The Match We All Had Been Waiting For | Carlsen-Nakamura SCC 2022
In the final of the 2022 Speed Chess Championship 2 of the best players played an extremely exciting and close match. The World Champion Magnus Carlsen played against the No. 5 rated player and amazing blitz player Hikaru Nakamura.
Format:
They played 90 minutes of 5+1, 60 minutes of 3+1 and finally 30 minutes of 1+1 games and if the match clock hits 0 while they are playing, they have to finish that game. The one with the more points wins.
5+1
Hikaru obtained an early lead in this segment. The American Grandmaster played fantastic chess what the following game is also proves.
| Nakamura | 1/2 | 1/2 | 1 | 1/2 | 1 | 1/2 | 1 | 1 | 1/2 | 6.5 |
| Carlsen | 1/2 | 1/2 | 0 | 1/2 | 0 | 1/2 | 0 | 0 | 1/2 | 2.5 |
| Nakamura | 0 | 1/2 | 1/2 | 1/2 | 1 | 1/2 | 0 | 1/2 | 0 | 1/2 | 4 |
| Carlsen | 1 | 1/2 | 1/2 | 1/2 | 0 | 1/2 | 1 | 1/2 | 1 | 1/2 |
6 |
1+1
In my view this was the most exciting part of the match. Not even a single game ended in a draw. Of course with 1 minute on the clock nobody can play perfect chess, so most of the games was decided by little tactical motifs.
Before the last game Hikaru had a 2 points lead and there were about 3 minutes left of the match. So Magnus had to win a game in 3 minutes to start another game and have the chance to equalize the match. Let's see how it went.
So by winning this game Hikaru ended up winning the match by 1 single point.
| Nakamura | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Carlsen | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Final result
| 5+1 | 3+1 | 1+1 | ||
| Nakamura | 6.5 | 4 | 4 | 14.5 |
| Carlsen | 2.5 | 6 | 5 | 13.5 |
This match was close till the very last moment. It was amazing to see how these two fantastic player were fighting until the very end.