World Chess Championship: Carlsen v Nepomniachtchi (2021)

Introduction

The Champion:
Magnus Carlsen has been the world Champion since 2013 and world number 1 ranked player since 2010. This is already his 5th match after having defeated Anand (twice), Karjakin and Caruana already. Still only 31 years of age Carlsen is considered one of the all time greats with his universal style and relentless (Fischer like) desire to win every game.

The Challenger:
Ian Nepomniachtchi ('Nepo') qualified for the match by winning the 2020/21 Candidates tournament which ended up being split into two parts due to covid-19. Nepo is a dangerous opponent for Carlsen holding a 4-1 score in decisive classical games - though 2 of those games were played in junior competitions. Nepo has an aggressive style and tends to play quickly and confidently, which can be both a strength and a weakness. He has markedly begun to work more seriously on his game in recent years and his Candidates success shows he is now a more stable complete player. He will need to demonstrate extraordinary resilience and skill to de-throne King Magnus.

The Match:
Scheduled from 24th November to 16th December 2021 and held at the Dubai Exhibition Centre - the match is scheduled for 14 games of Classical Chess at a time control of 2 hours for the first 40 moves, 1 hour for the next 20 plus 15 minutes for the remainder of the game (with 30 second increments added from move 61). In the result of a tied match there will be rapid tiebreaks followed by blitz and armageddon if required.

Game 1

An interesting semi-novelty from black was met concretely by white and a queenless middlegame was quickly reached in which white was a pawn up but black had typical long term compensation. Still it seemed like white should have the slightly better game and was able to play without risking anything. Nepo played some uncharacteristically passive ideas (22.Bf4 30.Ne1) which seemed to give black some hopes of a risk free advantage. At the critical moment Nepo was able to pull himself together and guide the position to approximate equality - with a little bit of help from some slightly soft moves from Carlsen (38...Kf7 40...Rd7).
A bit of a nervy start but the objective evaluation never swung beyond .5 either way.

Game 2

A huge battle today. Carlsen came armed to fight with the Catalan and uncorked the rare 8.Ne5!? sacrificing a pawn for long term compensation. Nepo seemed completely unprepared for this and we reached a very complex middlegame position where it is clear Carlsen has prepared some strategic ideas whereas Nepo was having to navigate on his own. Nepo kept his calm and developed his pieces putting the ball in Carlsen's court. Carlsen essentially blundered with 17.Ne5 (other moves looked promising) missing Nepo's defence. A difficult moment for the world champion who bravely sacrificed a further exchange rather than accept a miserable defence a pawn down. Carlsen had optical compensation for the material deficit but Nepo seemed extremely confident and it seemed white was only playing to hang in. From move 25-36 black seemed to drift slowly ceding the advantage, white gained 2 pawns and was even the one slightly pressing, though it has to be said black's position was never objectively worse. On move 37 Nepo took the correct decision to give back the exchange leading to a 3v2 rook endgame where despite being a pawn down he was able to comfortably hold. Another great fighting game.

Game 3

The most solid game of the match so far. Again Carlsen seemed to get the novelty in with 15...Nc6 but Nepo was unfazed and continue to make logical moves. For a moment it seemed the endgame might be a little unpleasant for Carlsen but he had judged the situation accurately and forseen he could easily make a draw. Nepo seemed a little disappointed as he had been looking forward to pressing a little.

Game 4

A bit of a disappointing game in the end. Carlsen came up with a very interesting novelty 18.Nh4 but as usual Nepo is not disturbed and just plays logical strong moves. After some exchanges the rook and knight endgame looks somewhat dangerous at first (the knight is very passive) but black's monster passed a-pawn provides full compensation. Normally Carlsen finds a way to keep the game going but today he acquiesced to an early repetition.

Game 5

Nepo got to exert some pressure today but Carlsen was up to the task and soaked up the pressure to reach their 5th draw. Carlsen's 8..Rb8!? is rare but hardly a surprise for Nepo who steered the game to a technical position where white is very slightly better and black has to be a little bit careful not to end up in a difficult position. It seemed Nepo missed a couple of chances to exert some serious pressure though still ended up with a more pleasant endgame. However, careful defence from Carlsen steered the game to a 5th consecutive draw.

Game 6

One of the great World Championship games! Carlsen breaks the deadlock and takes the lead after a record breaking 136 moves and nearly 8 hours of play. This game can be broken into 7 distinct phases:

1. Opening Gambit (Moves 1-15). Nepo declined Carlsen's new gambit and played bravely and accurately (11...b5!) to reach an equal position.
2. Quiet early middlegame (moves 15-24). Moves 15-24 were very quiet with approximate equality until Nepo invited complications with 25...Rac8!?
3. Material imbalance / time scramble (moves 25-40). The resulting Q v 2 rooks material imbalance led to a sharp battle with the advantage swinging between the two players in a mutual time scramble to reach move 40. Nepo missed a chance for an advantage (36...Bxb4) but Carlsen missed two bigger chances for a near decisive advantage (33.Rcc2 and 40.Rdc2!)
4. Fortress (moves 40-52). Move 40-52 saw Nepo setup what looked to be a fortress type position from what initially looked a tricky situation. His passed pawn on a3 tying up the white pieces. But inexplicably he allowed Carlsen to transform the situation after 52...Qe4?
5. On the brink (moves 52-80). Moves 52-80 saw a tense struggle with Nepo seemingly on the brink but preventing Carlsen from making progress due to the exposed nature of the white king. Finally Carlsen found a way to transform the situation again on move 80 with 80.Rxf7+
6. Technical endgame part 1 (moves 80-115). Rook + knight + 3 pawns versus Queen + one pawn. The position should probably be technically drawn but it is clear this will be a torture for black. To make progress Carlsen must find a way to push e4 but he wants to do so without exposing his king too much. He finally manages this by move 100.e4
7. Technical endgame part 2 (moves 115-136). Rook + knight + 2 pawns versus Queen. By now the tablebase tables tell us that the position is a theoretical draw. But after 7 half hours of play and basically playing on increment it is impossible to play such a strange endgame perfectly. Carlsen finds a dangerous configuration of his pieces and the "decisive mistake" (according to tablebases) came on move 130...Qa6? Carlsen showed no mercy after this!

Game 7

A much calmer game today after yesterdays epic. Nepo sticks to the Anti-Marshall approach and deviates from game 3 with 11.d3. White has some small advantage but Carlsen seems happy to accept slightly worse but defendable positions with black. After a few accurate moves Carlsen completely equalised and then the pieces were swept from the board and a draw agreed. Worrying for Nepo's camp how effortlessly Carlsen seemed to defuse white's opening initiative.

Game 8

Disaster for Nepo. Seemingly caught by a small surprise in the opening, nevertheless Nepo found the creative 9...h5 which seemed to disturb Carlsen who sunk into a 40 minute think before producing the rather quiet 10.Qe1+. It seemed Nepo should equalise without many problems but some questionable decisions gave Carlsen a very slight initiative. However the clear turning point came on move 21. 21...b5 was simply a crude blunder giving Carlsen an extra pawn with a better position. Carlsen rarely fails to convert such opportunities and today was no different.
With a 2 point lead it is difficult to imagine Nepo coming back from this.

Game 9

From bad to worse for Nepo. A second game in a row with a huge blunder. Nepo tried a new approach in the opening with 1.c4 and the players reached a relatively fresh position after just 10 moves. As has been fairly consistent throughout the match Nepo had a slight edge with the white pieces but black's position was very solid. A slight miscalculation from Carlsen led to an endgame where black was a pawn down but otherwise a nice position with excellent holding chances - the main concern probably that he was a bit short of time. But another horrific blunder (27.c5??) decided the game as Carlsen won the trapped bishop and finished off the game clinically. Nepo will need a miracle to fight back from this 3 point deficit.

Game 10

A very calm and quiet game - but a correct one with no mistakes! Nepo springs a small surprise by repeating the Petroff - I at least expected a more fighting response such as the Sicilian. It seems he just wanted to play a correct game - perhaps to show to the world and to himself that he can still play chess. With the rest day to come Nepo still has a couple of white's to try and put some pressure on Carlsen.

Carlsen repeated a line he had tried in game 6 of his World Championship match versus Caruana in 2018. A queenless middlegame was reached with white perhaps having the tiniest advantage but at this level black is a huge favourite to neutralise the pressure and Nepo successfully did this. Carlsen felt afterwards he could have maybe made a little more from his position - though of course a draw suits him just fine given the match situation.

Game 11

This turned out to be the final game of the match and featured another howler from Nepo - though one feels that 23.g3 was due entirely to the match situation and being unable to bring himself to play out the completely drawish correct line. Carlsen, gifted with a chance to close out the match immediately, doesn't find the cleanest way but he gets to the desired result regardless.

Conclusion

Carlsen wins the match 7.5 - 3.5. The biggest winning margin since Kasparov v Short in 1993. The match was very even until the fateful game 6 where Carlsen took the lead. After this game Nepo showed poor self control and was unable to dig deep and stay calm - instead blundering badly in games 8, 9 and 11 to bring the match to a premature close.

Carlsen did not show his most sparkiling chess but did once again demonstrate what a tough match player he has become - more than capable of engaging in tense trench-warfare and outlasting his opponent. His performances with the black pieces were rock solid and it seems Nepo became tired beating his head against the brick wall of Carlsen's patient defence. Remarkably Carlsen has lost just two out of 56 classical world championship games (63 games including tiebreaks).

Nepo will have a chance to bounce back in the 2022 Candidates tournament, though on this showing would he really want to face Carlsen again in a match?

Exercises

Please view our study (below) for some puzzles and exercises from the match.