SANDS: Carlsen continues mastery of Nakamura at Gashimov Memorial chess tournament
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
History suggests you can win a world championship without having beaten the world champion before.
Jose Raul Capablanca’s first victory over Emanuel Lasker came in the fifth game of their 1921 title match, won by the Cuban on a 9-5 score. Mikhail Tal never faced fellow Soviet star Mikhail Botvinnik before his triumphant performance in their 1960 match. Bobby Fischer famously had a record of three losses and two draws in five games against Boris Spassky before their epic 1972 clash in Reykjavik.
American top star Hikaru Nakamura recently announced that he was skipping this year’s U.S. championship tournament to concentrate on the candidates cycle for the next world championship match. The only problem: While Nakamura, now ranked No. 7 in the world, can hold his own against almost all of his top rivals, that doesn’t carry over to his games at classical time controls against Norwegian world champ Magnus Carlsen.
With two more losses to Carlsen at the just-concluded Vugar Gashimov Memorial Tournament in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, Nakamura’s head-to-head score in tournament games stands at 10 losses, 15 draws and not a single win. Should the American emerge as Carlsen’s challenger in this candidates cycle, that would be a high psychological bar for him to clear.
The two wins were crucial to Carlsen’s impressive first-place finish in the event, held to honor the popular Azeri grandmaster who succumbed to a brain tumor in January at the tragically young age of 27.
Full article here.
Carlsen is lucky.
Nakamura is better than Carlsen.
Nakamura is the best player in the world period. No ifs or buts.
Nakamura once defeated Carlsen. Then he woke up…
Nakamura is simply lulling Carlsen into a sense of complacency. When he actually meets him in a World Championships match, he will defeat Carlsen convincingly!. No! I’m not the usual Naka troll! In fact I think Naka can beat Carlsen ( and not just at Judo ), if only given even longer time controls. He gets a winnable pos’n just before the first time control and then lacks time to calculate the finishing blows accurately.
He needs to go back in school to learn basic math instead of playing chess. My grade 3 son calculates better than Naka with speed. Thats how lousy this king of chess is. Cant bet the farm on this guy.
Needs more time to calculate. I think he said he is the best player in Rapid and Blitz games. What a shame. Too many excuses. Wont believe this guy’s trash talks anymore.
Nakamura will dust the trio of wannabe’s. Anand, Aronian and Carlsen is an easy prey to Nakamura.
A world championship match with Carlsen.? Your kidding me. He has to go to the process and win the candidates match to face Carlsen which is impossible. Naka has the brain of a one year old kid.