World chess champion Magnus Carlsen successfully defended his crown against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai over the weekend by winning Game 11 for a lopsided 7½-3½ final tally.
What started as a close match ended in a nightmare for Nepomniachtchi who only managed to score a point on two draws beginning Game 6. He lost three games thereafter on blunders even elite grandmasters are hard-pressed to explain.
Carlsen had earlier successfully defended against Viswanathan Anand in 2014, Sergey Karjakin in 2016 and Fabiano Caruana in 2018. His wins against Karjakin and Caruana were gained through tiebreaks after their matches were tied in regulation.
Nepomniachtchi,I (2782)-Carlsen,M (2855) [C54]
Dubai (wch/11) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 d6 6.0-0 a5
Black tried 6…h6 in Svidler-Nakamura, chess.com 2021 and after 7.Re1 0-0 8.b4 Bb6 9.Nbd2 Ne7 10.Bb3 a5 11.Nc4 Be6 12.Nxb6 cxb6 13.Bxe6 fxe6 14.Qb3 Qd7 15.Be3 a4 16.Qc2 b5 17.Rad1 Qc6 18.a3 Rac8 19.Qa2 Qd7 20.c4 Ng6 21.h3 Nh5 22.Nh2 Nhf4 23.Nf1 Qe7 24.Kh2 Nh4 25.Bxf4 exf4 26.f3 Rf6 27.cxb5 Rg6 28.Re2 Qg5 29.Rf2 Qxb5 30.Qd2 Rxg2+, White resigned.
7.Re1 Ba7 8.Na3 h6
Here, 8.h3 was played in Eljanov-Hovhannisyan, Riga 2021, and after 8…0-0 9.Na3 Be6 10.Bg5 h6 11.Bh4 g5 12.Bg3 Nh5 13.Kh2 Qf6 14.Nb5 Bb6 15.b3 Rad8 16.d4 Bc8 17.Nxe5 Nxg3 18.Nxf7 Rxf7 19.Bxf7+ Qxf7 20.fxg3 Rf8 21.Na3 Ba7 22.Nc4 Ne7 23.Qd3 a4 24.Rf1 Qg7 25.Rxf8+ Qxf8 26.Rf1 Qg7 27.e5 dxe5 28.Nxe5 Be6 29.Qb5 axb3 30.axb3 Bb6 31.Qe8+ Kh7 32.Ng4 Bg8 33.Nf6+ Kh8 34.Nxg8, Black resigned.
9.Nc2 0-0 10.Be3 Bxe3 11.Nxe3 Re8 12.a4 Be6 13.Bxe6 Rxe6 14.Qb3 b6 15.Rad1 Ne7 16.h3 Qd7 17.Nh2 Rd8 18.Nhg4 Nxg4 19.hxg4 d5 20.d4 exd4 21.exd5 Re4 22.Qc2 Rf4
So far, Carlsen has been making precision moves to maintain equality.
23.g3??
Apparently, Nepo seems really bent on winning. But this move cannot even be classified as a n attempt to gain a decisive edge; rather, the move is tantamount to resigning the game. He could have tried 23.Rxd4 Rxd4 24.cxd4 Nxd5 25.Nxd5 Qxd5 26.Qxc7 Qxd4 27.b3 Qf6= with an easy draw. Now Carlsen slowly but surely converts Nepo’s blunder into a decisive endgame. Nepo plods on for 26 more moves probably to be sociable, but the game is lost.
23…dxe3 24.gxf4 Qxg4+ 25.Kf1 Qh3+ 26.Kg1 Nf5 27.d6 Nh4 28.fxe3 Qg3+ 29.Kf1 Nf3 30.Qf2 Qh3+ 31.Qg2 Qxg2+ 32.Kxg2 Nxe1+ 33.Rxe1 Rxd6 34.Kf3 Rd2 35.Rb1 g6 36.b4 axb4 37.Rxb4 Ra2 38.Ke4 h5 39.Kd5 Rc2 40.Rb3 h4 41.Kc6 h3 42.Kxc7 h2 43.Rb1 Rxc3+ 44.Kxb6 Rb3+ 45.Rxb3 h1Q 46.a5 Qe4 47.Ka7 Qe7+ 48.Ka8 Kg7 49.Rb6 Qc5 0-1
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PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Rf7!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…Bh7 2.Rd7#; 1…Nc5 2.Qxc5#; 1…Rxe5 2.Qc4#; 1…Rf4 2.Rxf4#; 1…Rf3 2.Nxf3#;.333333333333333+6666666666 1…Rxh4 2.Nb3#.
