Carlsen Destroyed Caruana in Speed Chess!

An awaited rematch of the 2018 World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana was another duel in the Speed Chess Championship, and Carlsen made sure it will be remembered. The World Champion showed extraordinary chess over the board and crushed Caruana 22-4, winning 10 games in a row.

Speed Chess Championship is a combination of blitz and bullet chess played online between 16 elite players in a single-elimination bracket. Players are matched against each other; the winner of the game is advanced to the next round while the loser is eliminated from the bracket. Every match includes 3 segments: 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz games, 60 minutes of 3+1 games and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet games.

Magnus Carlsen, without a doubt, belongs between the elite players fighting for the Speed Chess Championship title. On December 13, the World Champion faced Fabiano Caruana at the same time as the semi-final match of the World Cup between Argentina and Croatia was played. Anish Giri, as a genuine fan, showed his priorities:

During the match, Caruana had chances, but Carlsen defended or turned the game around. The World Champion made almost no tactical mistakes and showed amazing time management. He won the 5+1 blitz 6:2, the 3+1 blitz 7:1 and the 1+1 bullet 9:1, which led to the final score of 22:4 for the World Champion. Between 3+1 and 1+1 games, Magnus adopted Fabiano – he scored 10 wins in a row.

Carlsen’s coach Peter Heine Nielsen evaluated his performance to a rating of 3143 – basically a superhuman level. Commentator Laurent Fressinet believes that the World Champion showed “pure magic” over the board.

After Carlsen’s spectacular performance and because of the coincidence of Carlsen playing chess at the same time as Messi playing football, many called him the “Messi of chess”.

On December 15, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Nihal Sarin 14,5-10,5 and secured his place in the finals. The schedule for upcoming days is the semifinal between Magnus Carlsen vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on December 16 and the finals between Hikaru Nakamura vs the winner of the semifinal match on December 18.

So is Magnus really the “Messi of chess”? Don’t forget to watch the World Cup finals and also the Speed Chess Championship finals on Sunday!

Author

STELLA SÁŇKOVÁ