A Victorious Day For Nakamura And Messi

After Hikaru Nakamura defeated Nihal Sarin in the semifinals, he advanced to face Magnus Carlsen. The finals of the Speed Chess Championship were played at the same time as the World Cup finals – on Sunday, December 18.

Magnus Carlsen showed magical skills over the board against Fabiano Caruana, whom he defeated 22-4 and then again against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, with a score of 17-9. The final championship match was a battle of two especially strong blitz players, where Nakamura fought for the 5th consecutive Speed Chess Championship title. 

The match started with 90 minutes of the 5+1 blitz, where Nakamura gained the biggest advantage by winning 6,5-2,5. Carlsen had a lot of tactical opportunities to have a higher score, but Nakamura defended incredibly well and turned some games around. The last game of the 5+1 blitz could have ended with 3 different results – Nakamura made a blunder in a winning position, which Carlsen could use to lower the score difference.

Carlsen missed an amazing move – Bg6! gaining material and securing a winning position. Instead, he played Rd2 trying to find a perpetual check and succeeded. Nakamura was glad to accept the draw. Considering that he had to find the best moves with little time on the clock in order to win the game.

Magnus Carlsen took a break, freshened up, and got ready for a comeback. Similar to Kylian Mbappe’s penalty, that had let France think that the golden trophy is still there to be won.

The first win for the World Champion came in the first game of the 3+1 blitz. That motivated him to win more and pressured Nakamura to be more careful. Draws followed and Nakamura did an intelligent thing to speed up the remaining time – he let his time drop to almost one second in a drawish position, one move before the threefold repetition. This helped him shorten the remaining time of the 3+1 blitz. He did that more than once.

The 3+1 blitz ended 6-4 for Carlsen, giving him the confidence to give his all in a 1+1 bullet. Unfortunately, he blundered in the first 1+1 game and lost quickly. Very comparable to the World Cup finals, when the score of 2-2 went to overtime and Messi scored the third goal. 

However, Carlsen and Mbappe had no plans to lose the finals at all. Carlsen pulled out his magic and scored a hat-trick with 3 wins in a row, tying the match 11,5-11,5. Mbappe – using his own magic – converted a penalty to equalize the match 3-3, also a hat-trick with 3 goals in a row. What a legendary final to watch!

Penalties determined the winner of both championship matches. Messi scored a goal and Nakamura scored an important point in the endgame and then another one with a beautiful tactical combination.

Tactically strong Hikaru Nakamura had no problem finding Qe2 with a threat of catching the queen with g4 (Qd1 is a winning move as well). Carlsen responded with g5, trying to create a counterplay, but unsuccessfully. 

After this combination, Carlsen resigned and hoped for 2 more games. The score at that moment was 13,5-11,5 for Nakamura, with less than 11 minutes until the end of the 1+1 bullet.

Things just got interesting again after Carlsen won the second last game. He hoped for one more game that could tie the match. There were less than 6 minutes remaining on the clock for the 1+1 bullet. Carlsen’s only chance was to win the game before the match time expires and force one more game that can decide the winner. It was a thrilling and tense fight with a time. Nakamura had to collect every second to beat the match time. He had a losing position but collected +2 seconds of his time. He just waited for the match time to drop and smiled along the way. 

Hikaru Nakamura defeated Magnus Carlsen 14,5-13,5 and won his 5th Speed Chess Championship in a row. He showed amazing tactical skills along with great defence and excellent decisions making in time pressure. 

Magnus Carlsen and Kylian Mbappe fought like lions and equalized, but Hikaru Nakamura and Lionel Messi showed the heart of the dragon and that they deserved to win the title more. 

Author

STELLA SÁŇKOVÁ