Silly and irrelevant.
Is Nakamura avoiding Carlsen?
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Does a tiger try to avoid grizzly bear ? Probably.
Carlsen's been kinda busy lately. One could say that Carlsen is avoiding a number of top players not named Anand.
Nakamura wants to qualify for the Candidates. It's that simple. Russians might have tried to poison Carlsen's orange juice causing him to now drink water, or whatever other conspiracy theory you can think of.
It would be interesting though to see seconds of each GM play in a tournament alongside the GMs.
A number of people on various chess websites have suggested in the last few weeks that Nakamura has been avoiding Carlsen. I don't have a particularly strong opinion on that, but I thought it would be interesting to ponder some facts related to those allegations.
Nakamura last played Carlsen in classical on 3 September 2014, during round 7 of the Sinquefield Cup. After that tournament, Carlsen played a match against Anand, which was the last over-the-board chess event the former took part in during 2014.
This year, Carlsen has played in Tata Steel and GRENKE, and is currently taking part in the second Gashimov Memorial. Nakamura, on the other hand, has played in Gibraltar, Zurich and the US Championship.
In 2013, both Nakamura and Carlsen played in Norway Chess. Last year, Carlsen took part in that tournament again, while Nakamura declined the invitation and played a four-game match against David Navara instead. Carlsen is scheduled to play in Norway Chess this year, but it remains to be seen whether Nakamura will be there.
Outside of classical chess, it's likely that they will meet in the rapid and blitz championships, which are supposed to take place a few days before Norway Chess. Whatever happens there, I would be very surprised if one (or both) of them skipped the upcoming Sinquefield Cup.
What do you think about all of this?