Speedchess Championship: Carlsen vs Caruana 22:4

For Magnus Carlsen it is the third Chess.com Speedchess Championship. The World Champion won the first edition in 2017 but then was beaten by Hikaru Nakamura, who has won all the other tournaments in the series after 2018. In the sixth edition of the series, the Norwegian seems determined to win the title again.

The final stage of the Speedchess Championship is a knockout tournament with 16 players. In each match the players play 5+1 blitz for 90 minutes, 3+1 blitz for 60 minutes and 1+1 bullet for 30 minutes. Depending on the length of the games, the number of games in each match can of course vary. The format also invites particular match strategies, for example, a player, who is in the lead can drag out lost or clearly drawn games as long as possible to reduce the overall number of games.

Tuesday saw the quarter-final match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, a rematch of their World Championship match in 2018 - under different circumstances and playing conditions, of course.

Since 2018 things have also changed in the rankings. While Carlsen is still the world's number one by a considerable margin, Caruana is no longer the world's number two. At the beginning of the 2018 match, Caruana was very close to Carlsen on the world's ranking list and with a win in the match he would have been new World Champion and the new world's number one. But that did not happen. Four years later, in classical chess Caruana is the world's number six and almost 100 Elo points behind Carlsen.

But if you look at the current blitz ranking, Caruana is in third place with a rating of 2847, behind Nakamura and Firouzja but ahead of Carlsen (2830). However, only games played over-the-board are taken into account here as the large number of online games are not rated by FIDE.

The match between Carlsen and Caruana was eagerly awaited, but took place more or less at the same time as the semi-final match of the World Cup between Argentina and Croatia.

But real chess fans had their preferences:

The match turned into a disaster for Fabiano Caruana. Carlsen won the 5+1 blitz 6:2, the 3+1 blitz 7:1 and the 1+1 blitz 9:1, which led to a final score of 22:4 for Carlsen. Moreover, Caruana did not manage to win a single game.

In individual games Caruana was not without chances but whenever Caruana had winning chances Carlsen managed to defend or to turn the tables around. Carlsen made almost no tactical mistakes, showed excellent time management, took all his chances and played very fast and very well when he had only seconds on the clock.

The seventh 5+1 blitz game is an impressive demonstration of Carlsen's strength in blitz.

 

Carlsen, Magnus2830

1–0

Caruana, Fabiano2847

Speed Chess Championship 13.12.2022[Schulz,A]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 The Petroff - which Caruana knows very well. 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Bf5 The currently most popular line is 6...Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Re1 0-0 9.Nbd2 Nd6 10.Nf1 c6 11.Bf4 Bxd3 12.Qxd3 Na6 13.Ne3 13.Re2 Nc7 14.Rae1 Ne6 15.Bxd6 Bxd6 16.g3 Qd7 17.Ne3 Rae8 18.Nf5 Bc7 19.c3 g6 20.N5h4 f6 21.Nxg6 hxg6 22.Rxe6 Rxe6 23.Qxg6+ Kh8 24.Qh6+ Kg8 25.Qg6+ Kh8 26.Qh6+ Kg8 27.Qg6+ ½-½ (27) Anand,V (2751)-Caruana,F (2786) Warsaw 2022 13...Nc7 14.Bxd6 14.b3 Ne6 15.Be5 Ne4 16.c4 Nf6 17.Rad1 g6 18.g3 a6 19.Re2 Re8 20.h4 Nh5 0-1 (59) Niemann,H (2688)-So,W (2771) Saint Louis 2022 14...Bxd6 15.g3 15.Nf5 g6 16.Nxd6 Qxd6 17.g3 Rfe8 18.c3 Rxe1+ 19.Rxe1 Re8 20.Rxe8+ Nxe8 21.Qe3 Ng7 22.Kg2 f6 23.Ne1 Qe6 24.Qxe6+ Nxe6 ½-½ (25) Buhmann,R (2573) -Bindrich,F (2599) Magdeburg 2019 15...Re8 Black solved almost all his opening problems and the position is roughly equal. 16.Kg2 Bf8 17.Re2 Ne6 18.Rae1 Ng5 19.Nxg5 Qxg5 20.h4 Qg6 21.Nf5 White manages to seize control of the e-file.

21.Qxg6 hxg6 takes the tension out of the game. 21...Rxe2 22.Rxe2 Threatening to occupy the seventh rank with the rook after 23. Ne7+ Bxe7 24.Rxe7. Qf6 Black wants to play ...g6 to chase the knight away. 23.h5 g6 24.Nh4 White is slightly more active. 24.hxg6 hxg6= yields nothing for White. 24...Bd6 24...Qg5 25.hxg6 hxg6 26.Nf3 Qf6 27.Qb3 25.Qe3 White controls the e-file. However, the white rook might also go to h1 to create threats on the h-file. White's queen already eyes h6. gxh5?! It might have been better to wait, e.g. 25...Rd8 26.Qd3 Going back to enter Black's position via f5. Kh8 27.Qf5 Qxf5 28.Nxf5 Bf8 The bishop has to keep an eye on e7. 29.Kh3 White is better and Black has no counterplay. a5? Necessary was 29...Kg8 30.Kh4 f6 31.Kxh5 Kf7 30.Kh4 a4 31.Kxh5 Kg8 31...f6 32.a3 Kg8 33.Nh6+ Kh8 34.c3 Rc8 35.Ng4 Kg7 36.Re6+- 32.Kg5 c5 33.dxc5 Bxc5 34.Rd2 Attacking the new weakness on d5. Rd8 35.c3 Kf8 36.f4 Rd7 36...Be7+ 37.Kh6+- 37.Kg4 f6 38.b4 Bb6 38...axb3 39.axb3 opens the a-file for White. 39.c4 d4 40.c5 Bc7 41.Rxd4 Ke8 42.b5 Caruana resigned. 1–0

Master Class Vol.8 - Magnus Carlsen 2nd Edition

Let our authors show you how Carlsen tailored his openings to be able to outplay his opponents strategically in the middlegame or to obtain an enduring advantage into the endgame.

The Norwegian has often destroyed his opponents in online chess, but was often not satisfied with his play, a phenomenon that Anish Giri commented on Twitter:

But what did Carlsen say? "There was one game that I was actually very happy with, which was the Petroff where I got knights against bishop as well as queen and rook, very symmetrical position. I think I played that game very well. Normally, I'm not happy with games, but that's one that I was really satisfied with"

After all! For once Carlsen was able to satisfy his harshest critic.

Live commentary of the match - with Peter Leko, Nils Grandelius and Laurent Fressinet

All games of the Speed Chess Championship
 

Official page...