NICK BARNETT CHESS

THE WORLD Rapid Champion of 2018 was not Magnus Carlsen! The world No 1 lost three of his opening eight games but, despite recovering, was unable to catch Daniil Dubov! the 22-year-old Russian who streaked ahead with 11 out of 15.

Carlsen, acknowledged the master of Rapid, was favourite by a long shot and fresh from his World Champion victory (courtesy of Rapid tie-breakers)

Leonard Barden in his Guardian column commented ‘All Carlsen’s games were shown live on Norwegian television and he has developed a style of verbal self-flagellation in response whenever disaster strikes. ‘I played like a crow’, ‘I’ve not played this bad ever as far as I can remember’ and ‘I was just messing around’ were some of his replies to interviewers this week. But, as Nigel Short tweeted: ‘It is the sign of a truly great player when he can play like total crap (by his lofty standards) and still be only half a point off the lead.’

Carlsen on Dubov to #nrksjakk: “It’s super cool! If anyone else would win, it’s fun that it’s someone in my team. Big congrats to him. I wanted this for him.” #WRBC2018 Carlsen tells #nrksjakk that he “definitely didn’t deserve more”. And being paired against Nakamura wasn’t ideal: “I expected him to play extremely solidly, and I guess he was hoping that I would take big risks. At least I played better later in the tournament.” #WRBC2018

A different concept to the Grand Tour is possible, symbolised by Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee. The traditional Dutch event in 12 to 27th January has a fine reputation through its variety of player selection. Tata Steel 2019 will include Carlsen, his potential challengers Ding Liren, Shak Mamedyarov and Anish Giri, the ex-champions Vishy Anand and Vlad Kramnik, plus rising talents from Poland, Hungary, and Russia. Wijk is noted for its fighting games and hardly ever has a draw problem.