 "Magnus Carlsen's successor would have to come from the same generation")
The Title match indicated that Magnus Carlsen can be vulnerable if he is frustrated. After seven draws, including two games which he must have expected to win, he lost objectivity and pushed too hard in Game #8. He wasn’t even on even keel in Game #9 when he nearly lost again, picking a very risky system.
But the match also showed Carlsen's strengths. He forced his way back with a strong Game #10 and then cleverly opted to play a rapid mini-match. Sergey Karjakin is a more rigid player in style and preferences and he couldn’t switch gears. Carlsen was dominant at the shorter control.
Carlsen’s successor would have to come from the same generation (or younger). The 26-year-old can just outlast an older player in stamina. It would have to be somebody, mentally tough enough to sustain long games and with requisite rapid as well as blitz skills to handle a tiebreak.
There are several players in the 22-30 age-group with serious ambitions. The hopefuls would include the American trio of Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana,Hikaru Nakamura; Holland’s Anish Giri , Karjakin himself along with his compatriot Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren of China and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France.
They are all blessed with distinctive styles and strengths. Liren, Vachier-Lagrave and Nempomniachtchi have worked with Carlsen. That could be a serious advantage. Ding is also #1 on the blitz list, ahead of Carlsen (#2).
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But Caruana would probably have the best shot at beating Carlsen in classical play. The Italian-American GM has a “super-gear”. He can play creative, pitch-perfect chess for several games in a row. His career-high Elo ratings are better than Carlsen’s current Elo.
In fast controls, Carlsen (#1 in rapids and #2 in blitz) is clearly more consistent and stronger than Caruana (#18 Rapids and #10 blitz). But Caruana recently won a fast match against Nakamura (#2 Rapid & #3 Blitz) and he’s under-rated at fast controls.
Obviously this is just a thought experiment. But I would be surprised if the next world champion was not one of the above mentioned. Unless of course, Carlsen managed to fend off every other talent from his own generation.
In the diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (White: Carlsen Vs Black: Karjakin, Game 10, World Title Match, New York 2016), white has patiently created a superior pawn structure and more mobile pieces. Now he plays 57.b5! cxb5 58.Rxb5. The plan is Rb6 hitting e6, and Rd3-b3 to hit b7.
Black played 58.— d4 59.Rb6 Rc7 60.Nxe6 Rc3 61.Nf4 Rhc7 62.Nd5! Rxd3 63.Nxc7 Kb8 64.Nb5 Kc8 [ Or 64...Rxf3 65.a6] 65.Rxg6 Rxf3 66.Kg2 Rb3 67.Nd6+ Nxd6 68.Rxd6 Re3 69.e6 Kc7 70.Rxd4 Rxe6 71.Rd5! Rh6 72.Kf3 Kb8 73.Kf4 Ka7 74.Kg5 Rh8 75.Kf6 (1-0) Ruthless technique.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player