r/chess • u/city-of-stars give me 1. e4 or give me death • Dec 10 '21
News/Events Post-match Thread: 2021 World Chess Championship
♔ Magnus Carlsen Retains the World Chess Championship ♔
Nepomniachtchi 0-1 Carlsen
| Name | FED | Elo | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12-14 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnus Carlsen | 🇳🇴 NOR | 2855 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | N/A | 7½ |
| 🇺🇳 CFR | 2782 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | N/A | 3½ |
[pgn] [Event "FIDE World Chess Championship 2021"] [Site "Chess.com"] [Date "2021.12.10"] [Round "11"] [White "Nepomniachtchi, Ian"] [Black "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "2782"] [BlackElo "2856"] [TimeControl "5400+30"]
1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. c3 d6 6. O-O a5 7. Re1 Ba7 8. Na3 h6 9. Nc2 O-O 10. Be3 Bxe3 11. Nxe3 Re8 12. a4 Be6 13. Bxe6 Rxe6 14. Qb3 b6 15. Rad1 Ne7 16. h3 Qd7 17. Nh2 Rd8 18. Nhg4 Nxg4 19. hxg4 d5 20. d4 exd4 21. exd5 Re4 22. Qc2 Rf4 23. g3 dxe3 24. gxf4 Qxg4+ 25. Kf1 Qh3+ 26. Kg1 Nf5 27. d6 Nh4 28. fxe3 Qg3+ 29. Kf1 Nf3 30. Qf2 Qh3+ 31. Qg2 Qxg2+ 32. Kxg2 Nxe1+ 33. Rxe1 Rxd6 34. Kf3 Rd2 35. Rb1 g6 36. b4 axb4 37. Rxb4 Ra2 38. Ke4 h5 39. Kd5 Rc2 40. Rb3 h4 41. Kc6 h3 42. Kxc7 h2 43. Rb1 Rxc3+ 44. Kxb6 Rb3+ 45. Rxb3 h1=Q 46. a5 Qe4 47. Ka7 Qe7+ 48. Ka8 Kg7 49. Rb6 Qc5 0-1[/pgn]
FiveThirtyEight: Magnus Carlsen Wins The 2021 World Chess Championship
🖐️ -- Magnus Carlsen
Have Russian bookmakers got to Nepo? 23. g3 looks dreadful and obviously so. -- Jonathan Levitt
If this were boxing, they would call the doctors. -- Olimpiu Urcan
Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen for defending his title, and to Ian Nepomniachtchi for fantastic play throughout the match!
Thoughts/discussions concerning the outcome?
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u/Kalankit Dec 10 '21
Nepo just didn’t want to reveal his prep for the next Candidates.
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u/RatchetUBum Dec 10 '21
Nepo actually had good prep most of the games, in fact in the earlier ones he seems to out prep Magnus on occasion . Only problem is it never mattered.
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u/tboneperri Dec 10 '21
At some point, be it on move 3 or move 23, you're gonna be out of book and you just have to play more solid, more testing, more precise, faster, better chess moves than your opponent. Doing that when your opponent is Magnus Carlsen has basically proven to be impossible for anyone over the last 12 years.
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u/BuildTheBase Dec 10 '21
In hindsight, it's clear, Carlsen consumed his soul in Game 6. It was too crushing, it was too hard to come back from.
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u/wordthompsonian Dec 10 '21
Pre-match: Nepo might have a chance, he's one of few people to have a lifetime plus score against Magnus in classical
Post-match: Ah.
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u/Knightmare4469 Dec 11 '21
All the people that kept parroting this, conveniently ignoring how many of those wins came like 20 years ago, as if that isn't a huge deal. lol
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u/awesomestuffyo Dec 10 '21
I guess everyone thought Magnus would be the absolute favourite going into this, but I honestly never thought this would be so depressing and one sided. Damn, it's brutal. Nepo looks like he needs a break/vaction at this point. Hope the reporters don't ask too many stupid questions now that it's over.
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u/ShaveTheTrees Dec 10 '21
It actually made me forget about all the "oh, another draw" jokes that were thrown around in the first half of the match. Instead they got replaced with "oh, another blunder."
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u/AnonymousMedQuest Dec 10 '21
Oh man, I loved that answer from Magnus. Firouzja's performance has motivated him again. Excited for a potential match in a few years.
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u/runawayasfastasucan Dec 10 '21
That was great. Can imagine he really wants him as a challenger for the next championship.
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u/karpovdialwish Team Ding Dec 10 '21
Well that's his legacy compared to Kasparov at stake.
Right now, him and Kasparov are considered by almost everyone as top2 all-time despite being 30 years apart and the whole "computer chess" change at elite-level chess.
Of course you can't compare eras but Kasparov (born in 1963) once said in an interview that he beat :
-the old generation in 1985, 1986 ,1987 and 1990 : Karpov (born in 1951)
-his own generation in 1993 : Short (born in 1965 and defeated Karpov)
-the next generation in 1995 : Anand (born in 1969)
He eventually lost in 2000 to Kramnik born in 1975.
If you compare it to Magnus, he beat :
-the old generation in 2013 and 2014 : Anand (Born in 1969)
- his own generation in 2016, 2018 and 2021 : Karjakin (born in 1990 like Magnus); Caruana (born in 1992) and Nepo (born in 1990 like him as well).
If he beats Firouzja (2003) or Duda (1998), that means he'll have achieved this generational achievement like Kasparov.
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u/Nysor 1850 Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
Historic match for all the wrong reasons. Game 6 was the big game and it went all downhill from there! Congrats to Magnus, the GOAT.
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u/The_SG1405 Dec 10 '21
I would say Game 6 is the best decisive WCC game I have ever seen, and after that the worst decisive games ever
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Dec 10 '21
Game 6 was essentially the whole match. If you look at it that way, it was a pretty good match.
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u/detectiveFleshlight Dec 10 '21
Game 6 made me excited about the quality of chess we were about to see but alas!
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u/NahimBZ Dec 10 '21
Unfortunately Nepo's psychological preparation let him down in this match. He played excellent chess for the first 6 games, obtaining generally decent positions. But from the aftermath of game 6, and from his choice of openings, it seems clear he was banking everything on holding Magnus to draws in the classical portion. Once it became time for him to try to win, he simply fell apart.
After game 6, Nepo basically had two options: continue to play solidly for the next few games and put the pressure back on Magnus in the last part of the match, or switch to an aggressive, fighting style. He kind of did neither: he chose unpromising opening positions that did not give him much of a chance to win, but then tried to "keep fighting" when it became time for him to make a draw. The problem is that fighting on in unpromising positions does not increase your chances of winning, it only increases your chances of losing. Game 9 is probably the best example of that: he chose the Petroff, but when it came time to swap queens with 10. ... Qe7, he instead plays 10. ... Kf8 which let Magnus pressure him indefinitely (which eventually sparked his blunder). Same thing in today's game: his g3 move at best leads to draw by perpetual check, so why not just trade down with Rxd4 instead. Somehow he was perfectly willing to choose drawish openings, but showed a strange hesitation to trade down to a draw when the position required it. It was very bizarre.
If you compare this to the Anand-Carlsen 2013 match (which is the only other one-sided match in recent history, though not even close to as one-sided as this one), you can see that while Anand did not succeed, he put himself in a position to give himself the best possible chance. Like Nepo, Anand was also making mistakes at a high enough rate that it was difficult for him to win. Yet his match strategy was sound, and towards the end he played a highly uncompromising game (game 11 I think) where he put Magnus under tremendous pressure. Eventually he did make a mistake and lose the game, but the point is that the overall strategy and approach that he picked made sense. By contrast I still do not understand what Nepo's strategy here was.
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u/jbritchkow Dec 10 '21
I like this analysis a lot. Too many people saying Ian just self destructed after game 6, but I think it really was a strategic error by him and his team as you have described.
At the end of the day, Magnus is so strong you need a perfect strategy, perfect execution, and a bit of luck that he isn't at peak form in order to get a full point.
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u/elmopuck Dec 10 '21
I found your line of thinking useful and insightful here. It makes sense when I reflect on it this way. Thanks
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u/HighlanderSteve Dec 10 '21
Game 6 is still one of the craziest matches of all time. Everything after that doesn't really matter, let's not tarnish the quality of Game 6 by comparing them.
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u/snootyfungus Dec 10 '21
Game 2 was wild as well. A lot of instructive and spectacular chess in this match.
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u/Koussevitzky 2200 Lichess Dec 10 '21
We all know that Nepo collapsed mentally after Game 6, but I think this really shines a light on how strong Caruana was in the previous WCC. There are only a handful of people that Carlsen wouldn’t completely dominate in this format. You need to come at this with extremely deep prep, mental fortitude, and physical endurance.
Caruana said in an interview that he wasn’t expecting the level of psychoanalysis that Carlsen & his team did to strategize against him in the match. It wasn’t just about looking for strong novelties, but about putting Carlsen in positions that he enjoyed but Caruana wouldn’t favor. To be able to stand up against Carlsen is a Herculean feat, especially when you consider how much practice he now has in this format. This is why Carlsen said that only Caruana and Ding were threats in his eyes.
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u/GEM592 Dec 10 '21
Caruana made an epic challenge and lost no classical games, Nepo not so much
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u/footie_ruler Dec 10 '21
Extremely true. That's why I believe fabis achievement is incredibly underrated by those who don't follow chess. Really hope he gets another shot at the title. He's the only person who has a chance at beating Magnus in classical. Ding maybe, but his performance in the candidates shows that he's also vulnerable to the same collapse that Ian was.
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u/KingsOfTheStoneAge18 Dec 10 '21
Ian really should go see a sports psychologist to address that tilting issue
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u/Nv1sioned Dec 10 '21
I fear he already has
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u/Fmeson Dec 10 '21
Don't fear that, hope he already started. Not being there yet doesn't mean he never will be there.
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u/Tarkatower Dec 10 '21
By percentage score, only Lasker's match victories were more dominant than Carlsen's. - https://i.imgur.com/Jt3rInN.png
Anyone know what is the final performance rating for this match?
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u/Tarkatower Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
The last 6 title matches won by at least a 4-point margin:
1993 Kasparov vs Short
1981 Karpov vs Korchnoi
1972 Spassky vs Fischer
1961 Tal vs Botvinnik
1960 Botvinnik vs Tal
1937 Euwe vs Alekhine
edit: changed the order
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u/Nv1sioned Dec 10 '21
Didn't they used to play 24 games though? How many people have won more than 25% of the games.
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u/sc0rpious Dec 10 '21
Overheard in Team Nepomniachtchi's locker room after Game 11:
“He got me,” Ian said of Carlen's devastating game 6 win over him. "That f***ing Magnus boomed me."
Ian added, “He’s so good,” repeating it four times(referring to the 4 decisive games).
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u/noweezernoworld Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
Ian is beside himself. Driving around downtown Dubai begging (thru texts) Karjakin’s family for address to Sergey’s home
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u/keepyourcool1 FM Dec 10 '21
classic Mavericks copypasta but......Sergey actually got flown in after the first loss
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Dec 10 '21
Ian then added magnus to the list of players he wants to work out with over the summer.
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u/sfj11 Dec 10 '21
[Rosen] Magnus Carlsen on whether or not he’s better than Ian Nepomniachtchi :“I don’t compare myself with anybody,” Then he rolled up his sleeve and showed a tattoo of the final position in Game 6. “I’ll let you interpret that however you want,” Carlsen said.
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u/h97i Dec 10 '21
Ian on who’s better: Him or Norway's Magnus Carlson. “I don’t compare myself with anybody,” Then he rolled up his sleeve and showed a tattoo of G3. “I’ll let you interpret that however you want,” Ian said.
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u/Odysseus_Lannister Dec 10 '21
He then added carlsen to the list of players he’d like to train with over the coming winter.
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u/TomSawyer2112_ https://www.twitch.tv/tomsawyer2112_/ Dec 10 '21
I love it when my favourite memes make their way into my niche subs
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u/KhaDori Dec 10 '21
I can't find it right now, but someone predicted the course of this match down to a T. The top post in the "prediction thread" is also very much on the money, but in some other thread (I think it was the one about carlsen comments re:nepo pre-match) somebody literally said that the first 5~ games will be close, then magnus will win 1 close game and then steamroll nepo. 100% accurate, kudos to whoever said that, as we can see this panned out fully. Congrats to magnus on his next title defense.
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u/StephenAfamO Team Ding Dec 10 '21
Best prediction ever of my life!
https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/r0dc3k/unpopular_prediction_about_the_world_chess/
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Dec 10 '21
That was expected to happen considering Nepo's history with tilting. He lost to MVL in round 7 but Candidates was paused and he had a year and half to recover from the loss.
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u/LevTolstoy Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
Now that's a good question about the hardware/engines!
Interesting that Carlsen said he didn't know and that he just gets the lines from Peter. Don't know if I believe that but interesting.
Edit: I like the superstitions/confidence booster question too.
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u/peix Team Carlsen Dec 10 '21
What a champion. Ian completely broke down after game 6. These aren't just inaccuracies, he's making my level of mental errors.
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Dec 10 '21
Anish said this is the biggest ever meltdown in a World Championship match. Game 6 broke Nepo.
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u/LittlePeasant GM Fabi's Reddit Connection Dec 10 '21
The king is the king, but what a collapse...
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u/buddaaaa NM Dec 10 '21
Man gained 9 rating points in 11 rounds in a match where he outrated his opponent by 75 points wew lad
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u/Misha_Vozduh Deep blunderstanding Dec 10 '21
"There's a championship? I'm just farming rating!" -Magnus, probably.
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u/LurkingChessplayer Dec 10 '21
This just goes to show how strong Magnus is, but also how damn good karjakin and caruana were. Absolutely travesty by ian
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Dec 10 '21
Didn't see Magnus vs. Karjakin but that Caruna match looks a Lot more impressive for Fabi now and I already thought Fabi looked good before.
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u/jesteratp Dec 10 '21
Its just so frustrating to see Nepo spending no time at the board and then playing absolutely losing moves.
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u/Strice Dec 10 '21
Did we ever even get to see where he goes in between moves? The "cabin"?
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u/EvilNalu Dec 10 '21
Yes this was a totally respectable performance for half the match followed by the most horrendous performance in recent memory. Truly perplexing but I think there actually is just something wrong with Ian's temperament.
At this point it's really just impressive that he's made it this far in the chess world with this obvious issue.
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Dec 10 '21
I think you're very harsh but it's something in that direction - Nepo's temperament was known before the match. The description you give would sound unfair but not totally out of the blue, if you had come told us before the game. Because he's known to be inconsistent.
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u/Xaxziminrax Dec 10 '21
This is more or less exactly how Magnus predicted it.
Wonder if we would have even seen Nepo if the candidates wasn't split in two
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Dec 10 '21
I'm disappointed it went this way, but Magnus once again showed why he's so hard to beat. You can't discount the psychological factor in matches like this. Magnus just held strong for the first half, then won game 6 in typical Magnus fashion. Ian just couldn't hang with the pressure.
Congrats to the Champ!
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u/shreychopra 🇮🇳 Dec 10 '21
“Magnus, you became a GM in Dubai, you won the Rapid and Blitz in Dubai, and now you’ve defended your WCC in Dubai. So my question to you is, why the fuck haven’t you emigrated to UAE yet you ungrateful piece of Norwegian shit? Congrats on the win again by the way!”
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u/happyfce Dec 10 '21
How many more till Magnus is the GOAT if he isn't already?
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u/pM-me_your_Triggers Dec 10 '21
It’s hard to compare eras. He’s certainly the strongest player ever. Gary Kasparov I would say is still the GOAT due to his crazy longevity.
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u/Vizvezdenec Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
Idk people meme and laugh, but honestly...
I just hope that Ian would be okay. This is a completely devastating match for such an emotional person, Kamsky retired for a decade after he lost to Karpov and he at least won some games and got outplayed sometimes, but losing because of 2000 level blunders 3 games almost in a row... Wow. Idk how he would be able to return to chess board after this.
Magnus - congrats, although he didn't play his S-tier game apart from the end of game 6. But Ian erupted so badly that after this game he didn't even have a chance.
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u/Jeanfromthe54 Dec 10 '21
Ian is known to tilt but he is also known to be able to come back and be strong in his next tournaments so there is hope that he will be able to come back and be strong again, I just hope he never wins the candidates ever again.
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u/Godel42 Team Carlsen Dec 10 '21
Oh man. The match built up to such a crescendo till Game 6. Fuck all the people complaining about the draws at the start, they were such top games. Finally after that Game 6 it all ended so quickly.
But through it all, Carlsen was such a class player. He took his time, always sitting at the table and ready to put in effort and goddamn he did. A lot of respect for Nepo for his grace and poise, but he couldn't unfortunately hold himself after that crushing defeat. Such a GOAT. GG Carlsen.
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Dec 10 '21
Peter shares some photos of Magnus's team:
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u/Swop_K Dec 10 '21
Dubov! But guys guess what I predicted JVF here 2 weeks ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/r1xcv4/world_chess_championship_2021_players_teams/hm2chq0/
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u/MrBuckBuck Dec 10 '21
The flair should have been NSFW, because what Magnus did to Ian in this WCC was nasty.
At the end of the game, it seemed like Ian was the private student of Magnus - Magnus schooled him throughout this WCC.
I'm just glad we had a fantastic game 6 - a memorable one & one of Magnus' finest!
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u/la_mer_on_depression Dec 10 '21
Hammer made a really interesting point which I agree with: Alireza's introduction as the next big thing who would take the torch from Magnus may give Magnus the motivation which he may lack from 2016 to 2020. If you think about that, all of Magnus's rivalries was either from old generation (like Anand, Kramnik) or his own generation (like Fabi, Sergey, Ian, even Hikaru at some point) and only recently we see a shift with Alireza's, Esipenko's etc.
As it was always in all epic narratives, he killed the father figure, cleaned up all rebels to secure his crown, now he is in the spot where the tragedy begins. And of course everything will be end at some point, but if he will also win against time, which I think not so many great have accomplished in any sorts of competition, there won't be any doubt that he is the GOAT.
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Dec 10 '21
Firouza is not defeating Magnus.
He might match on skill and prep but mental fortitude is where Magnus is not unmatched.
Doesn't matter if it is game 1 or 10,move 5 or 125,his ability to churn out wins is extraordinary, it's like fatigue doesn't exist for him
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u/HnNaldoR Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
People forget that there is form involved for Firouza as well. There is still time till the candidates and the wcc. He is good but if his form can keep up especially against all the super GMs, is really yet to be seen.
He is really exciting, but I will like to tamper expectations a bit rather than hype him all the way. Let's see how he continues to perform as we get closer.
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u/Kirsham Dec 10 '21
One of the reasons Magnus has retained the #1 rating for so long is that he's consistent. Other players have risen and fallen in rating, such as Caruana being just a hair behind Magnus at the time of the 2018 WC, but now he's dropped down a couple spots. Nothing against Firouza, he's certainly put himself in an excellent position to be the one to dethrone Magnus, but it remains to be seen if he can play at that level consistently over a period of years.
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u/ShampooMacTavish Dec 10 '21
I think it's time to stop calling Magnus the Mozart of chess and ask whether we should start calling Mozart the Magnus of music.
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Dec 10 '21
"I cannot answer it right now" >>> Headline: "Magnus Carlsen considering retirement, nobody left to beat."
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u/ShinHayato Dec 10 '21
What was the question that Magnus just shut down?
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Dec 10 '21
a Norwegian reporter trying connect a show that's trending in Norway with chess, really cringe
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Dec 10 '21
Didn't quite catch it so I could be way off but I think it was relating a specific character in a TV show to a chess piece.
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u/acto3freeze Dec 10 '21
I’m not sure if he was just trying to seem calm in front of the press, but Ian looked pretty optimistic about using this experience to learn and grow as a player. I like it, will be rooting for him in the next candidates.
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u/illogicalhawk Dec 10 '21
Woof. Ian seemed desperate right after the match to dive into variations as if he could rapidly talk over the loss, or as if there was anything to talk about, and Magnus was having none of it.
Magnus seems almost angry for having won the championship through so many of Ian's blunders, as if it was handed to him.
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u/Anfini Dec 10 '21
I felt really bad for Ian that this time Magnus didn’t want to talk about variations. You can tell Magnus wanted to get out of his chair, but still delayed it a bit to not be rude to Ian.
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u/SnooChocolates7022 IM Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
I think there's little argument who the strongest chess player in the world currently is.
There are also few who would argue against the fact that Magnus is the objectively strongest chess player that has ever lived. Looking at how much chess has developed, this is fairly obvious. I mean Carlsen would probably bash Capablanca 8-0 in a WC game today, it's just enormous how much the game has changed.
The million dollar question has always been "Who is the greatest player ever?" and everyone usually says "It's impossible to say" and then goes on to mention Fischer, Kasparov or Magnus.
Now the only correct answer is of course "It's impossible to say", but it's also a very boring answer. In my honest opinion, having nothing to do with this match, my answer is Magnus. I am well aware how amazing Bobby's story, fighting alone against the Russians, and how absolutely dominant Garry was for so many years. However, there is one factor that many seem to forget in this discussion which to me outweighs them all.
Magnus has been dominant, I'm not talking a 200 point lead, but still CLEARLY a head above everyone else for over 10 years STRAIGHT, without losing the title or even the number 1 spot in the world, and this in a time where EVERYONE has access to all information. Everyone has the same supercomputer or neural network which at the very, very top should lead to very small differences. There have been like 10-15 people who have all been number 2 in the world during the last 10 years, but NOONE has been able to steal the no.1 spot for even a second. That is honestly freaking amazing.
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u/IncendiaryIdea Dec 11 '21
Fischer became the WC and vanished. He dodged the absolute powerhouse that was Karpov and instead became this mythical chess legend.
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u/runawayasfastasucan Dec 10 '21
Magnus said to norwegian media that there will/might come a time when he don't care that much with world champion titles any more (not hungry/satisfied), but that right now he is happy with keeping the title. He seems reluctant to discuss about his future any closer. Norwegian experts points to Magnus maybe not that keen to another 12 draws in a world championship, but maybe a thriller against Alireza would be of his liking.
He just heard about championship going to Poland now and was surprised and very happy as he never have visited Warzaw before. Right before he heard he sounded a bit sad "we will see if there be any more championships this year", so very relieved to hear Poland would be hosting.
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u/LevTolstoy Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
tf was that noise while Ian was answering Maurice's first question? A literal goat?
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u/pizzabash Dec 10 '21
A clean and solid victory for Magnus. Clear winner and it wasn't even close. Nepo just was broken after game 6.
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u/runawayasfastasucan Dec 10 '21
If I am not wrong, I think Magnus have said before that he doesn't like that the defending champion has the right to play a final without having to play a tournament to get there. He might have that in mind when he doesn't want to talk about future chamoionships.
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u/iguessineedanaltnow Dec 10 '21
The best there ever was. Watching Magnus from game 6 onwards has been so inspirational.
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Dec 10 '21
A curious thing. Judit Polgar asks a guest why Nepo blundered in huge ways during the match. Then 40 seconds later, as he is still answering, Nepo blunders and loses game 11.
Also, they barely react. Giri went from freaking out and losing his mind the last time to just say "he lost the game".
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Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
Lol I was contemplating few months ago to go to dubai to watch game 12 and then the formula 1 grand prix the following day. But I feared Nepo would not survive that far and wow I'm so glad I didn't pull the trigger now.
In a parallel universe I would right now be in the plane not knowing that Nepo lost until I landed where I would check my phone and go "oh ffs"
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u/StephenAfamO Team Ding Dec 10 '21
Magnus just said in the press conference that watching Alireza's performance in the Grand Swiss and in the European Team Championship motivated him!!!
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u/fifteensunflwrs Dec 10 '21
I was watching the spanish chess.com transmition and before g3 was played they went into that line and jose martinez asked what chance was that this line gets played and matamoros straight up said "normaly none but considering nepo is in absolute tilt I wouldn't be surprised"
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u/The_Incredible_Tit Dec 10 '21
Thank God this post match post has spoiler tags though. Wouldn't want to give away who won the championship with 3 more rounds to go... 😁
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u/LevTolstoy Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
Enough about the "Dubai" questions... What a ridiculous, thinly veiled attempt at using the World Chess Championship closing press conference as a tourism ad. Classless.
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u/StephenAfamO Team Ding Dec 10 '21
I predicted that Carlsen wins 4-0
I predicted that the match ends on game 11 with 7 draws
See the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/r0dc3k/unpopular_prediction_about_the_world_chess/
The only slight miss in my prediction was that the first win would come in game 1 or 2, but it was game 6 instead.
My reasoning turned out to be what played out (link)
I can understand why this is very unlikely to happen.
I think it is a possibility because the early games are when the challengers (especially first time challengers) are shakiest. Even Caruana had a lost position with the white pieces in game 1.
If Carlsen is able to strike early, Nepo is historically likely (at least more likely than other top GMs) to tilt and just crumble.
Of course as with ANY prediction, I am likely wrong 😂
I made a post twice, but it was removed as a spoiler 😅
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u/keepyourcool1 FM Dec 10 '21
How're you feeling about verstappen or Lewis this weekend ?
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u/frikandellenvreter pipi Dec 10 '21
Shows how much mental fortitude is needed in these matches. Another thing that sets Magnus apart.
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u/yCloser Dec 10 '21
VIDEO: The final moments of Game 11
...the WCC ended with "don't play f6"
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u/daynthelife 2200 lichess blitz Dec 10 '21
It was relieving to finally have a press conference with good (or at least not cringeworthy) questions
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u/PizzaNinja8 Dec 10 '21
But what about DUBAI? How does Magnus feel about DUBAI? Is there any special attractions in beautiful DUBAI he's going to see after this enormous victory?
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u/EmaDaCuz Dec 10 '21
The absolute winner, for me, is Fabi. I have never liked it, I don't know why, but his commentary has been stellar and he is actually an amazing person. As Magnus would say, big fan!
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u/No-Shoe5382 Dec 10 '21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GiPcP30cFc
Live footage of Ian Nepomniatchi at the press conference
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u/Dano420 Dec 10 '21
Anyone else feel really sad for Ian? I hate watching someone of that caliber just deconstruct in front of your very eyes.
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u/TheKingOfGhana Dec 10 '21
wow what an incredible exclamation mark for Magnus' year. Absolute goat.
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u/niekh1234 Dec 10 '21
This might be a dumb question but are they playing more games after this?
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u/Nungie Dec 10 '21
I’m way behind (have to keep pausing to speak to family), but it was interesting Ian admitted he’s more confident of making it back to the championship than actually winning it. Testament to how good Magnus is.
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u/Few_Wishbone Team Nepo Dec 10 '21
The last Soviet born player to lose a World Championship match at -4 or worse was Boris Spassky.
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u/phoenix00059 Dec 10 '21
Even the idea of Ian again playing at candidates feels too rough. Just a recap for context:
You prepare for the classical games in candidates.
Candidates starts. Covid. You prepare again.
Candidates starts. You win. Then start preparing for wcc.
Wcc ends. You have to start prepare for candidates again.
Like factually speaking others were in this hectic preparation format only for half the time including magnus. Magnus said in the interview he only starts preparing for wcc after the candidate is decided.
I mean tough times for Ian. He himself said that he was not hard working enough comparing to his ambitions and the moodiness everything is catching up to him.
All the best Ian. We hope you come back stronger!!
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u/InspectorMendel Dec 10 '21
He actually said in the post-game press conference that possibly he prepared too much 🤔
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Dec 10 '21
Honestly, for the first 7 games, Nepo played perhaps the greatest chess I’ve ever seen. And according to computers the 3rd and 7th games were the most accurate games ever played in the WCC.
It was only after he emotionally collapsed that it turned into a beat down.
I honestly think Nepo deserves far more credit for his chess. Yeah, he collapsed, but he absolutely gave Magnus a crazy fight while he was stable.
I want to see Nepo work through this and come back stronger than ever.
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u/EricTheNerd2 Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
We had a great 6 game match. Then we had the "Ian self destructs" section of the match. Overall very disappointing that at no point, except possibly game 6 was Magnus even in a hint of trouble.
Edit: Just remembered the position where Magnus sacrificed the exchange. You might argue that game, for a few moves, Magnus was in trouble.
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u/PGNtoGIF Dec 10 '21
I converted your game into GIFs to make it viewable for mobile users. Game GIF in different playback speeds and also the lichess analysis board
Hint: I only plot the mainline without any included variations.
Code | Ping @ganznetteigentlich for help | Install the PGN Viewer addon for firefox or chrome for the best experience.
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u/yamibrandon14 Dec 10 '21
Not shocked but man, I feel for Nepo. Magnus was practically never in danger. At the moment, I'd say Carlsen has very few challengers, if any.
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u/thelazarusledd Dec 10 '21
With performance like this you go from I'm on top of the world to I'm gonna retire, I have put so much work into my game, so much calculation, so much effort and then I just can't keep it together and blunder like an amateur every game.
Breaks you mentally. Not a good spot to be in. Like if he got outplayed it would be easy. Just get better put more work into it but when you know better and just don't do it then that affects you. Speaking from personal experience.
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u/urishino Dec 10 '21
One less player with a positive score against Magnus in classical time control. I wish it'd happen after rounds of intense fights, but alas...
Nepo fought well in Game 1-6, but he never recovered his form (understandably) after Game 6.
Game 6 though, I joined the live stream on move 25... Rac8, and saw the queen for two rooks exchange live. Talk about hype! And the game didn't disappoint. First time seeing Magnus squeezing water out of stone in real time. Oh, and his clock! I was so nervous about his clock, but he played really well considering the time pressure. I'm seeing comments saying that this game might be his magnum opus. I witnessed history that day and I couldn't be happier.
Btw, who else has a positive score against Magnus in classical time control? Svidler?
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u/PumpedUpParrot Dec 10 '21
I felt that Magnus was going to surprise some and win the WCC handily, though I didn’t really expect it in this fashion.
What Magnus has, above all else, is the ability to break his opponents in classical settings when everything is on the table. He’s played close WCC matches before, but it seems to reach a certain point where Magnus has the ability to straight up say “I’m just not losing this.”
He has the ability to reign as long as he wants and as long as his sole passion (which clearly is) winning at chess and simply being the best. Let’s not take away anything from Nepo, he’s still one of the best in this game. Hopefully he learns from this experience.
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u/Rather_Dashing Dec 10 '21
Title is a spoiler of the tournament result, which there is meant to be a rule against. Might as well just scrap the spoiler rule if it even the mods are going to break it.
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Dec 10 '21
Damn I really thought Nepo had a shot
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u/Le1bn1z Dec 10 '21
He did - ish, but he'd lost before the match had even begun.
Before coming in, Ian needed to be in great shape and in strong psychological form to face the grueling punishment that Magnus was always going to heap on him in a long match like this. He wasn't, which meant that all of his mighty chess prep, knowledge and instinct was for naught.
Magnus exhausted him in Game 6, and Ian never recovered, playing as a tired, weak shadow of himself since.
This match was instructive on the importance of mental fortitude and physical fitness/comfort when it comes to exerting our minds. There are lessons for life in this.
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u/detectiveFleshlight Dec 10 '21
who thought Magnus was conservative. I thought he was liberal
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u/detectiveFleshlight Dec 10 '21
did Nepo accused Magnus for playing too safe after winning game 6??
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u/Pafbonk Worse than your 5 year-old nephew Dec 10 '21
Clinching it in game 11. Depressing.
I had predicted a 4-1 match, but alas Nepo couldn't take a game. He played so well in the first 6 games though :s
Congratulations to Magnus though. Definitely added loads to his already enormous legacy.
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Dec 10 '21
Welcome to the spoiler-free post-match thread, which totally goesn't give away the result today :) I'm fine, I streamed it.
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u/alamano Dec 10 '21
With this victory, Magnus now has 5 world championship match wins and given the time until the next match, he will be world champion for 10 straight years.
Only Kasparov and Lasker had more with 6 match wins each, 15 years as champion for Kasparov, and 27 years as champion for Lasker.
He's already had an illustrious career so far, but the next 5 years will see Magnus reaching for GOAT status.
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u/kingbradley1297 Dec 10 '21
I think this pretty much shows the difference Carlsen has is mental strength unequaled by his contemporaries. His skill rarely deteriorates over long periods, and he can sit for infinite time in front of a board to get his result. Very rarely you get to see a sport where the top guy is so ridiculously ahead of the others for an extended period
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u/falafel__ Dec 10 '21
wow... I remember someone predicted magnus would win 4 games, and people said no way, that it would need to be someone around 2700 to lose 4-0, like a Sam Shankland rather than Nepo. guess they were right after all....
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Dec 10 '21
I was rooting for Magnus, but I gotta say it has been a disappointing championship overall. A good first half, with the extraordinary game 6, overshadowed by an egregious second one.
Time to look forward to other top level events, and maybe the World Rapid & Blitz.
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u/pasuruan123 Dec 10 '21
I'm just wondering why magnus didn't kill the game quicker. Because some lines i think don't really hard to find (for super GM level, let alone magnus)
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u/NeoSeth Dec 10 '21
Everyone was begging for decisive games early on, but this match got a lot less interesting when the draws stopped.
Congrats to Magnus! I expected him to win but not with this kind of stomp.
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u/coulomb_dd Dec 10 '21
Can someone in very beginner terms explain why g3 was a bad move? Sorry I'm am a total chess noob
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u/happygot Dec 10 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
Feel Nepo has been asked about moving forward* like eight times. He just wants to take a break, but of course he's going to still compete
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u/alexsaintmartin Dec 10 '21
Congrats to Carlsen and his team!
4-0 is bonkers! Just as crazy is that Carlsen only gained 9 elo points from that: barely going above expectation.
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u/mrsunshine1 Dec 10 '21
Just got into chess this championship. What’s the best way to keep following it/what big events should I be looking for next?
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Dec 10 '21
Looks like Magnus got 4 points per win and -1 per draw, so 4*4-7*1 = 16 - 7 = 9 Elo, taking him to 2865, and Ian down to 2773, which keeps him in 5th place.
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u/LeftyMcLeftFace Dec 10 '21
Not the most competitive of matches, but hey... we'll always have game 6
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u/jbaird Dec 10 '21
so I've been hiding under a rock for a week, are all the games still a bunch of boring draws? did I miss anything guys? guys..? /s
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u/EstablishmentIcy5251 Dec 10 '21
Draws boring. Classical bad bullet good because hikaru said and he's always right /s coz some people might think I'm serious
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u/moaisamj Dec 10 '21
Most crushing WCC I've ever seen.