Magnus Carlsen wrapped up his world championship defence yesteron Friday afternoon in Dubai when his Russian rival Ian Nepomniachtchi, already demoralised by a succession of defeats, blundered badly in a level position in the 11th game of their best of 14 games series, and resigned after 49 moves and three and a half hours play.
Asked what he thought helped him dominate the match, Carlsen replied: “In simple positions I made very few mistakes. A few times the position was very complicated, we both made mistakes, but he made the last one.”
Overall, Carlsen won 4-0 with seven draws, halving the first five games then scoring five points from the last six as Nepomniachtchi wilted. The challenger’s missed chances before losing the marathon 136-move sixth game, the longest in championship history, clearly unsettled him, and his attempts in later games to fight back were spoiled by overpressing and simple mistakes.
Nepomniachtchi blundered away a key pawn in game eight, then allowed his bishop to be trapped in the Norwegian camp in game nine. It was reminiscent of, and less complicated, than Bobby Fischer’s Bxh2 against Boris Spassky in their first game in 1972, A soporific draw in game 10 left Carlsen 6.5-3.5 ahead, needing just a win or two draws to retain his crown and take the lion’s share of the €2m prize fund.
Friday’s 11th and final game lasted 49 moves, but could have ended nearly 20 earlier after Nepomniachtchi’s blunder but for uncharacteristically nervous ultra-caution by Carlsen. The Norwegian passed up on a switch of his rook to a decisive attack on Nepomniachtchi’s king, and preferred a rook ending where he eventually queened a pawn.
The match score in wins provided an echo of exactly a century ago when José Capablanca defeated Emanuel Lasker 4-0 with 10 draws in 1921 at Havana, Cuba. That result provided a sad exit for Lasker, who had held the crown for a record 27 years but who was a veteran aged 53 facing a brilliant opponent who in his peak years became known as the “chess machine”.
All 11 games of the just concluded match were viewable, live and free with closeups of the players, instant computer assessments, and grandmaster commentaries, on a variety of websites.
Newcomers and casual viewers could start with the Guardian’s own entertaining rolling commentary by Bryan Armen Graham, which followed the action move by move, then brought the key quotes from the post-game press conference.
Average players and novices could learn from the three-times British champion David Howell and England’s No 2 woman Jovanka Houska on chess24.com, which also had an online commentary for experts by the fast-talking world No 7 Anish Giri and the insightful and iconic all-time No 1 woman Judit Polgar.
The chess.com all-American commentary team was headed by the articulate and shrewd world No 4 and 2018 title challenger Fabiano Caruana, while the official Fide site had perceptive summaries by the former champion Vishy Anand.
Opinions vary on which was the best among several competing sites, but the overall position is sure. This was the best world championship ever for following as an armchair spectator, free of charge, and a huge positive contrast with the last title match in London 2018, when there was a concerted attempt to create a virtual monopoly for the pay per view official site.
Nepomniachtchi may be down and out, but he is assured a place in the eight-player 2022 Candidates. If he wins that, then historical parallels – with Vasily Smyslov in 1954 and 1957, Boris Spassky in 1966 and 1969, and Garry Kasparov in 1984 and 1985 – suggest that he will have benefited from the harsh learning experience to make a much better fight at a second attempt.
His second shot is far from guaranteed, and any of Alireza Firouzja, Ding Liren or Caruana will be more likely contenders.
For Carlsen, the outcome provides the most convincing match performance of his four championship defences since 2014, and edges him close to becoming generally accepted as the all-time No 1 ahead of Kasparov and Bobby Fischer.
The joker in the pack remains Carlsen’s repeated hints that at some stage he will retire from Fide title competition and only take part in a series, akin to the online Champions Tour, where games at two-hour rapid rather than four-hour classical become the norm. Could that happen as early as the coming weeks? It seems unlikely, given that in the next few years there will be a growing public demand for a Carlsen v Firouzja championship match at classical time rates.
Three top English GMs, Michael Adams, Luke McShane and Gawain Jones, narrowly lost 8.5-9.5 to a Rest of the World team at the London Classic. Individual scores were RoW: Nikita Vitiugov (Russia) 4, Boris Gelfand (Israel) 3.5, Maxime Lagarde (France) 2; England: Jones 3.5, Adams 3, McShane 2. The most eye-catching game occurred right at the start, when McShane fell into an ambush where Black’s two bishops and knight overwhelmed the English queen.
The King’s Indian Attack is Nf3, g3, Bg2, 0-0, d3, Nbd2, e4-e5, Re1, Nf1, h4, Bf4, Nf1-h2-g4, Qd2 and preparing a tactic against h6. This formation, popularised by Fischer more than half a century ago, is an easy to remember plan for players rated under 2000. Various counters are known for Black, including long castling, but in McShane v Lagarde in England v ROW the 2019 French champion unleashed a dynamic response to the KIA which is worth remembering.
The low-key English Women’s Rapidplay at the London Classic revealed a bright hope for the future, as its winner, WIM Lan (Lisa) Yao, won impressively against the favourite, IM Harriet Hunt, and went on to take the title with Hunt second.
Yao, 21, recently transferred federations from China to England, where she expects to graduate from UCL next summer. She performed well in world youth events in her teens, and scored 5/9 at Hastings 2019-20 including draws with two English GMs. Her peak Fide rating is 2342, which, combined with the quality of her play, suggests there is much more to come.
Yao said that after graduation she plans to contend for the WGM and IM titles, and will play for Wood Green in the 4NCL national league, She is also an official Fide trainer, and hopes to coach English girl talents.
Long ago, England women were bronze medallists in the European championships of 1997 and 2001. Results since then have been disappointing, but a squad of Yao, Hunt, Houska, and Katarzyna Toma could realistically aim for at least the top 10 in major international events.
England women’s teams and individuals have traditionally been granted just a small fraction of the backing accorded to the top GMs, but now there is a strong case for that to change, and for Yao to receive regular coaching at GM level with a view to aiming for the women’s global elite.
3793: 1 Re7! Qxe7 2 Ba6! Kxa6 3 Qa8 mate.
