Magnus Carlsen escaped some serious time-trouble by reeling off five moves in the final minute of the first time-control against Ian Nepomniachtchi as the sixth game of their World chess championship title-match was tantalisingly poised after 48 moves in Dubai on Friday.
Unlike most of the previous five games, the latest battle provided more intense exchanges. The situation became interesting when Carlsen chose to trade his queen for two black rooks.
Amid mounting tension, Nepo seemed to have missed a winning continuation, as suggested by the computer-driven evaluation but it was obvious that the key move was not so easy to find under time-pressure. He let go of the advantage with this queen-move, instead of a pawn-capture, on the 36th turn and thereafter Carlsen came out better after the 40th move.
After 40 moves, with both players armed with another hour on the clock for the next 20 moves, Carlsen was looking to improve his position while Nepo had to battle to salvage a draw.
Viswanathan Anand, in the role of a commentator, maintained that Carlsen held some serious winning chances after the 40th move and suggested that Nepo forgot about the missed opportunity in the closing stages of the fourth hour of the contest and refocused on the task ahead.
Carlsen was making slow progress without any clear plan of breaking Nepo’s fortress.
