The match began with five consecutive high-quality draws, before Carlsen won a closely-contested eight-hour struggle in Game 6 that, with 136 moves, was the longest ever game in a World Chess Championship. Following this loss, Nepomniachtchi's level of play worsened, with Carlsen capitalizing on a series of one-move blunders by Nepomniachtchi in Games 8, 9 and 11 to win another three points. This gave Carlsen a convincing match win with four wins, seven draws and no losses.
The challenger was Ian Nepomniachtchi, who qualified by winning the Candidates Tournament 2020–21, an eight-player double-round robin tournament in Yekaterinburg, Russia.[3] Originally scheduled for 15 March to 5 April 2020, the tournament was halted at the halfway point on 26 March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] The second half was played between 19 April and 27 April 2021, also in Yekaterinburg.[5]
The qualifiers for the Candidates Tournament were:[6][7]
If one or more players declined the invitation to play in the Candidates Tournament, the players with the next highest average ratings would qualify. On March 6, 2020, Teimour Radjabov withdrew because of concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic,[10] and this rule was used to select Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as his replacement. Radjabov was given a direct entry into the next Candidates Tournament.
Note: Numbers in the crosstable in a white background indicate the result playing the respective opponent with the white pieces (black pieces if on a black background).
Championship match
Organization
The organization rights belong to World Chess, the commercial partner of FIDE.[12]
The match was a best-of-14 match, with tie breaks if necessary. It was increased from best-of-12 (in place for every world championship match since 2006), after all 12 regular games were drawn in the previous match in 2018.[13]
On 29 June 2020, the match was officially postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]
The prize fund was €2 million, split 60% vs 40% between winner and loser. If the match had been tied after 14 classical games, the prize fund would have been split 55% vs 45% in favor of the tiebreak winner.[14]
The chief arbiter was Mahdi Abdulrahim from United Arab Emirates, and the deputy arbiter was Andy Howie from Scotland.[15]
The first move of each game was ceremonially performed by guests invited by the organisers:
The time control for each game was 120 minutes per side for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting with move 61.[16]
The match was best of 14 games; a score of at least 7½ would win the world championship. If the score had been equal after 14 games, tie-break games with faster time controls would have been played:
4 rapid games with 25 minutes per side and a 10-second increment starting with move 1. If a player had scored 2½ points or more, he would win the championship.
If the score were equal after the rapid portion, up to five mini-matches of two blitz games would have been played, each mini-match comprising two blitz games with a time control of 5 minutes per side and a 3-second increment starting with move 1. The first player to win such a mini-match would have been declared the champion.
If all five blitz mini-matches were drawn, one sudden death (Armageddon) game would be played. In this format, black has 4 minutes and White has 5 minutes with a 2-second increment for both players starting with move 61; black wins the match if he wins or draws the game.
Prior to the match, Nepomniachtchi and Carlsen had played 13 games against each other at classical time controls, of which Nepomniachtchi won 4 and Carlsen 1, with 8 draws. Several of these games were played when they were juniors, however, and in the five years before the match their head-to-head score was 1 win each with 4 draws.[18] Their most recent pre-championship game, during the 2021 Norway Chess tournament, was a draw.[19]
Bids were originally to be presented to FIDE no later than 1 March 2019, with inspection of the proposed venues between 1 July and 15 August 2019.[21]
Early interest was expressed in 2018 by Monaco and Vienna,[22] though nothing came of these. Stavanger, Norway, announced a bid in March 2019, but withdrew it in June 2019 after Carlsen expressed reluctance to play the match in Norway.[23][24] In November 2019, FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich announced that FIDE had received bids from Dubai and Argentina.[25] In February 2020, he announced the match would most likely take place in Dubai.[26]
In January 2021, FIDE announced that the match would take place in Dubai from 24 November to 16 December 2021, as part of Expo 2020.[1]
Sanctions against Russia
Due to WADA sanctions against Russia, FIDE confirmed that Nepomniachtchi would not compete under the Russian flag, but would play as a neutral player. The sanctions apply only to the world championship match, not to other FIDE events such as the Candidates Tournament. The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a ban on Russia competing at World Championships, and it is implemented by WADA in response to the state-sponsored doping program of Russian athletes.[27][28]
Nepomniachtchi played under the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) flag. Before the first game, WADA sanctions barred FIDE from using an initial flag with the full name "Chess Federation of Russia", so FIDE officials deployed a flag with the initials "CFR".[29][30]
Dubov was criticised by a number of other Russian players, including Sergey Karjakin and Sergei Shipov, who suggested that Dubov (a Russian grandmaster) should not aid a non-Russian in a match against a fellow Russian. In response, Dubov contended that he considered it to be a match between two individuals, and said that a counter-argument was that working with Carlsen would improve his chess and hence help the Russian team.[34]
Schedule
In previous world championships, the players followed a simple two days on, one day off schedule. For this match, FIDE changed the format to a weekly cycle: 3 games Friday-Sunday, rest Monday, two games Tuesday-Wednesday, rest Thursday. Days with games are shaded. The tighter schedule was deliberately designed to try and ensure more decisive games.[dubious – discuss][citation needed]
Games started at 16:30 local time (GST), which is 12:30 UTC.
Colours were drawn at the opening ceremony, and Nepomniachtchi received the white pieces for the first game. Colours alternated thereafter, with no switching at the halfway point as in previous matches.[35]
Date
Event
Wednesday, 24 November
Opening ceremony
Thursday, 25 November
Media day
Friday, 26 November
Game 1
Saturday, 27 November
Game 2
Sunday, 28 November
Game 3
Monday, 29 November
Rest day
Tuesday, 30 November
Game 4
Wednesday, 1 December
Game 5
Thursday, 2 December
Rest day
Friday, 3 December
Game 6
Saturday, 4 December
Game 7
Sunday, 5 December
Game 8
Monday, 6 December
Rest day
Tuesday, 7 December
Game 9
Wednesday, 8 December
Game 10
Thursday, 9 December
Rest day
Friday, 10 December
Game 11
Sunday, 12 December
Closing ceremony
The final three games were scheduled for 11, 12, and 14 December and tiebreaks were scheduled for 15 December; however, these were not required because Carlsen reached 7½ points after Game 11. Consequently, the closing ceremony, originally scheduled for either 15 or 16 December, depending on whether or not tiebreaks would be required, was moved up to 12 December.
Note: Since Carlsen reached 7½ points with game 11, the match ended even though not all 14 games were played.
Game 1: Nepomniachtchi–Carlsen, ½–½
Nepomniachtchi–Carlsen, game 1
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Position after 40.Ng2–e3. Here Carlsen (Black) played 40...Rd7 but he later remarked that 40...Nf4 was a better move, as the response he disliked 41.Ra4 can be met by 41...Rb2+! 42.Kxb2 Nxd3+ which would have been winning for Black.[36]
Game 1 was a 45-move draw. Nepomniachtchi (White) opened with 1.e4, and the game developed into a Ruy Lopez. The players followed established lines until Carlsen (Black) played 8...Na5, the top choice of the neural networkchess engineLeela Chess Zero.[37] Nepomniachtchi quickly played the strong but not obvious move 14.Kf1!, indicating that he was still within his preparation. Carlsen sacrificed a pawn in return for the bishop pair, more space, and more activity. Nepomniachtchi played some inaccurate moves (22.Bf4?! and 30.Ne1?!), allowing Carlsen to gain a slightly better position. With Carlsen pressing, Nepomniachtchi defended accurately, returning the pawn to neutralize Black's initiative and reached a threefold repetition draw. In his commentary, GMSam Shankland expressed concern about Carlsen's opening preparation, noting that he had failed to equalize in the opening.[37]
Position after 20.Rb1. Carlsen (White) previously offered a second pawn sacrifice with the move 19.Nd6, Hou Yifan felt that if calculated correctly, was acceptable in this position.[38] Here, the continuation of 20.Rb1 was not favored by engine analysis; Sagar Shah noted that 20.Be3 was preferable as a dark-squared bishop would have been better in this position.[39]Fabiano Caruana remarked that there were still chances for White, however.[38]
Game 2 was a 58-move draw. Carlsen played the Catalan Opening, and Nepomniachtchi elected to hold the pawn with 7...b5 rather than return it with the usual 7...a6, giving Carlsen an advantage in development and central position. Although the variation was clearly in Carlsen's preparation, Nepomniachtchi did not shirk from a battle with 13...Nd3.[40] The resulting middlegame was complicated, with Carlsen holding an advantage until the inaccurate 17.Ne5. Carlsen later confessed that he had missed his opponent's response 18...Nac5. Nepomniachtchi won the exchange, but White had strong compensation and initiative. The game continued to be complicated, with commentator Sam Shankland writing that he thought White had an advantage before consulting an engine, which clearly favoured Black.[40] GM Anish Giri called Nepomniatchi's 24...c3 a "panicky" move, and indeed this gave up most of his advantage.[41] White had an opportunity to push for more, but an inaccuracy by Carlsen allowed Nepomniachtchi to force a theoretically drawn position. After a forced queen exchange, Carlsen played on for 15 moves, but the result was never in doubt.[40]
Game 3 was a 41-move draw. Like Game 1, the players played the Ruy Lopez. Nepomniachtchi deviated first with 8.a4, but Carlsen was prepared and equalized smoothly. White had a small initiative, but after an accurate bishop maneuver by Black (17...Bc8 followed by ...Be6 preparing ...d5), mass exchanges into a drawn endgame followed.[42]Chess.com called Carlsen's preparation with Black thus far "bulletproof", although Carlsen remarked during the postgame conference that it had not been as easy as it looked, and he had not managed to get many chances.[42]
Game 4 was a 33-move draw. Carlsen opened with 1.e4, against which Nepomniachtchi played Petrov's Defence. The game followed known theory until Carlsen tried the novelty 18.Nh4. Although an interesting move, Nepomniachtchi had seen the idea before and had prepared for the variation. Although the position looked risky for Nepomniachtchi with a knight stuck on f8,[43] the passed a-pawn provided strong counterplay. Carlsen thought for 50 minutes looking for winning chances, before acquiescing to a draw by threefold repetition.[44]
Commentators GM Sam Shankland and GM Fabiano Caruana felt that Nepomniachtchi was the moral victor of the game, having successfully reached a clean draw even when faced with a new idea.[44]
Position after 19...Qe8. Here Nepomniachtchi (White) would have maintained an advantage with 20.c4 rather than playing the passive move 20.Red1, creating space for White to play c5. In the case 20...c5 was played, the continuation 21.Ba4 Bd7? 22.Qd2 or 22.Nf5 would have put more pressure on Black's position.[45]
Game 5 was a 43-move draw. Similar to games 1 and 3, Nepomniachtchi opened with e4 following the Ruy Lopez opening. The endgame resulted in a draw by threefold repetition.
The board after White's 130th move. According to seven-piece endgame tablebases, this was a drawn endgame until, in this position, Nepomniachtchi played 130...Qe6?, allowing Carlsen's decisive advance of all pieces.
Game 6 was a 136-move win for Carlsen that lasted 7 hours 45 minutes. As of 2023[update], it is the longest game in the history of the World Chess Championship, surpassing the previous record, a 124-move draw in game 5 of the World Chess Championship 1978 between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.[46]
With 25...Rac8, Nepomniachtchi unbalanced the position by giving up two rooks for Carlsen's queen, offering a slight material advantage to Carlsen in exchange for Nepomniachtchi later obtaining a passed a-pawn. Both Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi missed chances during a time scramble just before the first time control at move 40, where the position was considered equal. With 52...Qe4, which Anish Giri believed was a mistake[47] and Nepomniachtchi called "unnecessary" in the post-game press conference,[48] Nepomniachtchi gave up his passed a-pawn for Carlsen's h-pawn, leading to an endgame which was advantageous to Carlsen. With 80.Rxf7+! Carlsen entered an endgame with rook, knight and two connected passed pawns against Nepomniachtchi's queen, which Giri described as "terribly unpleasant" for Nepomniachtchi.[47] While the position was a tablebase draw, the burden was mainly on Nepomniachtchi to defend accurately to achieve this. Meanwhile, Carlsen, facing no serious threat of losing, could continue pressing his position. Nepomniachtchi's 118...Qa5 (instead of Qb6+, forcing the white king into the open) made his task much more difficult.[47] Ultimately, Nepomniachtchi made the decisive error 130...Qe6 (130...Qb1 and 130...Qc2 were the only drawing moves according to the tablebase), allowing Carlsen to begin advancing his pawns towards inevitable promotion.[49]
The players discussed the game immediately after its finish and seemingly agreed that the objective result should have been a draw.[50] In the press conference after the game, Carlsen said: "Obviously I'm elated to get this result. It was never easy. Frankly it shouldn't be. There was a lot of the same emotions as the game that I won against Karjakin (in Game 10 of the 2016 World Championship), which was a marathon there as well. Obviously this is huge."[48]
The game was widely praised within the global chess community. Former world champion Garry Kasparov praised the game as a counterexample to the stereotypes that "chess isn't a sport" or "that physical condition isn't important in chess", as well as that "classical chess is dead".[51] Former world champion challenger Nigel Short described the game as "epic" and called Carlsen's effort in the game "stupendous".[52] Later in the match, The New York Times called game 6 "the breakthrough that blew open the contest" and "an epic struggle that rewrote the chess record books."[53]
Position after 20...c5, initiating exchanges that White has no good way to avoid.
Game 7 was a 41-move draw. Carlsen equalized smoothly out of another Ruy Lopez, after which the players heavily exchanged material leading to a drawn position. The position was completely lifeless by the 28th move, with the remainder of the game a formality to accede to the rules regarding draw offers. For many commentators, this lifeless draw was not surprising because of how draining game 6 had been (it had ended after midnight).[54]
Position after Nepomniachtchi (Black) played 21...b5?? (21...Kg8 or 21...a6 would have been better). 22.Qa3+ now wins a pawn for White.[55][56]
Game 8 was a 46-move win for Carlsen. Nepomniachtchi blundered a pawn in the middle game, leaving him with a lost position, and Carlsen carefully and accurately converted his advantage to a win in the queen-and-pawn endgame. This gave Carlsen a two-game lead, with commentators saying it was now difficult for Nepomniachtchi to win the match.[57]
Carlsen began with 1.e4 and Nepomniachtchi again replied with the Petrov Defense, Carlsen varying from game 4 with the less common Steinitz Variation (3.d4). Carlsen's 7.Nd2 is an obscure sideline, but it was after 9.0-0, in a position apparently beyond his preparation, that Nepomniachtchi took his first think before playing the surprising novelty 9...h5!?. In response, Carlsen took an even longer think before playing 10.Qe1+?!, a safe move, rejecting sharper (and perhaps stronger) alternatives by offering to trade queens. Carlsen commented after the game that he felt too tired after game 6 to properly calculate the sharper alternatives, and, leading the match, was happy to offer the quick draw and reach the scheduled rest day. Nepomniachtchi replied with 10...Kf8, avoiding the queen trade and probable draw which would have resulted from 10...Qe7, a decision which was criticized by multiple GMs, including Giri and Anand. Nepomniachtchi commented after the game that he thought both moves were equally drawish.
Middlegame play continued relatively normally until Nepomniachtchi blundered with 21...b5??, losing the a7 pawn in a simple combination. Commentators also considered Black's subsequent defense imprecise; several GMs, including Giri, Anand, Caruana and Polgár suggested 23...Bxh3 as a possible improvement, while Stockfish rates 24...Rd6 a blunder. Nevertheless, even with best defense the position was likely already lost by this point.[58]
The rooks and bishops were quickly exchanged, and further consolidation resulted in a queen-and-pawn endgame with Carlsen up two pawns. Such endgames are often difficult to win due to the threat of perpetual check. Nepomniachtchi made a last-ditch effort to create perpetual checks, but Carlsen calmly spent his available time to ensure this could not occur. Nepomniachtchi gave up a third pawn on move 44 and resigned on move 46.
Position after Nepomniachtchi (White) played 27.c5??, a blunder allowing Black to trap White's bishop with 27...c6. Instead 27.f3 would have given White a slight advantage.
Game 9 was a 39-move win for Carlsen. Nepomniachtchi played the English opening, a good psychological choice because there are few forcing lines for Black.[59] He managed to get a complicated position out of the opening, which was also a success because such positions often provide greater opportunities for a win. On move 15, Nepomniachtchi missed the idea 15.b4, which temporarily sacrifices a pawn for open lines. Nepomniachtchi agreed that this idea was promising when it was pointed out to him during the press conference. As the game continued, Carlsen missed White's 24.Qe1 when playing 21...Qb4, which allowed White to win the b7-pawn, but Black had sufficient compensation. One move after capturing the b7-pawn, however, Nepomniachtchi blundered a bishop with 27.c5??, leaving the bishop trapped after 27...c6.[60] Nepomniachtchi found the best practical try after the blunder, but, down a bishop, his position could not be salvaged. This win gave Carlsen a three-point lead over Nepomniachtchi, and commentators agreed this virtually assured Carlsen would win the match.[59][61][62]
Game 10 was a 41-move draw. It was a quick, quiet game with the players eventually splitting the point. Nepomniachtchi surprised commentators by again meeting Carlsen's 1. e4 with the Petroff Defense, indicating that he was happy with a draw despite the match situation. The queens were quickly exchanged and a symmetrical position with no weaknesses on both sides appeared on the board, leading to a draw. Shankland described the game as a "snoozefest" and suggested that were draw offers permitted before move 40, the players might well have called the game off as early as move 11.[63]
Position after 22...Rf4 by Carlsen. Nepomniachtchi tried 23.g3??, attempting to initiate an exchange. However, after 23...dxe3, the pawn on g4 is left undefended, allowing Carlsen's queen to capture it with a devastating attack on the white king.
Game 11 was a 49-move win for Carlsen. Nepomniachtchi began with 1.e4, as he had in games 1, 3, 5, and 7, but deviated with 3.Bc4, the Italian Game, instead of the Ruy Lopez he had played previously. He did not play the most ambitious moves, and Black achieved the central pawn break ...d5 – thematic in the Italian – before White did. With no advantage, Nepomniachtchi blundered again with 23.g3??, a surprising blunder because Black has only one good response, but that response wins. Carlsen did not play the most direct winning lines afterwards, but still simplified the position into a comfortable pawn-up rook endgame which he converted without trouble. Commentators suggested that 23.Rxd4 could have maintained a drawn position.[64]
A number of commentators expressed regret and surprise over Nepomniachtchi's poor performance in the second half of the match, where he lost three games due to uncharacteristic blunders. The exhausting game six was identified as a possible explanation for the Russian grandmaster's seeming collapse. A typical comment, from the Chess.com summary of the match, reads:
"It's sad; we know what he's [Nepomniachtchi's] capable of and he didn't get to show the world in this match," said GM Robert Hess during the Chess.com broadcast today. The American grandmaster and commentator expressed what seems to be the general feeling in the chess world: that Nepomniachtchi's painful collapse after game six did not reflect the high level that he had shown in the first half of this championship or at the Candidates Tournament.[65]
American grandmaster Sam Shankland put it in the following words:
It really felt like two matches were played. Nepo A played match one, and in my opinion, Nepo A is the second-best player in the world. Nepo B showed up for match two, and that was a farce. I really think if he can manage to consistently bring Nepo A to the board, he can be very ambitious about playing in another world championship match and giving Magnus a better fight someday.[66]
Carlsen, in an interview with Chess24.com immediately after retaining the title, took pride in his performance in game six and said that the lopsided final score may have been the result of that grueling game:
You can point at things he [Nepomniachtchi] could have done differently in every game, of course, but overall I'm happy with my play, very proud of my effort in the 6th game, and that laid the foundation for everything. The final score is probably a bit more lopsided than it could have been, but that's the way some of the other matches also could have gone if I’d gotten a lead.[67]
Oliver Roeder writing in FiveThirtyEight described the match as "featuring both the impressively precise and the inexplicably misguided". Data assembled by Lichess using the Stockfish chess engine estimated that of the 1,034 world chess championship games dating back to 1888, game seven was the most accurate game ever played in world chess championship history, while games three and ten were tied for the second-most accurate; on the other hand, Nepomniachtchi's blunder in game eight made it the 312th least accurate championship game ever.[68]
In an interview a month after the match, former world champion Anatoly Karpov said he felt Nepomniachtchi had played really well in the first half of the match, and had real winning chances in games 1, 2, and 5. Karpov felt Nepomniachtchi had been somewhat unlucky to lose his advantage in game 1 in the middlegame, while in game 5, if Nepomniachtchi had played c4 at the right moment he would have had a pleasant advantage that is difficult to defend against. In the critical game 6, Nepomniachtchi had also gotten very close to a win – although engine analysis showed that the position was balanced, Karpov felt that in a practical game it is difficult to defend White's position under time pressure. This loss turned into a crucial psychological turning point, with Karpov postulating that Nepomniachtchi crumbled when he realized how many chances he had missed. As a result, the second half of the match was not at world championship level – Carlsen won four games out of six, which was not something that has happened since the Interregnum of World Chess Champions in 1948. Nonetheless, Karpov acknowledges that Carlsen has proven he is the world's strongest player and therefore deserves the title.[69]
Aftermath
Per regulation, Carlsen won €1.2 million while Nepomniachtchi took home €800,000. Carlsen won 9 Elo rating points and retained his number one position on the FIDE rating list, while Nepomniachtchi lost 9 points and remained fifth.[70]
Shortly after his victory, Carlsen mentioned that he might not be motivated enough to play another world championship match unless the challenger was Alireza Firouzja, an 18-year-old prodigy who had risen to number two in the world rankings.[71] This was something that surprised former world champion Anatoly Karpov, since Karpov felt that this was the first World Chess Championship that Carlsen won decisively (Carlsen had needed tiebreaks to defeat Sergey Karjakin in 2016 and Fabiano Caruana in 2018, and in Karpov's opinion there were "questions" in his matches against Anand in 2013 and 2014).[69]
As the runner-up, Nepomniachtchi qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022, an eight-player tournament to select the challenger for the 2023 World Chess Championship.[72] Nepomniachtchi won and was initially expected to challenge Carlsen once again in 2023. However, Carlsen announced in July 2022 that he would not defend his title, citing a lack of motivation, and Nepomniachtchi instead played Ding Liren, the runner-up of the Candidates Tournament.[73]
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