A Day at a Time

Magnus Carlsen – Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi
World Chess Championship match game 10; Dubai, December 8, 2021
Russian Defence C42

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6. There were murmurs of surprise and disapproval at Nepomniachtchi’s reply. “Ian may be thinking later on Magnus will play for a win and he’ll get chances... or he’s just saying I’ll try and remain in games”. Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana speculates. 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nd3!? The Karklins-Martinovsky Variation, which is known and has been played by both duellists. 4. ... Nxe4 5. Qe2 Qe7. “The thing about these Qd1-e2 lines where we get a trade of Queens is that although they seem like the most boring lines in chess, in my games they’ve lead to some of my most interesting games... against Kramnik and against Magnus”, says Caruana. 6. Nf4 Nf6. The reference theory is 6. ... Nc6 7. Nd5 (7. c3 Nc5 8. d4 Qxe2+ 9. Bxe2 Ne6 10. d5 Nxf4 11. Bxf4 Ne5 should also be fine enough for Black, Nepomniachtchi – Vidit, 81st Tata Steel Chess Tournament, Wijk aan Zee 2019) 7. ... Nd4 8. Nxe7 Nxe2 9. Nd5 Nd4= Carlsen – Caruana, London 2018, World Chess Championship match game 6. 7. d4 Nc6!? Black abstains himself from exchaging Queens, at least for a while. 8. c3. 8. Be3, as invoked by most commentators, is naturally more ambitious and challenging, but Carlsen, being three points ahead, does not need to push. 8. ... d5!?TN (8. ... g5 9. Qxe7+ Nxe7 10. Ne2 h6 11. Ng3 Nf5 12. Bd3 Nxg3 13. hxg3 Bg7 14. Na3 Be6 15. Nc4 Nd5 16. Ne3 c5 17. Be4 Nxe3 18. Bxe3 d5 19. Bc2 cxd4 20. Bxd4 Bxd4 21. cxd4 Rc8 22. Bd3 Ke7 23. Kd2 Rc6 24. b3 a5 25. Rac1 Rxc1 26. Rxc1 Rc8 27. Rh1 Rh8 28. Rc1 Rc8 29. Rh1 Rh8 30. Rc1 ½ : ½ Bruzón Batista – So, 65th U.S. Chess Championship, Saint Louis 2021) 9. Nd2 Nd8 10. Nf3 Qxe2+. So here they are in the end! 11. Bxe2 Bd6 12. 0-0 0-0 13. Bd3 Re8 14. Re1 Rxe1+ 15. Nxe1 Ne6 16. Nxe6 Bxe6

17. g3 g6 18. Ng2 Re8 19. f3 Nh5 20. Kf2 c6 21. g4 Ng7 22. Bf4 Bxf4 23. Nxf4 g5. “There wasn’t that much to talk about”, Carlsen said afterwards. “I was fairly happy with the move [17. g3]. I kind thought I might be getting a very slight edge at that point. And then probably I needed to be a little more patient later on since I was kind of hoping that after allowing this [23. ... g5] to happen that I could provoke ... f7-f5-f4 maybe later on, then start pushing with h2-h4. But it all holds very well together for Black there, so there is nothing. I think if I played a little more patiently there I could have had the tiniest of edges, but naturally I would have hunted for it more diligently if the match situation had been different”. 24. Ne2 f5 25. h3 Kf7

Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) has little to say about today’s game, but much more about Nepomniachtchi’s earlier extraordinary mistakes: “He’s feeling exhausted... He’s lacking of this energetic, let’s say, power that’s helping him be very stable during the games and avoid those huge mistakes”. 26. Rh1 h6 27. f4 fxg4 28. hxg4 Bxg4 29. Rxh6 Bf5 30. Bxf5 Nxf5 31. Rh7+ Ng7 32. fxg5 Kg6 33. Rh3 Kxg5 34. Rg3+ Kf6 35. Rf3+ Ke7 36. Nf4 Kd6

37. Ng6. “This is a typical Magnus-thing that he does. Which is that when the game is going to a draw, and both players know it, then he starts playing for a win...”, says Caruana. 37. ... Re6 38. Ne5 Ne8 39. Rf7 Rf6+ 40. Rxf6+ Nxf6 41. Ke3 ½ : ½.

“Of course I will try to push with White in the next game”, Nepomniachtchi said after finally breathing out a sigh of relief. Photo © Eric Rosen.