Magnus Carlsen now has a commanding 5:3 lead with just six games of the World Chess Championship to go after Ian Nepomniachtchi survived a shaky opening in Game 8 but then blundered a pawn in one move and collapsed almost immediately afterwards. What followed was just Ian going through the stages of grief. Magnus goes into the rest day having won twice in a row with the white pieces, leaving Ian with a mountain to climb even if he can now compose himself again. 

Ian Nepomniachtchi has a mountain to climb | photo: Eric Rosen, FIDE

Magnus Carlsen is now a heavy favourite to win his 5th World Chess Championship match | photo: Eric Rosen, FIDE

Replay all the games from the 2021 FIDE World Chess Championship in Dubai with computer analysis using the selector below.

And here’s the day’s live commentary and press conference with Judit Polgar, Anish Giri and guest Max Warmerdam…

…and with David Howell, Kaja Snare and Jovanka Houska.

And don’t miss English Grandmaster Daniel King’s video recap of the game. 

In the run-up to the match, Magnus Carlsen appeared on the Norwegian podcast of his friend Magnus Barstad, a larger than life figure who’s also in Dubai and who the World Champion described during the Game 7 press conference as “part music expert, part fashion expert, hype man — he has many different roles”. 

Carlsen didn’t hold back, commenting of Ian Nepomniachtchi:

In Norway Chess he seemed very strong for the first 3-4 rounds, he had a small setback, and then he collapsed. That's not something he can allow himself in a World Championship match. I am not going to fall even if I am hit in the face once. Perhaps that will be his biggest challenge, to handle the setbacks that will come, regardless of whether it's a good position he fails to convert, or a game that he should have held to a draw but ends up losing, or opening preparation that goes wrong — that will be a huge challenge for him.

In the same podcast Magnus suggested Ian had been saved in the Candidates Tournament by his loss, to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, coming the day before the tournament was halted for over a year. When they came back Ian had been able to completely regroup and never lost his leading position. 

Game 6 in Dubai was exactly the kind of adversity Magnus was talking about — a game that Ian could easily have steered to a draw, or could have won, before he lost it in the most prolonged and painful manner possible. In Game 7 he held everything together with a quick draw, but Game 8 felt as though it was played under the shadow of the earlier game. Fatigue affected both players, but it was ultimately Ian who would suffer. As Magnus later put it:

The World Championship is tough. It’s really brutal emotionally with its ups and downs, and it’s part of what makes it exciting and also extremely tough. 

In an alternative universe, almost the most notable moment of the day might have been the first move, with ex-Real Madrid player Míchel Salgado making it for Real Madrid fan Magnus Carlsen. 

Michel Salgado makes the first move for Magnus | photo: Niki Riga, FIDE

That move was 1.e4, with Magnus varying from the 1.d4 that had brought him a win in Game 6. Ian once again didn’t change his approach, going for the Petroff, but already 3.d4 from Magnus varied from the 3.Nxe5 he played in Game 4. It was still mainline theory, until 7.Nd2 was far from the main move, while after 7…Nxd2 8.Bxd2 Ian took only three minutes to play 8…Bd6!?

You could marvel at both the symmetry on the board and the fact the d-file had been completely filled with pieces, but the symmetry was deceptive. After 9.0-0, Ian couldn’t copy that move, since 9…0-0 would run into 10.Qh5! and suddenly Black is in real trouble. There was consensus around the chess world that something had gone wrong.

Magnus himself later described 8…Bd6 as “probably not a great move”, and it turned out Christof Sielecki’s Chessable course had advised against it.

However, just when it seemed Magnus might be about to have a real chance to open up a 2-point lead, Ian came up with 9…h5!?, the fruit of a 17-minute think. As far as could be gleaned from the post-game comments,