Fabiano Caruana, whose challenge for Magnus Carlsen’s world crown ended in a speed chess defeat last month, has been eliminated in the $300,000 London Classic semi-final by the identical process, draws in both classical games with Hikaru Nakamura, then a heavy loss, 4.5-1.5, in rapid and blitz.

Nakamura is a specialist in fast play, so Caruana needed to make the most of White in their first classical game. Victory would also have captured Carlsen’s No 1 ranking and it looked promising when Caruana built an impressive position with queen, both rooks and a knight all aiming at Nakamura’s black king. There was a likely win by 26 g4! although the fleeting chance was harder than the Qh5 which Caruana missed in game eight of the world title match.

In theory Caruana can still become No 1 this weekend if he wins both classical games in his match for third place against Armenia’s Levon Aronian, who lost the other semi-final against France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. But that will be a tall order for a player feeling a double disappointment.The games are live online, starting at 2pm.

Carlsen can now hope to keep his No 1 classical spot into the official January ranking list. The Norwegian has been there continuously since July 2011, while his total months at No 1 will then be 102, an identical number to Anatoly Karpov in the 1970s and 80s and behind only Garry Kasparov, who clocked up 255. There were no official ranking lists for the old masters, but if they had existed the stand-out candidate to rival Kasparov would be Emanuel Lasker. The German was world champion from 1894 to 1921, but was not clearly No 1 until 1896 and near the end was outshone by José Raúl Capablanca.

The £50,000 British knockout championship has also been staged this week alongside the Classic. England has six elite GMs but Nigel Short is playing in Moscow and Matthew Sadler has a career in IT, so Michael Adams, who has been No 1 for the best part of 20 years, was top-seeded ahead of David Howell, Gawain Jones and Luke McShane.

An interesting preliminary round featured two qualifiers, two rising talents, England’s two highest ranked women, the veteran John Nunn, and the former champion Jonathan Hawkins. Howell had a narrow escape against Ravi Haria, 19, who put the three-time British champion on the brink of defeat in a classical game. Howell escaped, won a speed tie-break and met Jones in one semi-final while Adams took on McShane.

Adams had seemed in good form earlier but then it all went horribly wrong. He should have won with queen against rook and bishop in classical, yet could not break down McShane’s defensive fortress. In the first rapid game Adams was White in the ultra-solid Berlin Wall butMcShane launched a fierce attack which ended with Adams’s white king checkmated at d7, deep in the black camp.

Finally Adams needed to win all four blitz games to stay in the match. He won three, but in the fourth went Qd5 to threaten mate at g2 which McShane countered by Ne7+ forking king and queen.

Why the horrific blunders, entertaining for spectators but demeaning for a career professional? The use of per move delay rather than increment, which means that a player can never accumulate time when they are blitzing at the end, would seem to be to blame.

Jones won the other semi-final mainly due to an inspired mazy piece sacrifice which induced defensive errors from Howell. It followed the advice from the legendary Mikhail Tal that “You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.”

The McShane v Jones final starts at 2pm on Saturday, and is live online.

For the past few years pre-teen prodigies have tried vainly to break Sergey Karjakin’s record, set in 2002, as the youngest ever grandmaster at 12 years and seven months. There are now two Uzbeks and two Indians at places 2-5 in the all-time list, while Carlsen at 13 years and four months has been relegated to sixth.

A new contender has just emerged, whose quest for his third and record-breaking GM title norm starts today in Sitges, Spain. India’s Dommaraju Gukesh provoked Nigel Short’s anger at the Bangkok Open and achieved his first GM norm at Bangkok with the aid of that fortunate point.

Last month Gukesh outclassed the field in the world under-12 championship, then scored his second GM norm with 7.5/9 in an all-play-all in Serbia in early December. Sitges ends on 23 December, just six days before Gukesh reaches 12 years and seven months and is timed out against Karjakin, so the race could hardly be closer.

Quick Guide Michael Adams v Simon Williams Show Below, the England No 1 defeats the “Ginger GM”. The opening is the Richter Attack 6 Bg5, coinciding with the publication of Kurt Richter, by Alan McGowan, a fine biography of the brilliant tactician, writer, and opening innovator known as “The Executioner of Berlin”.

Adams’s smooth victory is impressive. Williams never got into the game, so should have tried the gambit recapture 11…Bxf6!? 12 Qxd6 Be7 when Black’s bishop pair compensates for the extra pawn. Michael Adams v Simon Williams

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 d6 6 Bg5 e6 7 Qd2 a6 8 0-0-0 Bd7 9 f4 Be7 10 Nf3 b5 11 Bxf6 gxf6?! 12 Kb1 Qb6 13 Ne2 Na5 14 f5 Nc4 15 Qh6 Rc8 16 fxe6 fxe6 17 Nf4 Nxb2 18 Kxb2 d5 19 Nd4 Bb4 20 Kb1 Qd6 21 Be2 e5 22 Qg7 Rf8 23 Bh5+ Kd8 24 Qxf8+! 1-0

3597 1 Qa4/a3 Kg8 2 Qa1 Kf8 3 Q1a2 Ke8 4 Q2a3 Kd8 5 Q6a4 Kc8 6 Qa8+ Kc7 7 Q4a7 mate.