The semifinals of the 2022 Speed Chess Championship featured a heavyweight matchup today between the title holder Hikaru Nakamura and the emerging talent of 18-year-old Nihal Sarin from India. The youngster took notable scalps throughout the tournament, dispatching Anish Giri and Ding Liren on his way to the semis, but the American proved to be a step too far.
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, merited one point for the winner.
Nakamura’s cheeky opening choices with White early on (1. a3 and 1. h3) didn’t throw Sarin off his game. But the American’s trademark Houdini-style great escapes granted him a two-point lead heading into the 3+1 segment.
With Nakamura’s remarkable consistency in Titled Tuesdays, which feature the same format, it seemed quite likely that he’d break away from his opponent at that point of the match.
Instead, Nihal held firm, maintaining the two-point gap heading into the bullet segment. But a heartbreaker of a defeat in the first bullet game was the beginning of the end for the young Indian.
Nakamura kept on extending his lead from that point on and mercilessly ran out the clock to secure himself a spot in the grand final and a chance to win the tournament five times in a row.
Tomorrow, Carlsen will go up against one of the few people with a realistic chance of beating him in faster time controls, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Should the world champion win, fans would get the big showdown between him and Nakamura they always seem to hope for.
