The best players in the world are ranked on their ability to play slow, or classical, chess, in which each side has at least a few hours for a game. None of them are slouches at blitz chess, in which an entire game lasts five minutes or less, but it puts a premium on tactical skill and quick thinking — which is usually the forte of younger players.
So it is not surprising that Magnus Carlsen, 19, who is the No. 1-ranked player in the world in classical chess, and 22-year-old Hikaru Nakamura, No. 17, look to be the best in the world at blitz chess.
Carlsen, a Norwegian, is the reigning world blitz champion, having won the title in November at a tournament in Moscow. Carlsen beat a stellar field that included Viswanathan Anand of India, 40, the current classical world champion, who has long been considered one of the world’s best blitz players. The one blemish on Carlsen’s achievement was that Nakamura, the United States champion, was not invited to the Moscow event, which included 22 players.
That omission seemed particularly glaring two weeks later when Nakamura beat Carlsen in the final of the BNbank Blitz championship in Oslo.
Nakamura reasserted his dominance last weekend by winning the 11th Dos Hermanas blitz tournament, the strongest online event of the year. Carlsen did not compete; he was in Nice, France, playing in the annual Amber tournament. (Coverage of that event, which ended this week, is at nytimes.com/gambit.)
Dos Hermanas was hosted by the Internet Chess Club, where players often adopt nicknames. Nakamura’s is Smallville, the hometown of Superman. Get it?
Among his nicer victories was a quarterfinal win over Federico Perez Ponsa (nickname: Federicov), an international master from Argentina. In the top diagram, Nakamura outmaneuvered his opponent. The game ended 24 ... Rc7 25 Qd6 Rc3 26 bc3 Qc8 27 Qa3 Qc4 28 Qb2 a4 29 Nd2 Qe2 30 Qc1 a3 31 Nb3 a2 32 h3 Qb5 33 Nd2 Qa4 34 Qa1 b5 35 Kh2 Qc2 36 Nf3 Qb1, and White resigned.
In the final, Nakamura beat Yaroslav Zinchenko (Megayarick), a Ukrainian grandmaster. During the fourth game of the match, Nakamura took advantage of a blunder. In the bottom diagram, Zinchenko should have played 41 ... Qd2, which would likely have led to a draw. Instead, he played 41 ... Qg6 and lost after 42 Kb2 Qh7 43 Qb4 Kd7 44 Qd4 Ke8 45 Qa4 Kd8 46 Rd2 Kc7 47 Qa7 Kc6 48 Qh7 Kb5 49 Qb7 Ka5 50 Ka3 Rc4 51 bc4 e5 52 Qb5, mate.
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