After the media
storm that was caused by the previous game subsided, two major news items came
to light on early Tuesday morning. First: the "minister of defense," GM Sergey
Karjakin, was summoned back to Dubai from snowbound Moscow. Second: Nepo's
fashionable man-bun was gone. Immediately the internet gave Sergey a new
nickname - the "Barber of Crimea," a reference to a famous Russian Academy
Award nominated movie from 1998, "The Barber of Siberia."[%evp 0,42,24,-12,-9,-40,-20,-23,4,3,-18,8,38,42,6,4,5,5,1,28,29,26,30,24,45,
32,-7,13,8,28,9,5,-7,-7,-10,-11,0,15,14,-28,0,16,24,15,32]1.c4...Karjakin
appears to have brought a clear message: forget about anything and just play
chess! Great advice from Karjakin, who apparently is the only person Nepo is
listening to, setting up this game for a promising start.1....e62.g3d53.Bg2d4Magnus does not want to play against preparation, a bit of wisdom he
acquired from his previous match experiences, but in this case, he suffers a
bit for it.4.Nf3Nc65.O-OBc5Another strange looking decision, but it
guarantees that we will have an original position. As with most of the games
of this match, Magnus carefully choses his opening moves, while Ian is
blitzing.6.d3Nf67.Nbd2a58.Nb3Be7Nepo's fast tempo confused Magnus
into playing this illogical move. What's the problem? We have a Benoni
structure with the colors reversed, where two extra tempos for White should be
enough for him to equalize and maybe grab a little initiative. But all the
previous Black moves (5...Bc5 and 7... a5) assumed that dark-squared bishop
will stay on the a7-g1 diagonal; otherwise, why not castle instead of playing .
..a5? Now Black's position is starting to turn demonstrably worse.9.e3dxe310.Bxe3Ng4Surprisingly the best continuation in the position.10...O-O11.Nbd4Bd712.Nb5would lead to a grim position with a very little chance
of counterplay.11.Bc5...This is better than11.d4Nxe312.fxe3O-O13.Nbd2where Black's two bishops completely compensate for his lack of space.11....O-O12.d4...For the first time in the current match Nepo spent "more
than 3 minutes" on his move here. Expectations were really high at this moment.12....a413.Bxe7Qxe714.Nc5a315.bxa3?!...A real "Lady Gaga and Bradley
Cooper" moment, showing me that Nepo simply does not have any idea about what
it takes to beat Magnus. High level chess has really changed from what it was
20-30 years ago -- ok, I understand that. But I'm trying to even imagine Tal,
Kasparov, or Anand playing b2xa3 here, and with the same speed you would play
a move onTitled Tuesday. It's not not possible. Of course, I understand that
we may be dealing with a broken man here, but to me, the problems run much
deeper. Here we come to the most critical position in this game, and I can't
help but go through another rant. White has to choose between two
continuations: 15.bxa3 and 15.b4!?.15.b3is wrong on principle. The a3
pawn, coupled with the black knight on b4, will give Black additional chances
in the endgame. Nepo's continuatiation is not bad objectively, but there are
two drawbacks that completely erase its chess value. First 15.b4!? fits Nepo
style much more. Second, if at a match score of -2 your choice is a safer
continuation, you are angering the chess gods. Their punishment will come,
swift and inevitable.15.b4Nxb4practically forced.(15...Rd816.Qb3Nxd417.Nxd4Rxd418.Rad1is not a concern for white.)16.Rb1Nc6(16...Nxa217.Qd2)(16...b6!?17.Rxb4bxc518.Rb5cxd4?(18...Ra619.Rxc5Bb720.Qd3Nf621.Qe3)19.Nxd4+−)(16...Na617.Nxb7Ra718.Na5Nb419.c5Rxa520.Rxb4±)17.Nxb7Rb818.Na5!!Maybe this what escaped Ian's calculation? Well, one might think
that what Ian spent almost 20 minutes on move 12. Think again. Maybe he was
lamenting his fashion decision earlier in the day instead. Hopefully we'll get
some clarification later.15....Rd816.Nb3Nf617.Re1Qxa318.Qe2...White clearly retains a certain pressure. But the lightness in Nepo's
decisions visibly came back as he started to blitz out his (far from obvious)
moves again.18....h619.h4Bd720.Ne5Be821.Qe3...Really? Is it so obvious that
1 minute spent on it is enough?21....Qb422.Reb1?...Nepo starts to play against
Magnus' clock instead of looking at the position. A lot of White's
pre-blunder decisions in this game may be objectively fine, but they are in
complete dissonance with the match situation and also with a human
understanding of the game. For example, there were different lines where White
tries to go for g4-g5 while the black queen is stuck on the other side of the
board. Some very interesting lines could have emerged if Nepo had tried take
that route, but I see very little reason to discuss any of them. Attacking
Magnus' king was clearly not on Ian's agenda.22.Bxc6Bxc623.g4!?22....Nxe523.dxe5Ng424.Qe1...It took Ian one minute to see that he wins a pawn
in this line. Congrats, he is a speed demon. But if he'd spent another minute
to assess the consequences, he'd realize that he cannot hold on to it.24....Qxe1+25.Rxe1h526.Bxb7Ra427.c5??...And here is the message from above.27.f3Nh628.Be4Rxc429.Rec1Ra430.Rxc7Nf5would be a logical continuation
with White even retaining the extra pawn, although without real chances to
convert it. The black pieces are lining up well against the passed a-pawn.27....c6Nepo's explanation during the press conference was that he forgot
that he needs the c5-square for his knight in order to save the bishop.
Unfortunately for him, this blunder ends game immediately. After he realized
what he just did, he left the stage and was absent for about 20 minutes. He
definitely was in a very dark place during that time.28.f3Nh629.Re4Ra730.Rb4Rb831.a4Raxb732.Rb6Rxb633.cxb6Rxb634.Nc5Nf535.a5Rb836.a6Nxg3!Magnus confidence is through the roof right now, and even with
relatively short time remaining he chooses a more energetic continuation
instead of the safe36...Nd437.Kf2Nb537.Na4c538.a7Rd839.Nxc5Ra8The match is over. Ian vowed not to give up and play some fun chess for the
remainder of the event. We all hope that this is the case. Perhaps Karjakin
should introduce some new routines for him, like sitting on his hands, or
taking another minute after deciding on a move before making it on the board.
The next game is tomorrow, so let's hope we catch a glimpse of what this match
really could have been.0-1