Magnus Carlsen (left) remains world champion because his Russian challenger Jan Nepomnjaschtschi made hair-raising mistakes too often.
Photo: AFP / Giuseppe Cacace
When world chess champion Magnus Carlsen was asked about the reasons for his successful title defense, he was clearly uncomfortable with the answers. After all, his Russian challenger Jan Nepomnyashchi was only a few meters to his right. And both knew that the clear outcome of the match, which the Norwegian had finally won with 7.5: 3.5 late on Friday evening, had less to do with Carlsen’s strengths than with the weaknesses of his pitiful opponent. “Obviously Jan couldn’t show his best chess at some point,” said Carlsen. “That happens sometimes when you get into a difficult situation. If you can’t deal with it, the best preparation is no longer useful. “
This World Cup in Dubai was expected with more excitement than some of the other four previous duels Carlsen had played since 2013. After all, Nepomnyashchi had a positive record against the Norwegian and Carlsen played a few times in the first five games, all of which ended in a draw Can bring distress.
But then came the marathon game number six. For almost eight hours, both opponents sat facing each other, played a kind of blitz game in the end due to the time problems they both got into, with moves every second and yet so error-free for a long time that even after more than 100 moves, points were likely to be shared again . Nevertheless, Carlsen wrestled his opponent after the World Cup record number of 136 moves. “Game six was excellent. And that decided everything «, summed up the world champion after defending his title – and nobody could contradict him.
After all, the Norwegian should win three of the following five games – and thus the entire match. But this no longer required constant pressure, just solid positional play. Nepomnyashchi tried to catch up, even cutting off his braid and flying in his compatriot Sergei Karjakin – who had Carlsen on the verge of defeat in 2016 – to come up with new ideas. But on the board, the 31-year-old kept losing his nerve. Three times he screwed up a pawn move in equal positions that put the chess world in disbelief.
When it happened to him again on Friday evening, even grandmasters who can understand the pressure of the situation reacted just stunned. The five-time US champion Hikaru Nakamura judged: »I think Jan didn’t feel like drawing anymore. He wanted to make the game sharper and took the risk of a quick defeat. “
After another division of points, Nepomnjaschtschi should have won the last three games in a row, twice of them with the slight disadvantage of the black pieces. Dutchman Anish Giri looked even angrier in his live commentary. “He wants to lose the game, he doesn’t want a draw anymore, so he prefers to lose – at least unconsciously.”
Of course, the Russian didn’t want to admit that later and blamed his mistakes on the circumstances: »I think it wasn’t because of the chess. A World Cup consists of many factors. The physique and the psyche also play a role. The situation was more tense than I expected. But that must never be the reason for overlooking things that you wouldn’t even overlook in a game of blitz chess. ”He now wants to analyze why it happened anyway. “That has never happened to me. Sure I’ve lost games stupidly before, but never as often as here. Those blunders were below par in bad form. “
Carlsen didn’t care. “Sometimes the best strategy is to wait and play solid. I have certainly acted more conservatively than before. Ultimately, however, that turned out to be correct. Of course, I didn’t expect that I would pull away from a World Cup like that. “
To set the record of six World Cup titles, the Norwegian is only missing one. Who will be his next opponent will be decided at the next candidates tournament in summer 2022. He does not seem to believe that he will be called Jan Nepomnyashchi again. Instead, he was “very impressed” by the recent performance of Frenchman Alireza Firouzja, said Carlsen. “There was nothing that motivated me so much recently.” For the Russian a few meters to his right, this statement was likely to have been another low blow.
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