Is he angling for a dynamic fight today?
Replying with the king pawn, Nakamura sounds his intentions to steer the game towards quieter waters. He offers either the Ruy Lopez or the Italian Opening for today.
The opening is known for its quiet character. True to Carlsen's taste, it is not as deeply studied as the Ruy Lopez or the Italian.
Black too keeps an eye on White's queenside knight, which supports White's central pawn. Ultimately, both sides will fight for control of the center in a strategic, maneuvering way.
Carlsen is known for his penchant for employing lesser-studied moves in the opening, relying on his intuition and deep understanding of the middlegame. The main idea of such play is to steer clear of tons of opening preparation and get an original position early in the game.
Fun Fact: This was one of the favorite moves of Louis Paulsen, a top player in the world from Germany, who employed it in the nineteenth century! Old is New, New is Old...
This was employed by Siegnert Tarrasch, an erstwhile great player of the world, way back in 1922 against Akiba Rubinstein! Carlsen is simply enjoying himself today.
But if one goes by the sheer merits of the move, it is not part of any unusual strategy. We shall be arriving at a position similar to the Berlin Defense of the Ruy Lopez, but only with queens present on the board. White doesn't have any great advantage here, but that's the point behind most of Carlsen's opening surprises: to get an original position on the board and make the opponent think for himself.
White captures Black's central pawn, but Black will be able to capture it back in no time. Only, Black will be forced to part with his dark-colored bishop, thus giving up his temporary bishop pair advantage.
Black is forced to part with his bishop pair to achieve material equality
Nakamura hardly has any difficulty in equalizing the position, making one wonder if Carlsen had any serious way to create problems for Black in this rare opening setup.
It is indeed a rare sight to see such a position. With two of the pairs minor pieces already exchanged, the position is completely equal. Now, we all have to wait to see if Carlsen has any hidden plans in the position up his sleeves.
But it also means an absence of any dynamism, preventing both players from harboring any thoughts of active measures in the position.
It remains to be seen if it is possible to inject any life into the position at all.
Both sides are in a situation where they cannot infuse any life into the position even if they desperately want to! After all, the symmetrical nature of the position prevents any thoughts of dynamism.
White can try to put the pressure on the black knight, but this hardly looks like a troublesome plan for Black to handle. After all, White lacks a sufficient amount of cavalry to mount any meaningful assault on the black position.
To clarify the position even further, Black offers exchange of the queens too, to show that he doesn't have any intentions to disturb the status quo and artificially try to complicate the position with any rash schemes.
Did Carlsen really turn up at the board with such peaceful intentions? He didn't seem to attempt to arrive at any position promising of a fight, since the opening stage.
We shall soon be looking at an endgame without any fundamental juice left in it!
Though it wouldn't give Black any significant advantage, it also means that White wouldn't be able to achieve any such space grab on the kingside.
We can safely say that both the players have found a way to find a way to draw the game quickly!
We shall soon see a three-fold repetition soon on the board.
It wasn't much of a fight between Carlsen and Nakamura today, with the game ending in a draw in a quick 21-move colorless encounter.
Carlsen had admitted before the game, "I cannot say that my motivation is very high today", and he proceeded to demonstrate his mood through an odd variation of the Four Knights Opening. Pieces were exchanged regularly since the sixth move onwards, the game remaining with a simple and non-threatening pawn structure for either side. It was soon obvious that Carlsen was not thirsting for a fight.
Nakamura didn't have much of a choice, having the black pieces in such a solid opening setup. He repeated Carlsen's strategy, keeping the position simple and not averting piece exchanges. It all ended pretty soon, for the disappointment of the spectators.
So, Carlsen's real intention seems to be to enter the Armageddon tiebreak. Will his mood improve before the quickplay game? Let's wait and watch.
It is indeed the clash between the top two chess players in the world! However, we have to remember that Nakamura had actually prevailed over Carlsen in their mutual encounter in the first cycle through the Armageddon tiebreak.
And Carlsen is no longer the clear frontrunner to win the tournament, especially after his shocking loss against Gukesh in the sixth round. With four more rounds remaining, Carlsen will need all that extra energy and points to win the tournament still.
A curious fact to notice is that both these giants of the modern era have hardly played each other in classical chess over the board in the past couple of years. Carlsen and Nakamura played each other only in Norway in the last two years! And Carlsen scored the only solitary win way back in 2023!
Two facts stand out about the flow of the tournament so far. The first is that, the time control has been tough on the players, thus introducing an element of instability. And the second, both Carlsen and Nakamura haven't really dominated in the faster time controls, that is, the Armageddon tiebreaks, as their reputations precede.
All in all, we can certainly say that we are uncertain about the prediction for the game today! Let's simply enjoy the show!