Half a Candle

Magnus Carlsen – Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi

World Chess Championship match game 4; Dubai, November 30, 2021
Russian Defence C42

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6. The most homeopathic antidote to 1. e4. 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. 0-0 0-0 8. c4 c6 9. Re1 Bf5 10. Qb3. Another continuation is 10. Nc3 Nxc3 11. bxc3 Bxd3 12. Qxd3 dxc4 13. Qxc4 b5 14. Qd3 Nd7 15. Bg5 Qc7 16. Be7 Bxe7 17. Rxe7 Qd6 18. Rae1 Nf6 19. c4 bxc4 (⌓ 19. ... Qb4) 20. Qxc4 Nd5 21. Rb7 Rfb8 22. Qb3 Rxb7 (⌓ 22. ... Qc7!!) 23. Qxb7 Nb6 24. Qxa8+! Nxa8 25. Re8+ Qf8 26. Rxf8+ Kxf8 27. Ne5 with a favourable, if not winning, ending for White, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – Čmilytė, 12th European Women’s Chess Club Cup, Kemer 2007. 10. ... Qd7 11. Nc3 Nxc3 12. Bxf5 Qxf5 13. bxc3. “This 13. bxc3 instead of 13. Qxb7 is a little bit rare”, Carlsen then said. “This whole plan, it’s pretty dangerous for him. The computer shows theories in many lines, but practically it’s not so easy. I thought what he went for looked a bit dangerous, but I couldn’t see it so I assume it was just a draw”. If, instead, 13. Qxb7 then 13. ... Qd7 14. Qxd7 (14. Qxa8?? Na4−+) 14. ... Nxd7 15. c5 Bxh2+! 16. Nxh2 Ne4 17. Bf4 Rfc8 18. f3 Nef6 19. Re3 Nf8 20. Rd1 Ne6 21. Be5 Nd7 22. Bd6 Nf6 23. Nf1 g6 24. Ng3 Ne8 25. Be5 a5 26. Ne2 a4 27. Ra3 f6 28. Bg3 N8c7 29. Bxc7 Nxc7 30. Nc3 Rcb8 31. Rxa4 Rxb2 32. Rxa8+ Nxa8 33. Rb1 Rxb1+ 34. Nxb1 Nc7 ½ : ½ Anand – Fedoseev, 81st Tata Steel Chess Tournament, Wijk aan Zee 2019.

13. ... b6 14. cxd5 cxd5 15. Qb5 Qd7 16. a4 Qxb5 17. axb5 a5 18. Nh4!? “18. Nh4 is fascinating. I didn’t know this move and this is probably an excellent idea from Magnus Carlsen”, Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana said.

“There are insanely complicated lines”, Carlsen said afterwards about his 18th move — in fact a novelty. “The approach that [Nepomniachtchi] chose is not the only one that Black can choose. In other variations it’s insanely complicated and really, really risky for black. To be honest, the one he chooses, it looks really, really risky to leave the Knight on f8 and bank everything on the a-Pawn. If you’ve miscalculated something, you just lose without any chances. But it’s a lot easier of course when you’ve studied it and you know that it’s a draw and you can kind of work it out from there. But believe me, there are many, many other options for Black that lead to much more complications than what happened in the game”. 18. ... g6 19. g4 Nd7 20. Ng2 Rfc8 21. Bf4 Bxf4 22. Nxf4 Rxc3 23. Nxd5 Rd3 24. Re7 Nf8 25. Nf6+ Kg7 26. Ne8+ Kg8

27. d5. “I think there is either draw with 27. Nf6+ or 27. d5”, says Caruana. 27. ... a4 28. Nf6+ Kg7 29. g5 a3 30. Ne8+ Kg8 31. Nf6+ Kg7 32. Ne8+ Kg8 33. Nf6+ ½ : ½. “I believe [18. Nh4!?] is a very interesting try. Perhaps I even want to play this as White one day. But in general the task was more about not to mix up things and not to do something stupid, because as far as I know this line is more or less safe for Black. Of course I was checking twice everything and also calculating a lot, but in general I think this is quite safe”, Nepomniachtchi eventually said.

“I wouldn’t say I was frustrated”, Carlsen finally said. “I was just trying and I didn’t find it. It seemed pretty normal”. Photo © Niki Riga.