Certainties and Doubts

Magnus Carlsen – Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi
World Chess Championship match game 2; Dubai, November 27, 2021
Catalan Opening E06

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Be7 5. Bg2 0-0 6. 0-0 dxc4 7. Qc2 b5 8. Ne5. 8. a4 b4 9. Nfd2 Nd5 10. Nxc4 c5 11. dxc5 Ba6 12. Ne3 Nd7 13. Nxd5 exd5 14. c6 Rc8 15. Bf4 Nc5 16. c7 Qd7 17. Nd2 g5! produced many complications, finally enabling Black to achieve what he called a “special win”, 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) – Carlsen, 5th Grand Chess Tour, 2nd stage, Zagreb 2019. 8. ... c6 9. a4 Nd5. Not 9. ... Qxd4? on account of 10. Nxc6 Nxc6 11. Bxc6 Rb8 12. axb5 with too great advantage to White. A very instructional game between two superpowers continued instead 9. ... b4 10. Nxc4 Qxd4 11. Rd1 Qc5 12. Be3 Qh5 13. Nbd2 Nd5? (⌓ 13. ... Ng4) 14. Nb3 Nxe3 15. Nxe3 a6 16. Nc4 Ra7 17. Rac1 c5 18. Nba5± Leela Chess Zero – Bluefish, Top Chess Engine Championship Season 15 — Fun Bonus, tcec-chess.com, April 28, 2019, match game 2. 10. Nc3 f6 11. Nf3 Qd7!? An interesting novelty which puts new wine, so to say, in the old wineskins: 11. ... b4 12. Ne4 Ba6∞ Gelfand – Shirov, 3rd “Trophée Immopar” Rapid International Tournament, Paris 1992. 12. e4 Nb4 13. Qe2 Nd3

14. e5! White’s fianchettoed Bishop declares itself vehemently to Black’s Rook. 14. ... Bb7 15. exf6 Bxf6 16. Ne4 Na6 17. Ne5!?

Carlsen set fire to the powders in view of lines such as 17. ... Qxd4? 18. Nxf6+ Rxf6 19. axb5 or 17. ... Nxe5? 18. dxe5 Bxe5 19. Ng5! only to be caught by surprise by his opponent’s reply. Afterwards he had to admit he did not duly appreciate the strength of Black’s 18th move. However, four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) gives it full credit as being surely well calculated by 16th World Champion. 17. ... Bxe5! 18. dxe5 Nac5! 19. Nd6 Nb3 20. Rb1. Most commentators prefer 20. Be3 — in fact a dual mode Exchange sacrifice — and they alone know why. “Somehow the move 18. ... Nac5 just completely escaped my attention, so that was a pretty unpleasant surprise!”, Carlsen then said. “I did take some solace in the fact you usually need to work pretty hard to win such positions as Black and I thought I had at least some reasonable winning chances”. 20. ... Nbxc1 21. Rbxc1 Nxc1 22. Rxc1 Rab8! 23. Rd1 Ba8! “In general I thought it was a very puzzling and I would say that during the game I thought we both are playing not so well”, Nepomniachtchi said afterward. “But now I start thinking it was just very interesting and very chaotic”.

24. Be4! c3!? The most mysterious move in the game, even if apparently Black stood well enough to be able to afford it. On the other hand after 24. ... bxa4!? 25. Bxh7+ Kxh7 26. Qh5+ Kg8 27. Rd4 Qe7!∞. (in order to give up the Queen for the Rook should White play Rd4-h4) the situation is still highly unclear. 25. Qc2 g6 26. bxc3 bxa4 (26. ... Qg7!? 27. f4 g5) 27. Qxa4 Rfd8 28. Ra1 c5 29. Qc4 Bxe4 30. Nxe4 Kh8 31. Nd6 Rb6 32. Qxc5 Rdb8 33. Kg2 a6 34. Kh3 Rc6 35. Qd4 Kg8 36. c4 Qc7

37. Qg4. “I didn’t feel like I had any great [winning] chances, per se”, Carlsen said. “I did feel that my position was improving quite a bit. But when I went for this [37. Qg4], my time was ticking down a bit. I couldn’t really see a way to comfortably improve my position and that’s why I decided to basically force a draw there. It was probably the best position I had in the game, [but] I didn’t really see the way. Obviously after what had transpired earlier in the game, having a completely safe position was nice. In a must-win game, I might have treated it a bit differently”. 37. ... Rxd6 38. exd6 Qxd6 39. c5 Qxc5 40. Qxe6+ Kg7 41. Rxa6 Rf8 42. f4 Qf5+ 43. Qxf5 Rxf5 44. Ra7+ Kg8 45. Kg4 Rb5 46. Re7 Ra5 47. Re5 Ra7 48. h4 Kg7 49. h5 Kh6 50. Kh4 Ra1 51. g4 Rh1+ 52. Kg3 gxh5 53. Re6+ Kg7 54. g5 Rg1+ 55. Kf2 Ra1 56. Rh6 Ra4 57. Kf3 Ra3+ 58. Kf2 Ra4 ½ : ½.

“The games have been a bit atypical for both of us”, Carlsen eventually said. “They are not following any specific pattern. It’s just a fight”. Photo: Haider Ali/EPA.