TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
World Chess Championship 2021 (11)
Carlsen retains his title after a another puzzling error from Nepomniachtchi
Mark Crowther - Friday 10th December 2021
Carlsen towards the end of game 11 where he retained his title. Photo © | https://fide.com
Magnus Carlsen won his fifth World Chess Championship match by the crushing score of 7.5-3.5. His opponent Ian Nepomniachtchi suffered yet another unnecessary loss as his ability to execute even the most basic of calculations again eluded him.
Nepomniachtchi had white in Game 11 and he switched to a Giuoco Pianissimo for the first time in the match. Nepomniachtchi didn't manage to put any real pressure on Carlsen. The opening is very flexible with many acceptable moves for both sides. Carlsen's 7...Ba7 was already pretty rare and the new move 10.Be3 didn't seem very critical. After 13.Bxe6 Carlsen - for whom a draw was obviously just fine - was completely equal. After 20.d4 there was a final intricate sequence, Carlsen's 21...Re4 and especially 22...Rf4! took Nepomniachtchi by surprise and he simply lost his mind. To be sure Nepomniachtchi took nine and a half minutes over the losing 23.g3 but as potentially the last key moment in the game he could have afforded to spend a lot longer. It was a bit confusing but I believe he said he missed 24...Qxg4+ which means his whole process must have broken down. I know I react very badly to moves that come as a surprise, but a World Championship Challenger should be better than that. Carlsen never lost his winning advantage after that but he did miss a number of more incisive continuations and had to be accurate in the endgame.
With the match over Carlsen was happy enough: “It’s hard to feel that great joy when the situation was so comfortable to begin with, but I’m happy with a very good performance overall.” “I think it was just a very good professional performance overall. No regrets at all, just very satisfied.” "You can point that things you could have done different in every game of course, but overall I’m happy with my play, very proud of my effort in the sixth game, and that sort of laid the foundation for everything. The final score is probably a bit more lopsided than it could have been, but that’s the way I think some of the other matches also could have gone if I had gotten a lead.” (Guardian summary of the press conference)
Chess.com interview with Nepomniachtchi just after he lost the match
Nepomniachtchi was at a loss to explain why he was missing "simple things you would never overlook in a blitz game." Nepomniachtchi commented after the match that he was puzzled by Carlsen's strategy and that he "never actually tried to press" either with white or black. When this was later put to Carlsen he felt that he did play more conservatively with black than against Caruana but he didn't fully agree that he didn't try for the advantage with white. But as Nepomniachtchi collapsed it really wasn't necessary for Carlsen to take any further risks. If Nepomniachtchi is to learn anything from Carlsen it would be the intensity of effort he put in key moments - even at the risk of time pressure - that was very noticeable to me. Nepomniachtchi missed his best chances in game 2 and game 6 and he didn't spend long over those decisions.
This match was a close fight until game 6. Nepomniachtchi was unfortunate that this loss came on the first day of a run of three games. By the time the rest day came he had lost another game and his title chances were nearly over. I said at the time Nepomniachtchi needed to be careful the wheels didn't come off his campaign but that's precisely what happened as he went on to lose two of the last three games as well both with blunders a strong player should not make.
Magnus Carlsen said he will be back in Warsaw for the World Rapid and Blitz after Christmas. It looks like his next defence will be in the first half of 2023.
| WCh 2021 Dubai UAE Fri 26th Nov 2021 - Thu 16th Dec 2021
Leading Final Round 11 Standings: |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Name | Ti | FED | Rtg | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Pts |
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | GM | NOR | 2855 | = | = | = | = | = | 1 | = | 1 | 1 | = | 1 | - | - | - | 7.5 |
| 1 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | GM | RUS | 2782 | = | = | = | = | = | 0 | = | 0 | 0 | = | 0 | - | - | - | 3.5 |
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