Magnus Carlsen’s dominance of online chess has continued this week as the world No 1 defeated Hikaru Nakamura in two matches to retain the Chessable Masters, the first leg of the annual Champions Tour which the Norwegian has won every year since it was launched in 2020. For 2025, the tour is also a qualifier for the Esports World Cup at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July-August, where the chess prize fund will be $1.5m.
Carlsen began with a smooth 3-1 victory against Russia’s Andrey Esipenko, then defeated China’s Yu Yangyi by 2.5-0.5. He was leading 2-1 in his semi-final against India’s world No 5, Arjun Erigaisi, when they reached white king at f8, white rook at g7 and white pawn at g5 against black king at f5 and black bishop at c4. Now 1 g6 Kf6 2 Rc7! attacking the bishop and following up with 3 g7 wins, but Carlsen missed it, only drew with rook against bishop, allowed Erigaisi to equalise at 2-2, and was also losing their Armageddon tie-break game as Black before escaping with a draw by threefold repetition of position. A draw counts as a win for Black under Armageddon scoring rules.
On to the final against his old rival and current world No 2, Hikaru Nakamura, and Carlsen’s endgame skills again wobbled. He won the first game and was well ahead in the second, until a shocking blunder at move 89 which allowed the American to reach the textbook draw of king against rook pawn and wrong coloured bishop, where the bishop does not control the pawn’s queening square and the game is halved by stalemate.
Carlsen obviously knows the bishop and rook pawn rule, so how did this happen? The clue is in the time control, which for this online Champions Tour and for the Esports World Cup is 10 minutes per player per game, crucially without a per move increment.
This time control, designed to make the game more exciting for spectators, led to some chaotic scenes at last year’s Global Chess League matches, where it was used for over-the-board games. Knocked over pieces, illegal clock pressing and banging down moves were frequent until the arbiters belatedly stiffened their interpretation of the rules.
In the Nakamura v Carlsen online game, they were down to less than 20 seconds each before flagfall when Carlsen blundered by 89…Kxe4?? The most plausible explanation is that the oversight was a pre-move. It also follows that Nakamura’s 90 g5!? which with a normal play would accelerate defeat, may have been a brilliant split second trap, accurately anticipating his opponent’s thought process.
In the end, it made no difference, as Nakamura lost to Carlsen 0.5-2.5. A round earlier, the popular streamer had eliminated Alireza Firouzja 3-2 in Armageddon with a coup which the commentator called “one of the nicest moves I’ve ever seen”.
Carlsen and Nakamura met again on Friday after the American qualified for a rematch, but Carlsen’s dominance was again clear. He won the first game convincingly as White in 41 moves as his far advanced a7 pawn tied down Nakamura’s pieces, then drew the second comfortably as Black.
Game three took only 10 moves for an early draw by threefold repetition of position as Nakamura made a tactical decision to stake all on his final White. It failed, as Carlsen’s pieces controlled the board and Nakamura had to settle for another repetition. Carlsen 2.5, Nakamura 1.5..
England’s over-50s and over-65s are both seeded No2 at Prague this week in the World Senior Team Championship, which has a record entry of more than 100.
After five of the nine rounds, England 65+ share the lead on 9/10 match points with Israel, who they will meet in Sunday’s sixth round (2pm start, all games live with computer assessments on lichess). Four other teams, including England 2, are on 8/10.
England 50+ lost 1.5-2.5 to Italy in round four, and now share fourth place on 8/10, behind the joint leaders Kazakhstan, Slovakia, and Italy on 9/10. England will meet Iceland, also with 8/10, in round six.
These are close run races in both events, and could go down to the wire in next Wednesday’s final rounds.
In England v Denmark 50+ the eight-time British champion Michael Adams outplayed the chess author Jacob Aagaard, gradually setting up the white king for a winning counter.
The future for England’s senior teams is uncertain beyond 2025, due to the withdrawal of the DCMS £500,000 grant for elite chess. This valuable government support had financed high class achievements in the past two years, notably in women’s and junior chess, and had created hopes of emulating the 1980s, when England was the No 2 chess nation after the Soviet Union.
Manx Liberty, the Isle of Man-based team and 2023 champions, are strong favourites to regain the 4NCL British League title after their rivals, Wood Green, lost last weekend. Leaders after six of the 11 rounds are Manx 12/12, Wood Green 10, Cheddleton Savills Catering 9, Wood Green Youth 8.
A feature of Cheddleton’s victory was a mature attacking win by Max Pert, 14, whose father, Richard, and sister Nina were also on the team, against Wood Green’s IM James Jackson. A critical turning point was 17 h5? d4! which gave the Brentwood School pupil central control and allowed the later 22…Qd5! attacking a2 and f3, enabling the black queen to rampage among White’s weak pawns. At the end after 41…d3 42 Rf2 Rh1+! forces mate.
After six of the nine rounds in the Wightlink International, which ends at Ryde on Sunday, the top seeded Bobby Cheng (Australia), rated 2594, led on 5.5/6, half a point ahead of Boris Chatalbashev (Bulgaria), Vojtech Plat (Czech Republic), Matthew Wadsworth and Stanley Badacsonyi (both England) 5/6. The North London schoolboy Badacsonyi, 15, is in contention for his first international master norm. Wadsworth won a 15-move miniature in round two.
3960: 1…Rxc4! 2 Rxc4 Nh3+ 3 Kh1 Nxf2+! 4 Rxf2 Qd1+ and mates. The 2025 British Rapidplay is still open to entry here.
Firouzja v Nakamura: 1…Qh4! and if 2 Qxh4 Bxf3 mate. The game ended 2 Kg2 Qxf4 and White resigned a bishop down.
