Magnus Carlsen will face Hikaru Nakamura in the Speed Chess Championship final after beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 17:9. Magnus complained of “constantly missing tactics” but restricted his opponent to just one win in the first 17 games, with MVL finally throwing in the towel with 10 minutes to spare.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Magnus Carlsen in the semi-finals of the 2020 Speed Chess Championship — the only defeat Magnus has ever suffered in the event. He told Daniel Naroditsky and Robert Hess after winning their latest clash:

You can rewatch the whole match with live commentary from Magnus Carlsen seconds Laurent Fressinet and Peter Heine Nielsen.

Magnus opened with a win, but he explained afterwards that it hadn’t filled him with confidence.

Maxime hit back to win Game 3 and level the scores, but for all Magnus’ frustration it has to be noted that it would take Maxime another 15 games before he registered his next win.

Magnus suddenly took over, winning four of the next five games, and seemingly all but sealing the fate of the match.

He would later say:

The final 5+1 game was a draw, so that the score was 6.5:2.5 in his favour.

If things were going to turn around the time for it to happen was at the start of the 3-minute section, when for three games in a row MVL got a winning position only to see Magnus wriggle his way out. He put up huge resistance, but would have been able to do nothing if Maxime had found some killer blows, such as the zwischenzug 74.Rf6+!

Instead Maxime played 74.Kxa7? immediately, and after 74…f5 the f-pawn survived and earned Magnus a draw.

The momentum began to shift as it was then Magnus who missed wins in the next two 3-minute games, but the sequence of draws extended to six games. When the run was broken, however, it was by Magnus, who did his thing from a seemingly innocuous position.

Magnus won again, but Maxime claimed the final game of the 3-minute section to keep faint hopes alive — he’d “only” lost the 3-minute section by 5 points to 4.

After the first two 1-minute games ended in draws, Maxime landed perhaps the heaviest blow of the match. In a close to winning position, Magnus blundered with 31.Rdc4?, running into 31…Re4!

The queen is lost, and for a while the World Champion seemed shaken. He resorted to a trick Hikaru had used to run down the match clock — limiting the time for his opponent to catch him — by pausing as long as he could before allowing checkmate.

In this case, however, it was perhaps more about gaining some time to regroup.

Just when Maxime had a glimmer of hope, Magnus powered to 4 wins in the next 5 games, leaving the French World Blitz Champion trailing by 8 points with under 10 minutes to go. Maxime decided to take advantage of a new rule this year and simply resign the match.

That means that it’s Magnus Carlsen who will take on Hikaru Nakamura in the 2022 Speed Chess Final, slated for 20:00 CET on Sunday, December 18th (the World Cup is schedule for 16:00 CET).

Magnus is the only player ever to have beaten Hikaru in Speed Chess, but he did it in both their meetings, in the 2016 (14.5:10.5) and 2017 (18-9) finals. Magnus commented:

Magnus talked about Hikaru’s route to the final, and how the two of them have been in a class of their own in the competition.

Don’t miss the final on Sunday, where Magnus will be gunning for a 3rd title while Hikaru attempts to win a 5th in a row. It may also be a sign of things to come, since with Chess.com acquiring the Play Magnus Group there will now be no obstacles to Magnus, Hikaru and all the top players competing in the same online events.