Carlsen has a huge plus score against him though, I'd expect the match to be extremely one sided. Something in Nakamura's style doesn't work against Magnus.

To be fair, something in everyone's style doesn't work against Magnus. Very few (if any) top players have a winning record vs him.

Of course, but Carlsen - Nakamura is 14 - 1, and 26 draws*. That's a huge winning percentage at top level, other top GMs may have a minus score but not like that.

*: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?page=2&pid=52948&pi...

After the Nepo match, no one has a winning score against Magnus if I remember correctly.

Hikaru will get wiped by Carlson. Hikaru is a blitz/bullet player, not classical. They are different games.

Everyone gets wiped by Carlsen, so this isn't a hot take.

Not just Carlson.. any of the candidates are capable of beating him … most have higher elo and that elo is well deserved and stupendously hard won at that level. Wesley So beat him in the Grand Prix, he was in trouble once against Esipenko. I don’t think he’ll have as hard of a time against eg Ian Nepomniatchi ( Nepo likes speed which is Hikarus superpower ), But Ding Liren ( depending on Karjakins dq and Lirens play ofc ) Caruana, or Wesley So will beat him easily…

He probably will be wiped. However, this comment would make more sense if he didn't literally beat a lot of good players in classical chess, winning FIDE Grand Prix 2022.

>Hikaru will get wiped by Carlson. Hikaru is a blitz/bullet player, not classical. They are different games.

I can personally attest to this but Hikaru has been unusually strong in classical in his return. Hence why he's headed to the candidates.

Also remember... Hikaru might just end up being champion. Carlsen said he'll only fight firouzja.

I don't think Carlsen would actually give up the title to Nakamura without a match.

>I don't think Carlsen would actually give up the title to Nakamura without a match.

Oh ya I agree, I think such a competition would be amazing.

Hikaru used to be ranked #2 in the world in classical with an elo over 2800.... "not a classical player" lol

And is currently 16 and has been dropping over the last 8 years. Kasparov also used to be number 1. That's just how it goes. He's a much stronger bullet/blitz player and this isn't news to anyone. There's a reason people are surprised he qualified.

He's 11th in classical currently and there isn't much separation from 4th to 20th. He has a pretty good record against all of his opponents in classical. He's never lost to Rapport, Liren, Duda, or Radjabov. He is 3-2-5 against Nepo, 6-7-33 against Caruana, and he's never played Firouzja.