The world No 1 bounced back from a shock 18-move defeat by a little-known Brazilian on Twitch to lead the US blitz specialist 3-0 after the first set
Magnus Carlsen took a commanding 3-0 first set lead on Thursday against his arch-rival, America’s blitz specialist Hikaru Nakamura, when the world and US champions met in a best of three sets semi-final of the Lindores Abbey Rapid. The event, which continues on Friday afternoon, is an online version of the 2019 tournament staged in the distillery at Newburgh, Fife,
Scotland.
There has been needle between the pair owing to Nakamura using his Lindores appearances to promote his own Twitch channel and the chess.com website, which Carlsen objected to in a strongly worded tweet. Further tweet exchanges before and during Thursday’s games have been widely interpreted as coded jibes.