Leonard Barden on chess

Chess: Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura level in Lindores semis

The world No 1 had the best of Thursdays legs buts the US blitz specialist fought back on Friday to make the score 1-1

Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are poised for a rerun of their dramatic battle early this month after the world and US champions reached 1-1 in a best of three sets semi-final of the Lindores Abbey Rapid on Friday afternoon. The event is an online version of the 2019 tournament staged in the distillery at Newburgh, Fife, Scotland.

Carlsen had won the first set 3-0, apparently outclassing the American, but Nakamura fought back in the second set by winning the first game then halving out for 2.5-1.5.

There has been needle between the pair, due to Nakamura using his Lindores appearances to promote his own Twitch channel and the chess.com website, while Carlsen objected in a strongly worded tweet. Further tweet exchanges before and during Thursday’s games have been widely interpreted as coded jibes.

In the second semi-final Russia’s Daniil Dubov beat China’s Ding Liren 2.5-1.5 in the first set after the world No 3 overreached while trying to win a level rook ending in the fourth game. Then in the second set Dubov, playing Black, simply overran his opponent with a rapid h pawn advance and a decisive bishop sacrifice to win 2.5-0.5.

The creative talent Dubov, 22, has been the surprise of the competition and has already knocked out his compatriot Sergey Karjakin, the 2016 world championship challenger. Dubov is fast becoming a contemporary version of Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Morozevich or Alexey Shirov, who at their peaks were renowned for their imaginative approach.

His 27-move win as Black against Karjakin using the offbeat Scandinavian 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qd6 was impressive. Dubov used a touchpad for his online games, as did the 16-year-old prodigy Alireza Firouzja when he defeated Carlsen in a marathon one-minute bullet match.

You can watch Saturday’s Carlsen v Nakamura final set live (3pm start) at chess24.com.

For some viewers the highlight of the week was Carlsen’s 18-move banter blitz defeat on his Twitch channel by a little-known Brazilian. Luis Paulo Supi, aged 23, is a 2572-rated grandmaster, and his victory, with a stunning finish captured on video, is already being hailed as “the Brazilian Immortal”.

Luis Paulo Supi v Magnus Carlsen

1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nf3 Bg4 4 Be2 Nc6 5 Nc3 Qd7 6 h3 Bxf3 7 Bxf3 0-0-0 8 0-0 Nd4 9 a4 Kb8 10 Nb5! Nxf3+ 11 Qxf3 a6 12 c4 e5 13 d4! exd4? (Ne7!) 14 Bf4 axb5 15 axb5 Bd6 16 Ra2 Qf5 17 Rfa1 Kc8 and now the move, with Carlsen’s memorable reaction, captured on video.

The rivalry between Carlsen and Nakamura is intense and longstanding. The American used to have serious designs on Carlsen’s title but his overambitious approach resulted in several heavy defeats. Nowadays when they meet in classical chess Nakamura is ultra-solid, while he has found a more realistic and successful double niche as a speed specialist ranked world No 1 at blitz and as a streamer with over 170,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 250,000 Twitch followers.

Carlsen’s company Magnus AS, which publishes his PlayMagnus app, has a controlling interest in chess24, the site which hosts Lindores Abbey this week plus other Carlsen Tour elite tournaments up to August. Carlsen’s involvement has boosted the quality of the site, which has become more user-friendly and has excellent game commentaries by GMs Jan Gustafsson and Peter Svidler.

It is arguable whether Garry Kasparov or Bobby Fischer ranks ahead or alongside Carlsen as an all-time great champion, but in terms of playing frequently against opponents of all levels and popularising the game the Norwegian has no rivals. His banter blitz appearances are especially popular, even with the occasional setback like the Brazilian episode.

3673: 1 Rc3! a5 2 g4 a4 3 g5 Kb4 (a3? 4 Rxa3) 4 Rxc4+! Kxc4 5 g6 a3 6 g7 Kc3 (if a2 7 g8Q+ and 8 Qxa2) 7 g8Q Kb2 8 Qb8+ Kc3 9 Qc7+ and the BK is forced to a2 blocking the pawn when the WK and WQ will mate.