Speed Chess Championship would provide proof that you could, and Magnus also made the link.
We played an epic match then as well, seven matches that I finally won in Armageddon in the last game. It could have gone either way, and now we’ve sort of played two of them and we’ve won one each, and I think that’s probably fair enough, but he’s just a beast at this format. I generally still think that I’m a little bit better, but I didn’t prove it today, and he’s certainly as close as basically anyone’s ever been, so it’s a great challenge.
Going into the 2022 match there was more epic sporting action, as Kylian Mbappé scored three goals and Lionel Messi two as the World Cup final ended in a 3:3 draw. Laurent Fressinet had more or less predicted it…
…but it was a case of careful what you wish for, as Argentina went on to win the final on penalties. Many speculated that it was a heavy blow for France-fan Magnus Carlsen, while Hikaru Nakamura was more of a neutral observer.
Magnus himself, however, shrugged off any impact.
To be honest I was rooting for France, but having Messi get his World Cup title is also not a bad outcome, so the final was very enjoyable to watch. As a football fan it was a good warm-up.
Magnus did mention “a little bit of an energy deficit” but felt the first couple of games went fine. Hikaru, however, was encouraged by the second game.
He commented:
For me the moment that I knew that I was going to have chances was probably the 2nd game, when I played the King’s Indian, and Magnus did not put me away in that game. He was up a pawn, it was a very typical Magnus type of position, with a great knight on f5, and in the time scramble he was very shaky and the game ended in a draw, and I think from that time on I felt good about my chances, because it was just very uncharacteristic for Magnus to not be precise there.
Magnus pointed to Game 3.
The third game was a bit of a meltdown. I was outplaying him a little bit, I got a better ending, with a bishop and knight against two knights, and I was sort of building in the centre, and then he set up this fortress. I tried to break it, and all of a sudden he was playing for a win, and I was just bamboozled by that and I lost on time in a position that was still tenable, so that was really when it all sort of started.
Magnus missed some chances in the next game and then in Game 5 went for a wild opening choice — even if it he had some impressive predecessors — that had Hikaru smiling.
He had even more to smile about by the end of the game, as Hikaru took a 2-point lead.
Magnus would later comment:
I have to say, though, if there’s one thing that I regret a little bit in this match it’s the uncompromising openings I played at various points as Black.
He felt he was doing well enough with the white pieces not to need to push with Black, but before he could hope for an improvement he first had to go through a real ordeal in the 5-minute games. Hikaru won Game 7 by applying huge pressure and winning on time, and then made it a 4-point lead in the next game as he found the crunching 35…Nf4+!.
36.gxf4 Qg4+ is hopeless, but so was 36.Kh1 Qh3! and it was mate-in-3.
It could have been even worse for the World Champion as Hikaru was very close to winning the final 5+1 game, though there was a one-move chance for Magnus to pull back a point.
Hikaru had taken a 6.5:2.5 lead.
Given some of the moves Magnus missed you might have expected him to put all the blame for his dire result on his own play, but instead he poured praise on Hikaru.
Frankly for the rest of the 5-minute portion I think he played fantastic chess. He was just way better than me in every aspect. At that point I was just looking forward to some faster time controls, because I felt that he was doing a lot better that I was when we both had a lot of time to think. He was strategizing better in the middlegame generally, just seeing things better, so I thought when we have less time there will be less time for him to think and also it will force me to play a bit faster so that’s fine.
Magnus appreciated the chess:
I remember his match against Fedoseev two years ago, his 5+1 segment there. I felt that’s pretty much as well as it’s possible to play in that particular time control, and I did feel that today he came at least very close to that level, so hats off for that. That was not fun to face in that particular segment, but it was amazing to see.
Could Magnus mount a comeback? Yes, was the answer, but in the end it wouldn’t be quite enough, as he won the 3+1 6:4 and the 1+1 5:4.
The first win for Magnus came in the first game of the 3+1 section, which didn’t only inspire Magnus.
Magnus commented:
When I got my first win I calmed down a little bit, I think. To be fair, a couple of games later I put my bishop en prise, overlooking a backward knight move, which was not impressive, to say the least, but I felt at that point that he was vulnerable and I was already really cherishing the challenge of making it all the way back. Even with that game, I felt that I had a chance.
The blunder was the kind of move that lets chess fans around the world enjoy the brief comfort of seeing that even World Champions can make horrific moves…
That was the first and last loss at 3+1 for Magnus, however, as he hit back in style when Hikaru for once overlooked a tactic — the pretty 15.Nb5!
The point is that after 15…cxb5 16.Rxc7 Qxc7 White had 17.Qxd5, hitting both the a8-rook and f5-bishop.
Things were beginning to go Magnus’ way, but the momentum was slowed when Magnus walked into a trap — at least for the Speed Chess format!
Magnus had no complaints:
It’s completely fine! I was impressed by his constant awareness of those matters. There was this one game in the 3+1 where I played the Modern and he’s actually done this against me before in one of the years in Norway Chess… and in that game I actually went for something else, which is really dubious if White knows what he’s doing. That game was drawn as well, but I figured he’d learned the line so I couldn’t really do that. And I didn’t realise the implications immediately, thinking that we were going to have a draw, and then of course at some point I realised he’s going to take the three minutes, and I’ve just got to say props to him for recognising that, and it’s absolutely fair game.
“I feel like you have to try and use every advantage you can have against Magnus,” said Hikaru, and you can’t fault the players for taking advantage of any quirks of the system. Of course you might suggest changes, some football inspired!
Running down the clock would prove critical in Hikaru winning the match, but initially it didn’t succeed in stopping the World Champion. Magnus won the next game to cut the gap to two points, and in fact he felt he was where he needed to be. He wasn’t a believer in Hikaru being untouchable in 1+1 chess.
I was not the least bit worried about that. I was still thinking at the end of 3+1, if I’m within a couple of games I felt I’m a slight favourite for bullet, so I should be fine. I feel like the notion that he’s a lot better than everybody at 1+1 is a bit outdated.
In general Magnus was understandably optimistic when accessing his Speed Chess chances:
My motivation was to set the record straight, show that I’m still the best. I remember before the 2020 event [when he lost to MVL in the semi-final] I felt that there was about 20-25% chance that I would lose to Hikaru and then probably 5%, or a little bit less, that I would lose to somebody else, and I think it was pretty similar this time actually… These things obviously do happen, so that’s why I’m also sitting here. As I said, I think I’m somewhat better, but it’s close enough that it’s an exciting match-up, and that’s really all you can hope for.
The 1-minute section would be hugely entertaining, though it started badly for Magnus as he blundered the trick 15…Qxb2!
The point, as demonstrated, was 16.Qxb2 Nd3+, winning a pawn and leaving the white king stranded in the centre of the board.
Hikaru was three points clear again, but not for long. He later commented:
There were probably two or three times in the bullet when I thought finally the match was over and he found a way to keep it complicated, and it was just a great match.
The lead would soon evaporate as Magnus finally put together his first streak of the match, winning three games in a row to level things at 11.5:11.5 with 17 minutes to go.
Magnus, who said he wasn’t watching the video but could hear his opponent, commented:
He was shouting to himself, or maybe I heard slaps, he was slapping his face and saying, “wake up, wake up!” I thought that was funny. It was a clear sign that I had the momentum, and as I mentioned earlier, that game really was a bit of a backbreaker for me, because I was applying pressure, and if I hadn’t given him this chance to go pawn hunting I think I could have put a lot of pressure on him in that game and probably won the match.
Magnus looked to have a risk-free edge and a chance to take the lead for the first time in the match. Instead he blundered a pawn, lost control and slipped to defeat, with Hikaru winning the next game as well. Hikaru spoke about his new-found ability to shrug off misfortune:
I have this ability now where I don’t care, I’m just able to get over it and you move on to the next game and keep going. In the past I would have folded like a cheap suit there, I would probably have lost the next 3 or 4 games, lost the match, and [people] would say, Hikaru, you choked again… It’s very easy when you have no pressure in chess. If I do badly, I do badly. I’m still a streamer — who cares!
Magnus wasn’t going to give up that easily, however, and won another game to cut the lead to a point. Then Hikaru struck, and now his 2-point lead put him close to overall victory, since there was under 4 minutes left.
The margins were incredibly fine, as Magnus managed to grind out a win in the next game, but in the following completely winning position for White, it was Hikaru who could celebrate!
Black is getting mated, but the number of seconds on Hikaru’s clock was 2 seconds more than the match time remaining, so that all he had to do was wait until the match clock ran out — by the time he lost the game there was no time for another game to start.
Hikaru had beaten Magnus 14.5:13.5, to win a 5th Speed Chess Championship in a row.
Hikaru put his success down to how his streaming career has made him care much less about results. He reflected:
I’m very proud of my performances in the Grand Prix, the Candidates and even this, it’s all a kind of gravy. If COVID had stopped and I had played terribly, lost 30-40 points in classical and gone below 2700, it still would have been a great career, but to have all these events where I’ve been playing so well. It means a lot, so I’m very happy.
Hikaru also seemed to have the perfect attitude to playing Magnus.
If you can’t get excited by playing Magnus then why are you even playing chess?
But he was no longer overawed, explaining:
Some years back, Mr Danny Rensch, the Chief Chess Officer over at Chess.com, said that according to the Chess.com stats, apparently when I play blitz I’m more accurate than Magnus, except when I play Magnus and then I play like a complete clownfish. So that was in my mind, that basically if I’m able to just keep it together and not lose my mind good things can happen, but in general I think it’s really just that I try to play good chess and I think everybody else is under pressure and I have nothing to lose, and that makes a world of difference.
Hikaru suggested people would do better against Magnus if they didn’t know they were playing him, which Magnus himself agreed with!
Yes, of course, 10+ years of domination is intimidating to face — it’s as simple as that! Similarly people are extremely intimidated when facing Hikaru, so there’s no doubt that that’s a factor. You double or triple check stuff that you normally wouldn’t and you just play a bit worse. I think it’s also the case that I’m not intimidated by him and I don’t think he’s really that intimidated by me anymore, and that frees us both up a little bit.
The most remarkable part of Magnus’ interview, however, was how much he’d enjoyed the match. He commented on his “addiction” to blitz:
I think it hit me one of the days when I played the MrDodgy Invitational before this — I absolutely love playing blitz. I’ve always loved it, but I guess I started appreciating it more and more, and I just had these moments where I’m thinking that I don’t feel like it’s an addiction in the sense that I feel some of the matches you played for a long time, that can be put down to addiction, but I’m not sure it does a lot of harm. So for me it’s just improving quality of life to have this passion. I absolutely love it, I have to say!
And Magnus loved the particular match-up as well:
Obviously I think this is as good as it gets. Speed Chess matches between Hikaru and me, be that blitz, or rapid, or even bullet, I think that’s as good a show as it gets in chess. So I’m glad that people appreciate it as much as I do.
The future promises plenty more matches between Hikaru and Magnus, but first, in a week’s time, they’re likely to be on collision course in the World Rapid and Blitz in Astana, Kazakhstan. Stay tuned for live coverage here on chess24!
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