Team Carlsen: Now We Know

There were really no surprises in this "reveal": Magnus Carlsen's team comprised all the usual suspects, with one new guy. Peter Heine Nielsen was the leader (which was already acknowledged by Carlsen during the match), and long-time assistants Laurent Fressinet (of "too weak, too slow" fame), Jan Gustafsson (since he was nowhere to be found on Chess24, everyone knew he was helping), and Daniil Dubov all helped out. The new guy was Jorden Van Foreest.

Of course, it's also pretty likely that there were other people who were helping in some capacity remotely, perhaps in a less official capacity. If so, we weren't given any information about that.

I'm not sure who was helping Nepo, other than Sergey Karjakin and Nepo's long-time coach Vladimir Potkin, so if any of you know please pass it along. About Karjakin: he was a bit tetchy about Dubov's assisting Carlsen. While the Ukrainian ex-pat seems more Catholic than the Pope when it comes to his love for Russia, and it should be remembered that Dubov has been helping Carlsen for years, I can see his being a little disappointed. It would have been disappointing to learn that, say, Nakamura or So had been helping Carlsen in his match with Caruana. On the other hand, Dubov, great though he is, is not a player on the level of Nakamura or So, or in the Russian context at the level of Karjakin or Grischuk. And, again, he had been working with Carlsen for years, I think even going back to the matches with Anand. So if it had been a player like Jeffery Xiong or Sam Shankland who had been helping Carlsen, and had been doing so for years at the time of the Caruana match, I'd have a harder time getting worked up about it. Maybe it would be nice if he sat that match out, but it seems to me that it would be going above and beyond for him to do so, rather than something he ought to do.

But maybe I'm wrong about this. And maybe it also depends on how tight or loose one sees the national community, if there are political aspects at stake (it wouldn't have been viewed kindly if there were "defectors" in the Spassky-Fischer match or the Karpov-Korchnoi matches, to put it mildly!). But as far as I'm aware there are no serious tensions between Russia and Norway, and it's not as if Nepomniachtchi is the golden boy of Russian chess, their one and only shining star in an otherwise chess-poor nation.

Anyway, some of my readers are Russian, and many of you are overseas and much closer to Russia than I am, and are bound to have better-informed ideas on this matter than I do. What do you think?

Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 11: Carlsen Wins the Game and Match After Another Nepo Blunder

It was the same story we've seen in games 8 and 9: in a position that was level and headed for a draw, challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi made a major and straightforward tactical error that cost him the game. Magnus Carlsen took advantage (though not as cleanly as he could have, or did, in the previous games), and in doing so has won his fifth World Championship match. Carlsen played well in the match, but aside from his win in the epic sixth game, he mostly played good, solid chess and kept his eyes open for his opponent's blunders.

He thus retains the title he won in 2013 for at least one more year. The final score of 7.5-3.5 sets a modern record, as this is the first time the loser of a World Championship match has been doubled up (or worse) since 1910, when Emanuel Lasker defeated David Janowski by the gruesome score of 9.5-1.5. In that match, however, the difference in strength between the players was obvious, while in this match most of the damage resulted from the first decisive game. The conventional wisdom, embraced by Carlsen himself, is that Nepo's losses in games 8 and 9 - and presumably in today's game 11 as well - would not have happened had the challenger not lost game 6.

So that's it: the match finishes three games ahead of schedule, and Carlsen keeps his title until at least next year. Nepomniachtchi is automatically qualified for next year's Candidates, which will take place in June. A reminder: six of the eight slots have already been filled: Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov (as compensation for his refusing to play in the last Candidates on account of COVID concerns), Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana (qualified through the FIDE Grand Swiss), and Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Sergey Karjakin (through the Chess World Cup). The last two spots will come through the FIDE Grand Prix early next year, and you can read up on that here. Nepomniachtchi's prep for this match should at least give him an advantage in preparation over his Candidates opponents. If he does qualify for a second match with Carlsen, let's hope that if he loses again it will be because he forced the champion to show his best chess, and not because of any sort of competitive collapse.

Here's the final game, with brief comments.

Press Conferences and Asininity

There's no reason why postgame interviews and press conferences can't be informative and at least relatively pleasant for the participants, but it doesn't work out that way in practice. Anyone who watches sports on TV - at least in the US of A, will have heard enough stupid questions to last a lifetime.

And yet...the insipid, repetitive questions U.S. sports fans are used to seem sublime compared to the stupid, self-indulgent, insulting, insensitive, and inappropriate questions that have been lobbed at Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi during their match. There may be a place for the occasional edgy question, worded as tactfully as possible, but for the most part the journalists and "journalists" in Dubai have failed miserably.

Some approximate versions follow (the answers are completely made up, obviously):

"I know you deliberately avoided answering this earlier, but c'mon, I'm asking nicely. Who are your other seconds?" ("I won't tell you, but if I send you all of my opening preparation on a thumb drive, will that be good enough?")

"What's your strategy for the next game?" ("Well, I've got a brilliant novelty prepared in the Anti-Marshall on move...hey, wait a minute!")

"What were you planning in case your opponent did X in the opening?" ("Sure, I'm stupid: I'll give away my prep for the next game!")

"How do you feel about losing on a blunder?" ("Fantastic! How do you feel about getting punched in the nose?")

"Hey Magnus, how does it feel to be three points up?" ("Uh, good?")

"Ian, you're down three points. Are you still trying to win this match?"

And so on. There was another question that to my mind was even worse, which I hated with the fire of a thousand suns. Rather than give it any further publicity (presumably the point of the question's being asked in the first place), I'll leave its identity to your imagination. Fortunately, no one has yet offered the much-mocked interview question "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" (supposedly but not actually asked by Barbara Walters), but there's still time.

So, dear readers, let's see if we can do better. What questions do you think would be interesting and appropriate? You can give types of examples, or specific ones. I'm confident that if we put our minds to it, we can do better than the foregoing. Alternatively, should we just put an end to these farces altogether until the end of the match?

Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 10: A Quiet Draw

Not a lot of action today. With White and a three point lead, there was no reason for Magnus Carlsen to take any more chances than were absolutely necessary, and for his part Ian Nepomniachtchi didn't seem interested in trying to burn any bridges either. Carlsen played 1.e4, Nepo repeated the Petroff, and Carlsen played the ultra-safe 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nd3 line in reply. Nepo did give Carlsen the chance to spice things up a bit with the unusual 6...Nf6 7.d4 Nc6, inviting Carlsen to keep the queens on with 8.Be3. Carlsen spent around 20 minutes before sticking to quiet channels with 8.c3, and the rest of the game was an exercise in White trying to prove more than the tiniest of advantages and Black trying to demonstrate total equality. The serious efforts, such as they were, ended after Black's 27th move, and the rest of the game was a dash to move 40, when the governor proclaimed the start of Drawing Season: 41.Ke3 and 1/2-1/2. (The game, with my notes, can be replayed here.)

Carlsen leads the best of 14-game match 6.5-3.5, and therefore needs but a single point from the next four games to retain his title. Tomorrow (Thursday) is a rest day, and game 11, which at least could be the end of the match, is on Friday. My expectation is that Nepomniachtchi won't be as "correct" as he was today, but will overpress if need be to create winning chances. As his chances of winning against Carlsen with Black in game 12 are extremely low, he needs a win in game 11 to have a non-trivial chance of saving the match.

A reminder: Chess.com has been populating the rest days with Speed Chess Championship matches, and tomorrow we'll have Wesley So vs. Fabiano Caruana, starting at 1 p.m. EST/19:00 CET. The winner of that match will face Nihal Sarin in one semifinal, with Hikaru Nakamura taking on Ding Liren in the other. One semi will be on December 13 (the next scheduled rest day, assuming the World Championship hasn't begun its "rest year"), the other on December 16 (by which times the match will be over, even if it goes to a tiebreaker). The final, in case you're wondering, will be on December 19.

Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 9: Nepo Blunders Again; Carlsen Leads 6-3 **UPDATED** Game and Analysis Added

The drama is over. As in game 8, Ian Nepomniachtchi blundered in a perfectly healthy position, and with today's loss goes down three points with just five games to play. Up to that point it had been an interesting game, with Nepo enjoying a plus most of the way. Champ Magnus Carlsen had been under pressure both on the board and on the clock, but after 26.Bxb7 (perfectly fine) Ra4 27.c5?? c6 the game was essentially over, as the white bishop was trapped and would be lost by force. Nepomniachtchi found the trickiest possibility available, but despite Carlsen's relative lack of time he was able to work everything out and win the game just before the time control.

Will there be any real games the rest of the way, or will the match end with a series of pro forma draws? My guess is that Nepo will be satisfied with a draw tomorrow, if he can get to move 40 without blundering (Carlsen hasn't been pushing for a win the last couple of games; he's just taking advantage of Nepo's unforced errors), and will push one last time on Friday, after the rest day on Thursday.

I'll update the post with the game later today.

**UPDATE** Here's the game, with my comments.

Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 8: Nepo Blunders, Goes Two Down

The match isn't over, but Magnus Carlsen may have gotten his first glimpse of the finishing line. The players both seem to be very tired - Carlsen is, by his own admission, and it's not a difficult inference to make about Ian Nepomniachtchi's condition, either - and perhaps the difference in today's game was that Carlsen was more aware of his limitations and made the right adjustments, while Nepo didn't.

Carlsen returned to 1.e4 and Nepo repeated the Petroff. Carlsen varied from game 4 with 3.d4, and played an extremely innocuous line. It was quickly clear that he was fine with a draw, though he would play on given a chance. The challenger, by contrast, played very enterprising chess. Maybe he didn't break the bounds of acceptable risk, but he was doing what he could to unbalance the position. Carlsen's reaction wasn't to play for the maximum, but to keep control. And then, out of nowhere, Nepomniachtchi blundered - really blundered (in contrast with the exaggerated sense of that term that's now commonplace, when a grandmaster reports "blundering" some minor point on the 15th move of a variation, where that word is incorrectly used as a synonym for "overlooked"). He lost an important pawn to a two-move idea, with the longest relevant variation going only one move further. (And these were all obvious moves, too.)

Nepo didn't put up the best defense afterwards, either, and Carlsen showed good if not especially crisp technique to finish the game in the second time control. He now leads the best-of-14 game match 5-3, and as he has only lost a grand total of two games in his four and a half world championship matches, the challenger's chances are almost negligible, especially now that Carlsen will play with an extra layer of caution. But we'll see, and Nepo has a rest day to lick his wounds, regain his strength, and find a promising line for his next white game.

Here's round 8, with my notes. For those who need a chess fix tomorrow, recall that there will be Speed Chess Championship matches between Ding Liren and Levon Aronian, and between Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri, tomorrow.

Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 7: A Very Short Draw

The number of moves wasn't what made it short - they reached move 41 - but it was the time (just two and a half hours) and the number of moves that actually mattered (approximately 21-23) that made it short. After Ian Nepomniachtchi's 21st move, it was evident that the players had given up on the game, and with a couple of short thinks just to make sure that all the i's were dotted and t's crossed, the players hoovered up almost all of the pieces, then blitzed out another 10 moves to get to move 40. At that point they were allowed to offer draws, and did.

After their epic game 6, it's no surprise that today's game was considerably shorter and less energetic. That favored Magnus Carlsen, of course, as he got through another black game while maintaining his lead. Still, it was useful for the challenger as well, as Nepo must have been exhausted from the previous game, and a little separation from the pain of yesterday's loss may have helped his mood. It may also have been to his advantage to finish things early today, to have some added reserves in case Carlsen tries to grind him to death in game 8 as well.

That will take place on Sunday; for now, here's today's game, with my brief annotations.

Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 6: Carlsen Wins a Marathon

It was the longest game in World Chess Championship history by number of moves (that's the classical world championship, and excluding the FIDE knockout events), and resulted in Magnus Carlsen taking a 3.5-2.5 lead in his best of 14 game match with Ian Nepomniachtchi. Carlsen was pressing for the last 90-some moves, and only after Nepo's 130th move was the ending lost for the challenger. That said, there were all sorts of adventures just before the time control, with both players making understandable errors and missing serious winning chances. The game would have been much shorter, had one of the players converted on those early chances, as the game dragged on for more than seven and a half hours in total.

How will they do today? Stay tuned - game 7 started in less than four hours. Meanwhile, here's game 6, with my comments.

Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 5: Nepo Has Chances, but Another Draw Results

The match approaches its middle section on Friday, after a rest day today (Thursday), and the tension is rising after a fifth straight draw. It was an eventful draw, too, as Ian Nepomniachtchi was clearly better prepared than Magnus Carlsen in another Anti-Marshall, and after 19 moves he enjoyed a clear advantage and a lead on the clock. Unfortunately for the challenger, he failed to play the best move here, and after some further, but less acute suffering, Carlsen managed to hold the draw. It may not have been as great an opportunity as he enjoyed in game 2, objectively speaking, but it was at least a good chance for him to press for the full point.

Will Nepo be heartened by his having had two good chances already in five games, and by his having been better prepared in today's game? Or will the missed opportunities harm his confidence? And how long can this drawing run continue before the players go into ultra-safe mode and save the big risks for the rapid playoff? We'll have to wait for answers to these soap opera-like questions; for now, here's game five, with my notes.

Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 4: Another Day, Another Draw

Game 4 was another very well-played draw. It wasn't flashy, but there was some impressive chess of a more subtle nature. Connoisseurs will be happy, bloodthirsty chess fans who think that 18 consecutive draws in World Championship matches are more than a few too many may not be. On the other hand, it was (and still is) Magnus Carlsen's 31st birthday, so it may be that he wanted to play a relatively low-risk game. He had a small but venomous idea against Ian Nepomniachtchi's Petroff - for the fourth straight game it is the champion who has directed the play into fresh channels. Nepo seemed to have been prepared for this, or if not did a great job of defanging White's idea at the board. Whichever it was, or whatever the combination of the two may have been, he defended well, and Carlsen ultimately went for a quick repetition of moves, the game concluding before the first time control for the first time in the match, in only 33 moves.

The game, with my notes, is here; game five will be tomorrow.