The world champion handily defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with a score of 17.0-9.0 in the semifinals of the SCC to set up a date with streamer extraordinaire Hikaru Nakamura in the grand final, giving chess fans the matchup they were hoping for all along to settle the fate of the title.
The matchup promised to be exciting. MVL is the current holder of the World Blitz Championship title and he had a decent record against Magnus in faster time control formats heading into the match. However, the Norwegian has earned his spot in the semis by going undefeated against Fabiano Caruana in over four hours of play, meaning he was in monstrous form for the series.
Matches in the Speed Chess Championship are made up of 90 minutes of 5+1 chess, 60 minutes of 3+1, and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet games. Each win, regardless of the time control, is worth one point, which means that even seemingly insurmountable leads can be overhauled in the bullet segment with strong play.
Of course, this is a different matter entirely when your opponent is called Magnus Carlsen: the world champion displayed impeccable skill and poise with a dash of Hikaru-like escapades to race to a 4-point lead in the 5+1 segment, putting him in the driver’s seat for the series.
A stretch of five hard-fought draws kicked off the 3+1 segment of the match, which benefited Carlsen as he continued to bleed out the clock. Then, a heartbreaker of a game followed as MVL, despite playing better in the 3+1 section than his opponent, failed to convert an advantageous position and eventually ended up losing altogether.
In the next game, he followed with a dubious knight sacrifice offer on the d6 square to complicate things, but Carlsen’s precise play nullified the potential benefits of the move, and when he eventually did capture the offered knight, MVL just resigned on the spot.
Stretching his lead to six points, the world champion continued to keep his advantage: ultimately, the bullet portion of the series proved to be such a one-sided affair that MVL resigned the series with eight minutes still left on the clock, ending the series with just 3 wins in total alongside 12 draws and 11 defeats. Nevertheless, Carlsen was clearly disappointed with his play, and he made this clear to the commentators in the post-match interview.
The grand final of this year’s SCC will take place on Dec. 18 at 1pm CT, pitting back-to-back-to-back-to-back winner Hikaru Nakamura against Magnus Carlsen.
