The full tweet is here, but the line that grabbed my attention was this:
It this [Magnus Carlsen vs. Hikaru Nakamura] the Top Chess Rivalry of all time?
Hmm. Well, it’s probably the greatest blitz chess rivalry of the present time, but I think it’s got a little ways to go before it matches something like, oh, I don’t know, Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov facing off in five consecutive World Championship matches and competing for supremacy for a dozen years or so? It wasn’t just a clash between two of the three greatest players in chess history up to that point, either, but a battle of generations, chess and personal styles, even of politics. Their matches lasted for months and drove chess fashion for years.
Or how about the two (two-and-a-half? three?) World Championship matches between Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi? That was a great rivalry that couldn’t be contained on the chess board, but had a geopolitical component and was the partial inspiration for the musical “Chess”.
Heck, how about Mikhail Botvinnik vs Vassily Smyslov? They played three World Championship matches, and battled each other at the board for 29 years; Carlsen was still a toddler 29 years ago.
Newer is better for some things, most obviously in the technological realm. And I do think that Carlsen is probably the strongest player of all time. But Kasparov vs. Karpov is not something from the dark ages: they are among the very greatest players of all time, and in terms of the intensity and significance of their battles comparing the blitz battles of Carlsen and Nakamura with the K-K matches for the World Championship - or even the previous K-K matches (Karpov vs. Korchnoi) is absurd.
The greatest rivalry to be discussed on Twitter (whatever the future of Twitter may be) about chess on the Internet (very strong emphasis on faster time controls)?
Even in world blitz championships, Carlsen stood out overall, but Nakamura didn't - now it was a race between Carlsen and Nakamura for the first time, before Carlsen had other rivals (mainly Duda and Karjakin).
The last two hashtags of the tweet make sense: #c24 (it's their verdict) and #rapidblitz, the first one #chess is, well, "too general". In classical time controls, there was never a rivalry between Carlsen and Nakamura, or only an artificial one created by Nakamura (Ï'm the only one who can beat Sauron".).
Now Carlsen predicts (wants?) that classical time controls will be "phased out" for the world top. I hope this doesn't happen, and even if it does it shouldn't - and for me and others (Dennis apparently included) wipe out a long history of chess.
Alekhine & Capablanca, Steinitz & Zukertort. We’re not short on great rivalries.