Hikaru Nakamura

America's No. 1, streamer

“Magnus does not want to sit back and be solid. He wants to test his metal. He wants to play sharp aggressive chess with both white and black. Playing the Najdorf against a player of Jorden’s caliber shows that he is ready for a big fight.

I actually would say that I was a little bit surprised to see Magnus play Najdorf specifically against Jorden. As someone who does play chess at the professional level, I’ve noticed that Foreest is a player who tends to have a lot of very creative ideas specifically within the Najdorf.

And notice how Magnus’s time is evaporating: he had 1 hour and 10 minutes, and after the 10th move, there are only 46 minutes left… Carlsen spent a lot of time on this move. Clearly, Magnus is out of preparation.

I don’t know if you agree with me, but it seems that Magnus’s preparation wasn’t that great when his bluff finally got called in this game.”