Either from fatigue or nerves, challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi played quickly into another decisive blunder in Game 9 of the FIDE World Chess Championship in Dubai to give world champion Magnus Carlsen an almost insurmountable lead at 6-3 with five games to go ine the 14-hame match.
Nepomniachtchi changed his repertoire in the game and even appeared to gain a slight edge from the opening. The repertoire change – opening with the English, 1.c4, resulted in a sharp fight until that fateful 27th move blunder.
The loss meant Nepo needs to win at least three of the five remaining games of the match just to bring the contest into tie-breaks. This is assuming Carlsen will not be winning any more gamesfrom hereon in.
Nepomniachtchi,I (2782)-Carlsen,M (2855) [A13]
Dubai (wch/9) 2021
1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 d4 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.0-0 Bc5 6.d3 Nf6 7.Nbd2
GM Richard Rapport played 7.Na3 against GM Wei Yi (chess.com 2021) and play continued 7…0-0 8.Nc2 a5 9.b3 e5 10.Bb2 Bf5 11.a3 Qd6 12.Nh4 Bg4 13.Qd2 Rad8 14.h3 Bc8 15.Rab1 Rfe8 16.Bc1 e4 17.b4 axb4 18.axb4 Ba7 19.Ra1 Bb8 20.Bb2 e3 21.Qe1 g5 22.Nf3 g4 23.Nfxd4 Nxd4 24.Bxd4 gxh3 25.fxe3 Ng4 26.Bf3 c6 27.Ra5 Qg6 28.Bxg4 Qxg4 29.Qf2 f5 30.Qf3 Qg6 31.Kh2 h5 32.Kxh3 f4+ 33.Kh4 Bg4 34.Rg5 Qxg5+ 35.Kxg5 Bxf3 36.Rxf3 fxg3 and a draw was agreed upon after 103 moves.
7…a5 8.Nb3 Be7 9.e3 dxe3
Here, Gabuzyan-Bellahcene, Krasnaya Polyana 2021, Black continued with 9…e5, but after 10.exd4 exd4 11.Re1 0-0 12.Ne5 Nxe5 13.Rxe5 c6 14.Qe1 Bb4, soon lost his way in the maze and resigned on Move 39.
10.Bxe3 Ng4 11.Bc5 0-0 12.d4 a4 13.Bxe7 Qxe7 14.Nc5 a3 15.bxa3 Rd8 16.Nb3 Nf6 17.Re1 Qxa3 18.Qe2 h6 19.h4 Bd7 20.Ne5 Be8 21.Qe3 Qb4 22.Reb1 Nxe5 23.dxe5 Ng4 24.Qe1 Qxe1+ 25.Rxe1 h5 26.Bxb7 Ra4 27.c5??
The decisive blunder. White has a number of moves that leave the position interesting and roughly equal; e.g., 27. Nc5 Ra5 or even 27.Nc5 Ra3=.
27…c6 28.f3 Nh6 29.Re4 Ra7 30.Rb4 Rb8 31.a4 Raxb7 32.Rb6 Rxb6 33.cxb6 Rxb6 34.Nc5 Nf5 35.a5 Rb8 36.a6 Nxg3 37.Na4 c5 38.a7 Rd8 39.Nxc5 Ra8 0-1
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PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE, MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Rxd6!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…gxf5 2.Re8#; 1…Kxf5 2.Qxf3#; 1…Bxc2 2.Bxc2#.
