Contrary to expectations of a close match, Magnus Carlsen delivered a crushing 3-0 blow to Hikaru Nakamura in their first mini-match of the best-of-three semifinals in the $150,000 Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge on Thursday.
In the other semifinal, Daniil Dubov posted a 2.5-1.5 win over Ding Liren.
Earlier this month, Carlsen beat Nakamura in the final of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. But, Nakamura had then scored three wins with white against the World champion.
On Thursday, Carlsen gave nothing away. In the first game, where the endgame involved a bishop each and pawns, Carlsen sacrificed his bishop, cleaned up a couple of kingside pawns before moving his attention to the queenside pawns. A hapless Nakamura gave up on the 47th move.
In the second, where Nakamura played white, Carlsen managed to establish the queen-rook pawn on the seventh rank and forced his rival to resign after 41 moves.
Any hope of Nakamura making a match of it was soon gone when Carlsen dominated the third game and won in just 30 moves.
Dubov won the first game, but Ding drew parity with an authoritative triumph in the second. After the third game was drawn, Dubov’s lone pawn decided the mini-match in 76 moves.
The results (semifinals, first mini-match): Magnus Carlsen (Nor) bt Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 3-0; Daniil Dubov (Rus) bt Ding Liren (Chn) 2.5-1.5.
