“Ultimately, Magnus Carlsen’s opinion should not hold as much weight as a casual fan’s if we’re trying to grow chess for a bigger audience,” believes Hikaru Nakamura. (Michal Walusza/GCL)
Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen, the world’s top two ranked players, played out a 48-move draw as the Alpine SG Pipers defeated the American Gambits in their Global Chess League match up on Wednesday at the Friends House in London.
Playing with white pieces, Nakamura opted to start with a Nimzo Larsen Attack, pushing his pawn to b3, a hyper-modern opening named after Aron Nimzowitsch and Bent Larsen, which allows the player with white to control the center of the battlefield with a bishop rather than a pawn.
In response, Carlsen, who had lost his game to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave yesterday, opted to respond with the Modern Variation: playing e5 and then jumping his knight to provide cover to the solitary pawn from white’s bishop.
The bloodshed began from the fourth move itself with Carlsen pocketing Nakamura’s pawn. By the 29th move, both players had lost their queens, three pawns each and a bunch of minor pieces. But, as expected from a clash between the world’s best players, the evaluation bar had its quietest nights of the tournament, never needing to move more than a few milimeters in either direction. Eventually, both players started repeating moves as the game ended in a draw on the 48th move.
Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Elisabeth Paehtz took down Kateryna Lagno to nullify Jonas Buhl Bjerre losing to Daniel Dardha.
