The future world championship after the Anand/Topolov series will most likely have Nakmura versus Carlsen within a three year span; based on the rtournament results from the two dynamic youngsters.

John Paul Morgan, New York City

August 5th 2009

Nakamura is 22 already, and hasn't played many top events. It would be very cool if he could challenge for the top spot, but reaching the top-10 some day would already be great for him. So far he's had a great year though, so who knows...

Winning tournaments and winning a match are different skill sets. Kramnik was very tough in matches when his tournament results were slipping. While I would love to see either Carlson and Nakamura play in a championship match it probably will not happen.

One other example is Ivanchuk who was quite a dominant player yet was not so good in matches.

IMHO the only serious contenders , currently, to topple Anand are Topalov and Aronian. I believe Aronian will be WC before Carlsen ( if Carlsen ever is ) and I dont think Naka will ever even make it to a match for the WC.

Reb, why do you think Aronian will be WC before Carlsen? I know he is a little more experienced, but Carlsen is still no. 3 in the world already, and has been for quite some time now. He can obviously cut it at the very top. Do you suspect his match-play may be slightly weaker?

 Aronian has a much better record against Anand than Carlsen does and yes, I think Aronian is a tougher match player, I think Carlsen is still a few years away from being able to beat Anand, Topalov or Aronian in a serious match. Aronian gives Anand a lot of trouble already and seems to be still improving. But matches I would like to see are the upcoming Anand/Topalov match and I would like to see Aronian play matches against both Anand and Topalov as well....... I think the chess would be very entertaining.