It’s over. Magnus Carlsen has regained his title as World Chess Champion with three games to spare. The match is won, 7.5 for Carlsen to 3.5 to Nepo.
Excellent analysis once again provided by GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Robert Hess, and IM Daniel Rensch.
Personally, I’m going to do a lot less analysis of this one, because the dominant story of this matchup is simply how hard the challenger, Ian Nepomniachtchi has choked. The first game he lost, covered here, was a grueling affair, where he played extremely well, and simply lost to a dominant champion. The next two games he lost, covered here and here, were lost by Nepo through bizarre blunders that any 1500+ rated player would be embarrassed to make in a classical time format game.
Game 11 has come and gone, predictably ended by yet another Nepo blunder. This one is far more defensible, so more like something a 2200+ player would be embarrassed to play. In the below position, Nepo, with white, makes a blunder. Instead, try to find the best continuation for White.
After 22. Rf4
Simply taking the pawn on d4 with either the rook or the c pawn are fine, and must be played. Both lead to fairly simple draws, at least for this level. So it’s somewhat understandable that Nepo at least wanted to be aggressive.
Nepo pushed the pawn to g3. Try to find the best move for black in this position, to punish this move.
23. g3
Well, retreating the rook simply loses the pawn on d4 for free, so you must play something else.
23. g3 dxe3!
The exchange sacrifice. Black takes the knight on e3, allowing him to take the pawn on g4 with check.
The line ends here, with Carlsen now having multiple moves to play. Black does have a guaranteed draw in this position simply by Qh3+, Kg1, Qg4+, because the white king cannot go to e2. Try to figure out why that is.
Answer: if Ke2, then exf2 threatening the rook. If Kxf2, then Qh2+ skewers the king and queen, winning the queen. Rf1 is more complicated, but black is crushing in all lines. As one example, in the below position white must give up his queen to stave off mate. Try to see why.
It wouldn’t really be understandable that he would miss the exchange sacrifice, but he may have miscalculated and thought his king could escape through e2. For this level it’s a very bad blunder, but not the truly inexplicable like we saw in his prior two lost games.
In any case, the rest of the game is almost not worth commenting on. Carlsen simplified into a, for this level, easily winning rook endgame on move 33.
33. Rxd6
There were some nice tactics in the resulting endgame, such as below on move 44. What should black play?
44. Kxb6
Rb3+! Played in the game. This deflects the rook so the h pawn can promote. A common tactic in these types of endgames.
49. Qc5
Nepo resigned after move 49 by Carlsen. In the resulting position, he cannot save his rook and pawn without playing Ra6, which prevents his pawn from advancing, allowing black to capture on e3 for free.
All in all, it was more of a terrible performance by challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi than it was a masterful performance by Magnus Carlsen, but either way, Carlsen retains his crown.
The next WCC will be held in 2023.
