GM Magnus Carlsen overcame mid-match hiccups to overpower GM Fabiano Caruana with a 14.5-7.5 final score and reach the Semifinals of the Speed Chess Championship 2025.
Starting as an overwhelming favorite, Carlsen was actively pursued by Caruana till the fifth game of the 3+1 segment, when Carlsen’s overall lead was only a solitary point at 6.5-5.5. At this point, we saw an unusually inconsistent Carlsen on our screens, occasionally showing expressions of frustration, talking to himself, and sitting with a pronounced stoop to one side, thus indicating he wasn’t comfortable with himself on the day. At this point the clash between the Team Liquid teammates looked to be going toward an exciting finish.
However, Carlsen reeled off no less than eight wins in a row to show his ultimate class, winning the match comfortably with a seven-point margin in the end.
The next quarterfinal, Nakamura vs. So, is on Monday, November 17, starting at 2 p.m. ET / 20:00 CET / 0:30 a.m. IST (Tuesday, Nov 18).
Carlsen 14.5-7.5 Caruana
Asked about his thoughts at the start of the match, Carlsen recalled a crucial detail about his previous match against Caruana from SCC 2022: “Last time I was unbeaten. It is tough to do that again!… He is incredibly strong but he does have a propensity to tilt a bit when things don’t go according to plan.”
In that SCC quarterfinal match in 2022, Carlsen had prevailed over Caruana with an 18-point margin and an overall score of 22-4, with incredible segment scores of 6-2, 7-1, and 9-1, without losing a single game in the process.
Understandably, the pre-match predictions were somewhat reflective of the protagonists’ past history, at 77%-23% in Carlsen’s favor.
5+1: Carlsen 4.5-2.5 Caruana
The excitement started in the very first game, as Carlsen blundered in the endgame from a winning position, but Caruana saw his 16.7 seconds on the clock run out to lose on time in an equal endgame position.
The second game too saw a tactical blunder by Carlsen which went unexploited by Caruana:
It was Caruana’s turn to commit a tactical error in the third game, after what seemed to be a bit of a dubious opening experiment with the black pieces:
The fifth game saw an evergreen Carlsen squeeze. Relentlessly pressurizing Caruana, Carlsen obtained a winning position in a drawish rook endgame with both playing with seconds on their clocks. However, he blundered it away to allow the game to end in a draw.
Thus, till this point, the match appeared to be topsy-turvy, though Carlsen had a two-point lead at a 3-1 score.
The sixth game saw the super interesting Marshall Attack variation of the Ruy Lopez, which Carlsen has employed throughout his career. Caruana rose to the occasion and produced a high quality win with the white pieces, playing nearly flawlessly for a blitz game.
Commentator GM Aman Hambleton was full of praise for Caruana’s play in this game: “That was an incredible series of only moves; that was extremely accurate and high level chess! Magnus played phenomenal sacrificial, practical play, and Fabi just navigated it almost engine-like! He definitely earned his win!”
This excellent effort by Caruana is our Game Of The Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
But the very next game saw sluggish play from Caruana, resulting in a quick win for Carlsen. Summing up the playing level of both the players, commentator IM Danny Rensch remarked, “I don’t think we have seen the best chess from both yet!”
3+1: Carlsen 4-3 Caruana
This proved to be the crucial portion of the match, where Caruana threatened to stage a comeback, leading the segment 3-2 after five games and closing the gap to just one point in the overall standings. Talking to the commentators after the match, Carlsen was quite candid, admitting that he was ‘just not there’ at this point.
“I think if he had equalized the match, I would’ve just probably collapsed,” says Magnus Carlsen, who doesn’t look too happy even after winning.#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/FCkHKAgyF0
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 14, 2025
Starting from the first game of the segment, Caruana’s play showed marked improvement. And the second game started in a dramatic fashion:
In a case of mutual blindness, both players miss that Magnus blundered a pawn in one move!https://t.co/vLWAVQ3Hvd#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/Qon5g7CCI4
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 14, 2025
This opening mishap saw Hambleton come up with a memorable quote, “It is more common that players don’t take advantage of a Magnus blunder, than we see a Magnus blunder!”
It is more common that players don’t take advantage of a Magnus blunder, than we see a Magnus blunder!
—Aman Hambleton
Looking at a gesture of frustration from Carlsen, Hambleton also remarked, “Maybe it is starting to catch up to him that he is just not playing his best!”
With a win in the third game of the segment, followed by two draws, Caruana shot into the lead for the segment with 3-2, and was just a point behind Carlsen in the overall score at 5.5-6.5. At this point, the players had their halfway break in the segment, and when play resumed there were real expectations that perhaps this might turn out to be a good day for Caruana.
Caruana once again wins just before the break to bring the gap to one game! Carlsen leads 5.5-4.5.https://t.co/cYKYWlhNd7#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/F41EPMtQdI
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 14, 2025
The sixth game of the segment was the most memorable. Carlsen played incredibly creatively in the opening, bringing just his two major pieces out and not bothering to develop his bishops, leaving them to linger on their original squares. With his queen on c2 as the only piece developed for White, he brought out his kingside rook with 13.h4, 14.h5 followed by 15.Rh3!?
This game is reminiscent of a golden game from the neo-classical era between two original British GMs, Jon Speelman and Tony Miles from the 1975 British Championship, exactly 50 years ago!
The last two games of the segment established Carlsen’s control of the match, with wins in both. The last game was especially hard on Caruana as he seemed to suffer a difficult loss, the black pieces swarming all over the board to give a swift one-sided win for Carlsen.
1+1: Carlsen 6-2 Caruana
The bullet segment was simply a case of Carlsen domination, as he followed up with six more wins on the trot, thus establishing an eight-game winning streak. Though his play was full of errors typical of bullet games, Carlsen proved to be the better player in the segment, as evident in the following game.
Showing up at the commentary box after the game, Carlsen underlined his confidence against either of his semifinal opponents:
Magnus on the matchup of Denis vs. Hans:
“Lazavik is very good, Niemann is obviously the favorite, but I don’t think it’s clearcut. If I show up in decent shape, then I’m a big favorite against both.”#SpeedChess pic.twitter.com/EU0HDtGamm
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 14, 2025
The Speed Chess Championship, which starts on October 12 and culminates with Live Finals on February 8, 2026 in London, is Chess.com’s most important speed chess event. Some of the biggest names in chess compete to determine the best speed chess player in the world. The games are played with time controls of 5+1, 3+1, and 1+1. The prize fund is $250,000.
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