Magnus Carlsen could now clinch the 2021 World Chess Championship with a win on Friday after a quiet draw in Game 10 left him leading 6.5:3.5 with just four games to go. Some were speculating that Ian Nepomniachtchi would go all-out to win with the black pieces, but he stuck to his Petroff and seemed content to stop the bleeding after a disastrous sequence of three losses in four games.
Amna Al Qubaisi, the first Emirati female racing driver, made the first move 1.e4 for Magnus | photo: Eric Rosen, FIDE
Replay all the games from the 2021 FIDE World Chess Championship with computer analysis using the selector below.
Watch the day's live commentary and post-game press conference with Judit Polgar and Anish Giri.
And with the Champions Chess Tour team of David Howell, Kaja Snare and Jovanka Houska.
And here's Danny King's video recap of all the action.
Sergey Karjakin, who in 2016 led Magnus in the World Championship match with just three games to go, had flown into Dubai before Game 9 to try and help out Ian Nepomniachtchi. It didn’t work, as in the end he only got to witness a 3rd loss in four games for the Russian no. 1.
When Sergey was interviewed by Tania Sachdev before Game 10 he was asked about that game and the blunder that decided it.
I know Ian. We all know him, how good he is, and we know that even in blitz he will not play such a move, so I believe it’s not only about chess, but it’s also some other things, maybe psychological things, maybe something else.
Sergey has talked about acting as a sparring partner for Ian, but it seems he’s found it harder to impart his own style.
I tried to share my experience, but also you should understand that we have a different style of play. Ian likes very dynamic positions, and Magnus and probably me are more positional players, so it was just impossible to force Ian to play the chess which doesn’t suit him. So he tried to be himself, but at some key moments it didn’t work, and of course in Game 6 he could take on f6 with the queen and just make a quick draw, or in the Petroff [in Game 8] after Qe1 he could play Qe7 and make a fast draw, or yesterday he could make a fast draw, but I don’t know, somehow it’s very unnecessary and disappointing.
If there was one moment when it seemed Ian might decide to throw all caution to the wind, it was now, trailing by three points in the World Championship match with just five games to go. Would he play the Sicilian or some other more combative option with the black pieces? No! It was again the Petroff, a famously solid system.
Anish Giri was saying on our commentary before the game began that a few minutes’ thought had convinced him that the Petroff was likely to appear again. He felt the challenger needed to stabilise first before making one last push to save the match. He was also surprised that Magnus hadn’t expected this, with Magnus confessing afterwards:
Frankly I hadn’t thought about him playing the Petroff today at all. I was preparing for various sharp openings that he could play, and the thought was, if he goes 1…e5, then I’ll see. I didn’t think making a draw against the Petroff would be a major issue.
Ian spent a lot of time at the board, and his stare was in good working order | photo: Niki Riga, FIDE
Why had Ian chosen the Petroff? He explained:
The problem is that basically playing as Black you don’t have such a big choice, especially as it’s classical. If you play a so-called sharp opening like the Sicilian, if White wants to shut it down White surely will shut it down. That’s not realistic. Anyway, I have a couple of white pieces, a couple of tries in the remaining four games, and of course it depends on what I produce in the 11th game, but today was just an idea to play a normal game, try not to blunder something in one move. I had some more realistic tasks.
Magnus thought for a couple of minutes before going for 3.Nxe5, as in Game 4, while after 3…d6 he picked 4.Nd3, a move he played in Game 6 of his World Championship match against Fabiano Caruana. Fabiano in fact came within a whisker of winning that game — powerful computers announced he could force checkmate before it ended in a draw — but the move wasn’t aimed at creating chaos on board. What did Magnus like about it?
Mainly the prospect of getting the queens off very soon and getting a dry position.
Ian varied from Caruana’s play with 6…Nf6 instead of 6…Nc6, and then 7…Nc6 was a real surprise, producing perhaps the critical moment of the whole game.
As you can see, Anish Giri’s first thought was that it was a mistake. Magnus had felt the same, telling Tania, “it was a bit surprising because I thought this move order was not supposed to be that good.”
The issue with the move instead of the standard 7…Qxe2+ was that it allowed White to dodge that exchange of queens with 8.Be3, but as Magnus thought for 19 minutes it became clear to everyone that Ian’s move might not be sloppy but deep preparation. Anish explained how after 8.Be3 both queens would be misplaced, the players would be likely to castle queenside, and it could get very sharp.
Nepo seemed to confirm he had ideas there afterwards, though he wasn’t clarifying if he’d come prepared with them to the board or had improvised.
I guess it was a huge moment when White didn’t go for Be3. 8.Be3 g5 9.Nd3 or something like this, this would spice things up a little bit.
It therefore looked like a good pragmatic decision for Magnus not to play 8.Be3, or even to exchange queens, but to go for the modest 8.c3!?. The way the match was going dictated his choice:
Be3 is a move there, and surely the critical one, but I was just not in the mood. I think the match situation sort of explains that.
Carlsen's sartorial preparation for the game also raised questions. For the first time in the match he came to a white game without a light suit, and he hadn't quite managed to button all the buttons on his shirt... | photo: Eric Rosen, FIDE
From that point onwards the outcome of the game didn’t ever feel as though it was in real doubt. Ian even said when asked about the fact that he’d spent a much bigger proportion of his time at the board than in previous games:
I guess the chair is more comfortable than the sofa, yeah? Actually today’s game was more or less obvious that it won’t last too long. It wasn’t a big difference where to sit.
The position looked harmless, but Magnus had built a career on winning harmless positions, and after his recent blunders Ian could take nothing for granted. Magnus liked his 17.g3, Ian wasn’t happy with his response, and both players pointed to the position after move 20.
Here Magnus went for 21.g4!? Ng7 22.Bf4, later commenting:
I was certainly a little bit better at some point, but maybe I was a bit rash in playing g4 and Bf4, maybe I needed to put the bishop on h6 or something instead and be a little bit more patient, because I thought I had a really tiny edge at that point.
Ian was more concerned about Magnus pushing his a-pawn first, while in the game he got the chance to solve all his problems with sharp play, forcing matters with 23…g5.
After 24.Ne2 f5! Magnus initially harboured some hopes of Black over-pushing and his getting active play with h4, but soon he realised that there was nothing there. Magnus summed up:
I think if I’d played a little more patiently there I could have had the tiniest of edges, but naturally I would have hunted for it more diligently if the match situation had been different.
Both players had essentially decided a draw was in their interests and soon it was just a question of reaching move 40 so the draw could be offered.
The match situation had got a little grimmer for Nepomniachtchi, since he now trails by three points with just four games to go. Magnus is now just a win away from defending his title.
Magnus could simply state:
Yeah, at this point there’s so few games to go that any draw is an excellent result.
For Ian it was more complicated, but after two terrible losses in a row making a solid draw was at least entirely understandable. It didn’t mean he wouldn’t be grilled about it. One early exchange in the press conference went as follows.
Maurice Ashley: You’ve only got, as you said, four more games left, you have to catch up a 3-point deficit. Your strategy…
Ian Nepomniachtchi: I know...
Maurice: Is your strategy still heavily trying to win this match?
Ian: Well, that’s an absurd question!
It was certainly a bit clumsy, especially as Ian had just been talking about playing for a win in his two remaining games with the white pieces. If he has abandoned all hope and just wants to end the match with the minimum pain, he certainly wasn’t going to tell us.
The press conference ended with a question from Twitter.
Q: If given the chance to reset the tournament to start again, what would you have done differently?
Ian: I guess I would lose less and win more.
Fortunately, the press conference did touch on some lighter topics. Anna Cramling asked the players which move they’d choose if they could only play 1.e4 or 1.d4 for the rest of their lives.
Magnus: I would probably go for e4. It seems like there’s a little more variety there in both closed and open games, but otherwise I’m thinking that it’s probably enough theory that we have already and it’s difficult enough to get an opening advantage, and to actually be restricted to only one move would be a bit of a nightmare!
Ian: I guess 100 years ago or about it, someone, I guess Rauzer, said that White just wins after the first move e4, so quite something changed since then, but in general, overall, it feels like e4 is nowadays more forcing, but at the same time, more fun!
Ian said he was satisfied with his current team when asked which second from chess history he would choose to add to it. Magnus had a more mischievous answer:
I’m also very satisfied with the team that I have, but maybe Kramnik in ’96. He seemed to be a good second for Garry, probably pretty annoying, but still very interesting.
Why would he be annoying?
I think that’s self-explanatory!
Carlsen and Kramnik have some history, with Magnus having pointed out how wildly over-optimistic Vladimir could often be in post-game analysis.
The other topic was the day’s breaking news that the World Rapid and Blitz, planned for December 26-30 in the capital city of Kazakhstan, would no longer be taking place… at least in that city. It was bad news, especially for anyone who had already bought their tickets.
Ian commented:
I believe with all this Omicron story it’s pretty normal at some point that all major sporting events are being closed or postponed, so that’s the reality we live in. Of course it’s a pity, but as for me, I didn’t decide yet if I would love to play in a World Rapid and Blitz or skip it this year, if it would be held.
Magnus, however, would play, and you imagine his thoughts have already drifted to the possibility of winning the triple crown of the classical, rapid and blitz World Championships, again.
I didn’t know anything about that. Generally I’m hoping to play if it’s still held, otherwise it’s a pity but obviously there’s not a lot you can do.
Magnus is now in touching distance of retaining his title, so that when he next faces a match he'd be entering his 10th year as champion | photo: Eric Rosen, FIDE
The match isn’t over yet, however. Thursday is a rest day, then on Friday Ian has the white pieces, and what he must approach as a must-win game. That should give Magnus chances as well, and if the Norwegian can win he’ll retain his title with three games to spare. A draw would see Nepo enter Game 12 on Saturday knowing he had to win three games in a row, with Black in two of them.
Don’t miss the games live right here on chess24 from 16:30 local time (7:30 ET, 13:30 CET).
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