He has four whites in the final seven games, and the most important one comes at the very start in round eight where he meets Vachier-Lagrave, who can be expected to play the Najdorf Sicilian against 1 e4 and the Grünfeld against 1 d4.
Fischer vs carlsen full#
The American is on 3.5/7, a full point behind the joint leaders from France and Russia, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi, but Caruana is not out of it. The eight-player tournament’s original venue of Yekaterinburg in Russia still stands but Tbilisi in Georgia is available as a reserve if the coronavirus situation requires it. Fide has just announced that the Candidates, which was stopped after seven of its 14 rounds in April, will resume on 1 November. The six include the rising stars Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland and Firouzja, and the champion also meets his traditional rival from the 2018 world title match, Caruana.Ĭaruana, however, is faced with an unexpected diversion. Stavanger’s double round of six players replaces its normal single round all play-all of 10. It is a cherished achievement which the No 1 will try to extend further, but it will not be simple.
When normal tournaments stopped in March-April, Carlsen was on a record run of 121 unbeaten games, almost all against elite opponents. The Norwegian’s opponents include top US and Russian players led by Hikaru Nakamura, whose marathon 38-game Tour final against the world champion attracted record online audiences.ĭespite all his successful online activity, it will be a moment to savour for Carlsen when he starts play in the over-the-board Norway competition at Stavanger from 5 to 16 October. The $250,000 St Louis 27-round Rapid and Blitz on 15-19 September will be another stiff test for Carlsen. Firouzja is still the world’s best teenager, and he showed his skills last weekend when he outclassed a strong field including England’s top four in an informal blitz tournament held in memory of John Naylor, a talented English amateur who died in August aged 48. Then there is Alireza Firouzja, the 17-year-old prodigy who won two speed matches with Carlsen but has been less prominent recently. It is only a year since Carlsen admitted to being “deeply ashamed” by his heavy defeat by Wesley So in the first World Random Championship final in Oslo, while Kasparov was crushed 5-1 by Fabiano Caruana at Random in St Louis and said: “I can fight all opponents, but not age.”Ĭaruana and So are both in the 10-player field this weekend, and will surely be itching for a repeat of 2019.
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