Is Carlsen the new Nakamura?

Over the past 4 years or so, Carlsen's rating in classical chess has been slowly but steadily decreasing. On the official rating lists at the beginning of the year from 2014 to 2018, his rating progression has been as follows: 2872, 2862, 2844, 2840, 2834. Nowadays, while he is still the favorite in every tournament in which he plays, he is by no means a prohibitive favorite, as his performances over the past year have demonstrated. In the last Sinquefield Cup, he even gained rating by finishing in a tie for second - the sort of thing that would have been unthinkable several years ago, when it was common to see him lose rating while winning a tournament. 

In speed chess, on the other hand, the story has been completely different. As of late, Carlsen has been just short of godlike in everything from OTB rapid to online bullet. Some of his performances over the past two years in speed chess include: winning the Paris GCT; winning the Leuven GCT twice; winning the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship twice; demolishing Ding Liren 22-8 in the Champions Showdown; winning the World Blitz Championship in 2017 and tying for first (albiet losing the tiebreak) in the Rapid and Blitz championships in 2016. It is probably safe to say that no chess player has ever been as dominant in speed chess as Carlsen is now.

The combination of lacklustre (by his own standards) performances in classical chess and dominance in faster time controls brings to mind another contemporary top chess player - and I am speaking of course of Nakamura. Based on his play over the past two years, Carlsen seems to be basically a better version of Naka - in a league of his own in speed chess, first among equals in classical. Thus, following Carlsen's demolition of the American just now in the Speed Chess Championship final, might one say that he has supplanted Naka as the icon of speed chess? Is he in his current form a speed chess god who happens to be almost as good in classical time controls - or is such a characterization a bit unfair to the World Champion?

Please discuss.

If it was a boxing match, it would have been stopped on account of cuts.

I thought you'll end that in a few years time, MC will fade into always 2nd like Naka did.

If he keeps up his current pace, that seems like what's going to happen - but I wouldn't want to assume that he will. I do think it's most likely that at some point he will straighten things out and regain at least some of his past dominance.

Additionally, for all of his less than dominant performances over the past year, he has managed to maintain his hold on the #1 spot in the ratings. Imo, to a small extent he has been lucky, considering that Fabi's peak rating in 2017 was actually higher than Carlsen's lowest. At the same time, he does seem to have the ability to step it up whenever his spot is under genuine and imminent threat, perhaps a sign of the potential that he still has.

Based on the trends noted in the OP, one observes that his growing strength in Speed Chess is not helping his Classical Chess. 

Yes... a la Nakamura, perhaps?

Ratings represent relative strength, not absolute strength.  Carlsen may well be stronger today in classical than he was several years ago but as macer75 pointed out in his opening post, Carlsen's relative strength has declined.  Of course when his rating was close to 2900, he was rated so much higher than his opponents that he would lose points even in tournaments he won.  Maintaining a rating that much higher than other top tier GMs was probably too much to expect of even the best player.  There is no question that he remains the best in the world.  What's really interesting is that while his classical rating has come back down to earth, his dominance in speed increases.  He is nearly unbeatable in speed nowadays.  It might be that intuition plays such a great role in speed.  It makes sense that intuition would improve with experience but it's still astonishing.

By the way, I cannot stand typos!  

I wanted to see real bullet match. not with increments

There's no question that Carlsen has always had Nakamura's number.  I don't think any other top tier GM has fared as poorly against Carlsen in classical.  Nakamura is still one of the very best speed players in the world but you would never know it when he plays Carlsen.

There is one: Carlsen is 6 out of 6 in classical against Pavel Eljanov. That's 6 wins, 0 draws, 0 losses.

If you include rapid and blitz, Eljanov's score percentage-wise improves slightly, as Carlsen's total score becomes +10-1=2.

Carlsen = Lasker

Nakamura - Marshall

It sounds ridiculous to make such distinctions, but Naka is more of a top 10 player than a top 5, if you see what I mean.

He was only over 2800 once, briefly in 2015, and at age 30 this will be his first candidates tournament.

Again this is really silly to list in a disparaging way. Over 2800 and playing in a candidates tournament means he's one of the best players of all time... but anyway, look around at other top 10ers. People frequently over 2800 or former world champions. He's sort of 2nd class compared to them.

Naka is not in the Candidates for 2018.

He should have won his Classical game against Magnus in London though.   

Naka...a top 10 player in the world.  I wish i was this bad of a player.

Oh... that was a silly mistake on my part. I meant last candidates (I almost typed he'd never played in one).

Yeah, he's one of the best players of all time going by just raw ability.

But could he beat Carlsen in a match? No way, IMO. So Carlsen - Naka isn't really a good comparison.

I love it

Nakamura is ranked 8th and Eljanov 38th.  I don't consider someone ranked 38th to be top tier.  But regardless, Carlsen has played many more classical games against Nakamura.