Magnus Carlsen reveals 'psychological' edge over Hikaru Nakamura after winning Paris Grand Slam

After falling narrowly short with a semi-final defeat against the relatively unfancied Vincent Keymer in Weissenhaus, Magnus Carlsen went the distance in the second event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Paris. What made his triumph in the ‘City of Light’ even more special was the fact that he defeated Hikaru Nakamura in a dream showdown between two of the world’s top-ranked players, winning by a 1.5-0.5 scoreline after capitalising on a blunder by the American Grandmaster in the first game.

Carlsen feels Nakamura not pushing as hard against him as against others

In a chat with commentators David Howell, Tania Sachdev and James Patterson after his victory, which helped him pocked the $200,000 prize money and move to the top of the Grand Slam Tour standings, Carlsen shared his thoughts on his victory in the ‘El Chessico’ final against Nakamura and why the world No 2 struggles against him.

“I felt that I was pushing the whole way yesterday, and had no problems whatsoever today. So it didn’t feel that even to be honest in this particular match up. I felt that overall he had some chances to hold, but overall I managed to shut him out in this match,” the Norwegian GM said on the Paris final, in which he sealed his victory with a sedate draw on Monday.

“Overall, Hikaru’s done really well in the Classical games, both in Weissenhaus and here. He’s definitely been among the best. But I think there is also something psychological that happens, that he feels that when he plays me, maybe he’s not pushing as hard as he is against some other people,” Carlsen added.

Carlsen and Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer respectively in the semi-finals of the Paris Grand Slam. Caruana and Keymer had faced off in the Weissenhaus final which was won by the latter. Caruana, however, fought back in Paris to defeat Keymer in the third-place playoff.

Nakamura had earlier defeated Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi in the quarter-finals, winning the second game after playing out a draw in the first. Erigaisi would go on to finish fifth in the event after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.