Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave halved seven games in the final before the deadlock was broken in the final blitz
When Norway’s world champion, Magnus Carlsen, and his US challenger, Fabiano Caruana, drew all 12 classical games in their title match in London before Carlsen won the speed tie-break, it seemed a one-off case of missed chances, Carlsen in game one and Caruana in game eight.
But this week Hikaru Nakamura of the US and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, finalists in the $1m Grand Tour at London’s Olympia Conference Centre, cautiously halved seven classical, rapid and blitz games before Nakamura trapped the Frenchman’s queen in the final blitz.
The Grand Tour was originally planned as a circuit of purely classical tournaments but speed events dominated its 2018 schedule. In the only all-classical Tour tournament at St Louis Vachier-Lagrave drew all nine games while Nakamura drew six and lost three, so the two finalists in London failed to win a single classical Tour game between them.
The circuit will be more balanced in 2019 with a wider geographical spread when a new classical tournament in Croatia is added and there are also new speed events in India and the Ivory Coast. Carlsen missed the 2018 Tour due to his match preparations but will probably be back next year.
Meanwhile Carlsen has told the state broadcaster NRK that he may not defend his classical crown in 2020. He blamed lack of motivation plus burnout: “I have not played amazing in recent years.” He wants changes to the qualifying cycle and shorter time controls in the championship match.
In contrast to his ennui about classical chess Carlsen really likes the speed format and is looking forward ambitiously to the World Rapid and World Blitz championships which start in St Petersburg on Christmas Day: “No usurpers are going to be left alive.” Last time he won the blitz but India’s Vishy Anand took the rapid.
A different concept to the Grand Tour is possible, symbolised by Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee. The traditional Dutch event in January has a fine reputation through its variety of player selection. Tata Steel 2019 will include Carlsen, his potential challengers Ding Liren, Shak Mamedyarov and Anish Giri, the ex-champions Vishy Anand and Vlad Kramnik, plus rising talents from Poland, Hungary, and Russia. Wijk is noted for its fighting games and hardly ever has a draw problem.
Gawain Jones scored the biggest success of his career this week when the Yorkshireman, 31, won the £50,000 British Knockout by beating Luke McShane in the final. Rapid and blitz were part of the mix, so the practice should be useful as Jones travels to St Petersburg where he will be England’s sole representative among the massed ranks of GMs.
The event’s official name is the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz championships 2018, and much of the enormous $1.15m prize fund comes from Saudi Arabia, which hosted the event in Riyadh in 2017, wanted to do so again, but did not, then or now, offer visas for Israelis.
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