“Today is basically not about him defending well but me not using all the opportunities I had” Nepomniachtchi says. “In general I believe these games are pretty much tense and despite it’s all draws, we are trying to play reasonable chess.”
Carlsen is asked whether the fifth straight draw matters within the context of the match. “I think there is some magical cutoff point where draws instead of just being normal they become a problem,” he says. “But I don’t think we’ve crossed the Rubicon yet.”
Once again Carlsen was first to deviate with 8. … Rb8, a rare move at the top level. Asked why he chose to do so, he says: “I thought it’s always good to spring the first surprise. Unfortunately it didn’t work out very well for me. I think he chose a very good line. Actually, I kind of knew it’s hard to completely equalize in this line. I thought there’s limited material and it’s fairly symmetrical so I’ll figure it out if it comes to that. It was a little bit more unpleasant than I hoped.”
Asked whether he’s disappointed with the outcome, Carlsen says: “It’s OK. Obviously I’m not thrilled with a game where I’m … unless you count Ra2 and Ra1 at the end, I didn’t make a single active move. That’s not ideal. Doesn’t win you many games. But the result obviously is fine.”
Remarkably, the players combined for one inaccuracy in today’s game: when Nepomniachtchi played 20. Red1 instead of c4. Asked whether he considered c4 in first question of the post-game press conference, the challenger says: “Of course I considered c4 as one of my options. The position was so pleasant it was hard to choose the type of advantage I wanted to see on the board.”
Asked whether he was relived when his opponent played 20. Red1, Carlsen comes clean: “Yep!”
He elaborates: “I definitely considered [c4] the main option. I thought everything else was kind of manageable. Obviously it’s always a bit worse but it feels like my position is not going to get worse, it’s going to probably gradually improve seeing as I have very few real weaknesses. [c4] was definitely what was worrying me the most there. Seeing Rd1, I kind of thought that the worst was over.”
Immediately after stepping out of the studio,Carlsen is asked why he spent 20 minutes on 19. … Qe8. “There were some different things to consider,” he says. “Mainly I was choosing between Qe8 and Re8, since I thought I needed to get Be6. But, yeah, there were some subtle differences I thought. But at the end of the day I couldn’t find a way to refute Qe8, so I went for that. I thought his best chance was to go c4 after that move and try to get c5, because I thought after what he did then I should gradually be fine.”
He continues: “I do think I somewhat underestimated the ending. I realized that it was worse of course, but it was probably a little sadder than I had hoped. But fortunately I managed to move out my pieces in a decent way and I think when I managed to trade one knight it was all over. There was nothing left for him. And possibly there was nothing he could do to avoid that.”
Asked whether there were any especially uncomfortable moments in the endgame, Carlsen says: “I think that’s always a question. I think in many situations the computer will say lots of moves are fine while sitting at the board you feel like you have to be precise. That’s really hard to say. I don’t know. I think overall it was fairly holdable and if there were some difficult moments then neither of us saw them.”
Carlsen is then asked about the shape and tenor of the match so far, which is in a 2½-2½ deadlock with nine contests remaining.
“Obviously the tension is rising and it’s becoming clearer and clearer that it’s going to be hard for either of us to break through,” he says. “But I do get a rest day now and a chance to prepare for two white games in the next bunch of games. That’s good but it’s not easy.”
Nepomniachtchi plays 37. Ra5 after nearly 10 minutes. Carlsen plays 37. Ke8. We may be looking at a draw by repetition. The Nepomniachtchi plays 38. Rd5 and Carlsen responds with 38. … Ra8. Matters looking ever more drawish after 39. Rd1 Ra2+.
The challenger offers the rook trade (40. Rd2) and Carlsen declines it (40. … Ra1). An extra hour is added to the clock for both players after the 40th move but this one appears bound for a peaceful result.
The knights have been traded off the board (35. Ncxd6+ Bxd6). Nepomniachtchi follows by repairing the structure on the kingside (36. h5 Bf8). A quite unpleasant position for Carlsen but it’s not immediately clear how Nepomniachtchi will penetrate the fortress.
Nepomniachtchi plays the ambitious 32. g4 after six minutes. A knight trade is imminent following the flurry of moves that follows (32. … Kf7 33. h4 Bf8 34. Ke2 Nd6). Carlsen with nearly 26 minutes on his clock, Nepomniachtchi with just over 40. Both are due to receive an extra hour following their 40th moves under the format.
Carlsen opts for the predicted 30. … Rd8. The moment of truth for Nepomniachtchi. Will the challenger make a statement of winning intent with the g4 pawn push or will he be content to sit on this position ahead of tomorrow’s rest day?
Carlsen plays 28. … Nf8 after five minutes. Nepomniachtchi counters with 29. Nf5 after less than three minutes. Carlsen takes about a minute before continuing his plan with the solid 29. … Ne6. Another swift reponse by the challenger (30. Nc4) adding to the pressure on black’s dark-squared bishop on c4. That leaves essentially a forced reply as any other response by Rd8 to defend the bishop will create problems for Carlsen.
Magnus Carlsen looks on during Wednesday’s game. Photograph: Kamran Jebreili/AP
Carlsen goes with 27. … Ne8 after exactly 11 minutes. He’s under 39 minutes with 13 moves to until the time control. A highly technical position, this. Nepomniachtchi thinks for four minutes before opting to improve his king (28. Kf1).
… and Nepomniachtchi opts for 22. … Nd2 after more than 18 minutes of deep thought. Carlsen then initiates a bishop trade and the challenger follows with a queen exchange (22. … Bxa4 23. Qxa4 Qxa4 24. Rxa4). Also gone are a pair of rooks amid the ensuing burst of activity (24. … Ra8 25. Rda1 Rxa4 26. Rxa4 Rb8). White still holds a microscopic advantage but this is an easier position to hold for black.
Ian Nepomniachtchi looks on during Wednesday’s game in Dubai. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Carlsen defends the queen with 21. … Bd7 after three minutes of thought. Nepomniachtchi, still more than a half-hour ahead on time, has spent the last 12 minutes (and counting) contemplating his response …
Nepomniachtchi takes more than 10 minutes before playing the calm 20. Red1, but he’s still comfortably ahead on time. Looks like he’s out of his prep. Carlsen answers with 20. … Be6 before the challenger attacks the black queen with 21. Ba4. The Norwegian supercomputer Sesse evaluates the position as dead even.
After nearly 20 minutes, Carlsen goes with 19. … Qe8. That leaves him with less than 58 minutes to make his next 21 moves until the time control. Nepomniachtchi is more than 45 minutes ahead on the clock. From here, the engines like the c4 pawn push best. Meanwhile, both contestants have stepped away from the board.
Ian Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen have briefly stepped away from the board after 19. … Qe8. Photograph: Fide
Carlsen has been looking at this position for more than 13 minutes (and counting). He appears to be in search of a plan having fallen 32 minutes behind Nepomniachtchi, who by all indications is still in his opening prep.
Nepomniachtchi plays 18. Ng3 after three minutes. Carlsen answers with 18. … Ng6. The challenger takes two more minutes before getting his dark-squared bishop into the mix with 19. Be3. White enjoys a slight positional edge with black’s light-squared bishop in the weeds.
Magnus Carlsen inspects the board during Wednesday’s game. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Carlsen spends nine more minutes before deciding on the logical 17. … Ne7. The champion is down more than a half hour on the clock. Nepomniachtchi, who’s stepped away from the board, will return to this position.
The position after 17. … Ne7. Photograph: Chess.com
Carlsen plays 15. … Bd6 and Nepomniachtchi spends nearly six minutes before responding with 16. Qc2. The Russian challenger’s longest think of the game so far by some distance after blitzing out his opening moves. Carlsen then spends eight minutes before the prophylactic 16. … h6. Nepomniachtchi, who appears to still be in his prep, immediately answers with 17. Nf1. Carlsen continues to take a lot more time with somewhat uneasy body language.
Carlsen plays 13. … d5, which appears to be the first new move of the game. Nepomniachtchi responds quickly with 14. Nbd2 followed by an exchange of e-pawns (14. … dxe4 15. dxe4). The challenger, who’s yet to spend more than a half-minute on any of his moves, is already more than 20 minutes ahead on the clock.
Carlsen releases the tension after (11. … b4 12. d3 bxc3 13. bxc3). Nepomniachtchi has spent less than a half-minute on each of his moves so far. Carlsen has spent more than three minutes on each of his last two and has been inspecting this position for more than five minutes.
The position after 13. bxc3. Photograph: Chess.com
Carlsen plays 8. … Rb8, a rare move at the top level but one he played against Duda at the World Cup. Then a pawn exchange (9. axb5 axb5) followed by more familiar Ruy Lopez theory (10. h3 d6 11. c3). That’s followed by some curious body language from the world champion.
Nepomniachtchi, playing with the white pieces, opens with 1. e4. Another Ruy Lopez follows (1. … e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6). And the moves that follow mirror the openings from the first and third games (5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. a4).
Both players addressed the elephant in the room after Tuesday’s contest. Specifically, the active streak of 16 consecutive draws in classical world championship games. Carlsen drew the final two games with Sergey Karjakin in 2016, all 12 against Fabiano Caruana in 2018, then four straight to open this year’s tie with Nepomniachtchi.
Carlsen, who’s spoken on multiple occasions about altering the format, was diplomatic when the question was put to him yesterday. “There’s a saying that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all,” he said. “So I’m going to invoke that particular saying right here.”
Nepomniachtchi, for his part, was less keen on change. “It’s hard to say because I believe the importance of traditions in chess is really big,” he said. “I guess whatever works you shouldn’t try to make it work better in order not to break it. I believe this system with the matches is more or less fair.”
Carlsen, who turned 31 yesterday, was asked whether playing on his birthday affected his approach or mindset. “I would have of course loved to have had a rest day on the eve of my birthday so I could have had at least a token celebration. Apart from that, I would say it’s pretty good. I think I won at least one game in the World Cup against (Farrukh) Amonatov in 2005. And obviously the match in 2016 was decided on my birthday in the tiebreak. It’s going to take a lot for me to have bad reflections of me playing on my birthday, even though I lost to (Wesley) So last year.”
As far as I can tell, the only player to compete in a world championship game that started on his birthday (until Carlsen yesterday and in 2018) was the great William Steinitz in Game 16 of his doomed title defense against Emanuel Lasker on 17 May 1894. It wasn’t his best day.
A quick refresher on the format. It will consist of 14 classical games with each player awarded one point for a win and a half-point for a draw. Whoever reaches seven and a half points first will be declared the champion. (Both Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi are on two points apiece after Friday’s Game 1, Saturday’s Game 2, Sunday’s Game 3 and Tuesday’s Game 4)
The time control for each game is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. Players cannot agree to a draw before black’s 40th move. A draw claim before then is only permitted through the arbiter, if threefold repetition occurs (as occurred in Game 4).
If the match is tied after 14 games, tie-breaks will be played on the final day (16 December) in the following order:
• Best of four rapid games with 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.
• If still tied, they will play up to five mini-matches of two blitz games (five minutes for each player with a three-second increment).
• If all five mini-matches are drawn, one sudden-death ‘Armageddon’ match will be played where White receives five minutes and Black receives four minutes. Both players will receive a three-second increment after the 60th move. In the case of a draw, Black will be declared the winner.
Notably, Carlsen’s second and third title defenses both came down to tiebreakers. But many believe the increased length of this year’s match (from 12 to 14 games) and the stylistic matchup at hand promises a decisive result in regulation.
Ian Nepomniachtchi, left, and Magnus Carlsen have played to four straight draws in their best-of-14 world championship match in Dubai. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Hello and welcome back for the fifth game of the World Chess Championship. The overall score in the showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai remains level at 2-all following draws in Game 1, Game 2, Game 3 and Game 4 with 10 scheduled contests remaining.
The first three games were fighting encounters notable for Carlsen making early material sacrifices in exchange for long-term initiative, demanding extraordinary accuracy from the Russian challenger for him to emerge with a result. Yesterday? Not so much. Carlsen failed to get his teeth into Nepomniachtchi’s Petrov with the rare 18. Nh4!? and the affair fizzled out to a draw after 33 moves and 2hr 37min.
Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi played to a quiet 33-move draw in Tuesday’s fourth game of the 2021 World Chess Championship.
Carlsen, who failed to strike with the favored white pieces, was asked whether he felt like the peaceful result felt like a setback. “It’s OK,” he said. “I’ve started with a lot more draws than this [in the 2016 and 2018 world title matches]. When you play a forced line as today, you don’t expect to hit very often. But the idea is to hit once in a while, take your opponent by surprise, and the other times you’ve usually got to be very safe.
“Obviously I would have loved to win, would have loved to find more chances than I did, but I think overall it’s a normal result against a world-prepared opponent.”
For those of you just coming aboard, Carlsen, who turned 31 on Tuesday, has been at No 1 in the Fide rankings for 10 straight years and was considered the world’s best player even before he dethroned Vishy Anand for the title in 2013. Nepomniachtchi, also 31, is ranked No 5, having earned his place at the table by winning the eight-man candidates tournament in April.
The best-of-14-games match is taking place at the Dubai Exhibition Centre with the winner earning a 60% share of the €2m ($2.26m) prize fund if the match ends in regulation (or 55% if it’s decided by tie-break games, as happened in Carlsen’s second and third title defenses).
We’re a little more than 40 minutes from today’s first move, so not much longer now.
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