Chess: Carlsen and Niemann impress as Paris grudge rematch approaches

Magnus Carlsen, no longer the world champion but still ranked the global No 1, will meet the controversial ­rising talent Hans Niemann, 21, across the board next month for the first time since the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, when their fateful third-round game, won by Niemann, sparked cheating allegations and a $100m ­lawsuit. The view now is that the incident involved no cheating, and certainly no anal beads.
Niemann won again this week on his European tour as the American defeated France’s No 3, ­Étienne ­Bacrot, 4.5-1.5 in the classical ­section of their match in Paris. He has reached No 19 in the live ratings, his highest yet, following earlier ­victories against the Netherlands No 1, Anish Giri, in Utrecht and the England No 1, the former ­Russian Nikita Vitiugov, in London. Both were by ­convincing margins.
Niemann’s speedy play and tactical style produced a flashy win in game four, although Bacrot missed the hidden Stockfish save 24…Rxf7! 25 Rxf7 Qxh2+ 26 Kf2 d4! Niemann’s manoeuvre 16 a4-a5! with 19 Ra4-f4! creating Alekhine’s Gun on the f file looks original.
Carlsen, who plays Niemann on 6 September in Paris in their first over-the-board meeting since the infamous Sinquefield Cup game, won another online Titled Tuesday this week, for which he prepared by a nine-game 3+0 match on Monday against ­Turkiye’s Ediz Gurel, 15, who is one of the world’s youngest ­grandmasters.
Carlsen won 8-1, ­losing game eight, but despite the one-sided score Gurel played his part in a fine match. All nine games are on YouTube
The Carlsen v Niemann match will be a semi-final of the Chess.com Speed Championship, whose earlier rounds were online but whose last stages will be across the board. The other semi-final is Hikaru Nakamura v Alireza Firouzja.
Previous rounds of the speed championship were played exclusively online, but Paris will be a hybrid event, where the opponents will sit opposite each other but play on separate computers. There will be 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3+1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet. Carlsen said that he would prefer a different opponent but “if I have a decent day I’ll probably win without too many issues.”
The Norwegian is the reigning world blitz champion, a title he has won on six previous occasions. Niemann is also a strong blitz player, ranked No 5 in blitz by Chess.com, but it should still be a one-sided match except for the unlikely chance of Carlsen becoming emotionally distracted by pre-game trash talk or other outside factors.
Meanwhile, the 2024 Sinquefield Cup has reached round four (of nine) with a high percentage of draws, as has been its tradition now for several years. Ian Nepomniachtchi, who scored with an imaginative long-range attack, and Firouzja were joint leaders on 2/3 before Thursday night’s fourth round, but then Nepomniachtchi lost to Wesley So, who now shares the lead with Firouzja on 2.5/4.
China’s world champion, Ding Liren, has continued his improved form shown at the World Team Rapid/Blitz. Ding sacrificed a rook and bishop for perpetual check against Gukesh in round one, although he might have tried for more by 20 Rg3! In round two Giri sacrificed his queen against Ding, also for a perpetual; while in rounds three and four Ding had near winning advantages against So and Fabiano Caruana, but spoiled them both.
Bodhana Sivanandan, the world No 1 pre-teen girl, scored another impressive result last week in the qualifiers for the Chess.com Women’s Speed Championship (3+1 blitz). The Harrow primary school pupil, nine, whose Chess.com blitz rating is already above 2500, competed in all four 48-player events, meeting many titled opponents, and scored 6.5,7, 7, and 7.5 out of 11. In her third tournament she defeated the Netherlands No 1 WIM, Eline Roebers, in fine style, while in her fourth she was close to qualifying for the semi-finals.
Last week’s Kingston Invitational, organised by the Guardian’s Stephen Moss, earned a niche in chess history when it produced the longest ever decisive Fide-rated game, 272 moves. Billy Fellowes v FM Peter Lalic sparked controversy when it emerged that Lalic has aimed for this record for a few years, and already has several three-figure games recorded in databases.
Fellowes continued to the bitter end, as is his habit. The 12-year-old is one of several juniors who rarely resigns and plays on to checkmate. The game was adjourned overnight because the caretaker wanted to close the Tiffin Boys School building, and resumed at 8.30 am so as not to delay the next round.
Some critics wanted a double default for bringing the game into disrepute but that opens a can of worms. There is no official verification of chess records, the game will be rated normally by Fide, and I would expect Wikipedia to update its entry from a 1979 game which lasted a mere 269 moves with rook and bishop against rook. There are two longer games on Chessbase, but they are draws which continued for hundreds of moves in totally blocked positions.
The most notable result in Kingston was by Stanley Badacsonyi, who tied first on 6.5/9, gained over 100 rating points, and qualified for the FM title – a triple achievement for the 14-year-old from Muswell Hill. Badacsonyi is still behind his contemporaries, Shreyas Royal and Sohum Lohia, but his energetic attacking style promises further successes. Kingston is in a good spot in the chess calendar, though it needs more titled players to support GM and IM norms.
3934: 1 Rc1! Qxa6 2 Rxc4! bxc4 3 Qh3! White’s c7 pawn queens, and he soon won with two queens against one. A trap is 1 Rd8? Qxa6 2 c8=Q Qa1+ 3 Kg2 Qf1 mate.