Magnus Carlsen is again the centre of attention as the world champion leads the Canada Chessbrahs in the chess.com professional league, revived this year for the first time since pre-pandemic 2019.
The world No 1 had a narrow escape at the start against Awonder Liang, 19, but then raced to seven straight wins, including victory against the best-known US woman grandmaster, Irina Krush. In contrast, Carlsen’s great rival Hikaru Nakamura overreached in a won position and suffered a stunning defeat to Berlin’s fourth board Josefine Heinemann.
