Sunday, December 5th, 2021
Horror at train 21
Carlsen has a hand on the world chess title
“How can you play like that?” With his 21st move, the challenger Nepomnyashchi causes a shake of the head at the World Chess Championship. Before that, favorite Carlsen had gained a few advantages for himself with a variant that had never been played at this level.
Chess world champion Magnus Carlsen has taken the next big step towards defending his title with his second win. The 31-year-old Norwegian won the eighth game of the World Cup in Dubai two days after his first success against challenger Jan Nepomnyashchi. Experts speak of a preliminary decision for Carlsen, who now leads 5: 3.
His Russian challenger would need at least two wins from the remaining six games to get at least one jump-off. Carlsen has only lost twice in 53 World Cup games.
The defending champion opened with the king’s pawn, struck a variant against the Russian opening that had never been played at grandmaster level and quickly had a few small advantages.
Nepomnyashchi’s position was tenable until his 21st move, which was immediately and heavily criticized. “How can you play like that? Crazy!” Said Fabiano Caruana, 2018 World Cup challenger. Anish Giri, third in the Candidates’ tournament, excitedly stated: “Game over. A whole pawn gone and the position still bad. It’s easy lost. To mess up like that is crazy. Completely crazy. “
After 46 moves and around four hours of play, Nepomnyashchi, who was in an almost hopeless position, shook hands with Carlsen, giving up the game. Carlsen can therefore play safely in the next matches.
There are a maximum of 14 games, the starting right changes after each match. One point is awarded for a win and half a point for a draw. Whoever reaches 7.5 points first is world champion. Carlsen, who successfully defended his title in 2014, 2016 and 2018, has known his opponent since childhood.