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Nakamura, the World No. 1 player in blitz, feels there is going to be less and less interest in the world championship as it involves marathon preparation and there is less space for creativity

Ahead of the football World Cup in Qatar, a picture of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing chess took the internet by storm. It has gone on to become one of the most viewed photos on the internet, and has been liked 41 million times on Ronaldo’s Instagram page alone. It was shot by internationally acclaimed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz for the ad campaign of French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton. The shot has come out beautifully, no doubt.

It turned out the position in that photograph was actually from a game between two great rivals in today’s chess. World champion Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura played that game in the third round of the Norway Chess in 2017. Carlsen, with his characteristic sense of humour, tweeted: Second greatest rivalry of our time mimicking the greatest.

Carlsen is a five-time World champion and the World No. 1 since 2011. He is also the World No. 1 in rapid chess. Nakamura, however, is the World No.1 in blitz chess. He is also the reigning World champion in Chess 960 (Fischer Random), which encourages the creative – and not theoretical – side of a player.

Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay believes the American has been the world’s best blitz player over the last few years. “Carlsen is a wonderful player across formats no doubt, but if you look at the consistency with which Nakamura has played in blitz over the last six or seven years, you could find that he has been the best,” Thipsay says.

Nakamura wasn’t quite at his best though at the Tata Steel Chess India in Kolkata a fortnight ago. He could finish only the runner-up, to Arjun Erigaisi, in the blitz section.

When The Hindu catches up with Nakamura shortly after the closing ceremony, he admits he isn’t happy with the quality of his games. A month before coming to India, he had won the World Chess 960 championship at Reykjavik, Iceland.

He says he enjoyed playing in the tournament. He had beaten Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final. He rates the Russian as one of the three toughest rivals over the years in blitz chess, as well.