Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, 31, retain-ed his world championship title last week as he defeated his Russian challenger, Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi 7.5 to 3.5 in a 14-game match. The prize money for the title match was €2 million.
Carlsen played unbeaten, drawing seven games and winning four. Hungarian Grandmaster Judit Polgar, the strongest woman chess player in history, who commentated the match, said Nepomniachtchi, in her estimation, was not alert enough. He was too calm. She added that when opportunities are given at the world championship level, they should be fully grasped.
This was Carlsen’s fifth defence of the title which he won in 2013 . He defeat-ed Viswanathan Anand for the crown and opposed him again when Anand won the next Candidates tourna-ment. Carlsen also defend-ed his title against Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana.
In 2014, he won the World Rapid Champion-ship and the World Blitz Championship in addition to the World Classical Championship, thereby becoming the first player to hold three titles simul-taneously. Carlsen repeated the feat in 2019.
Following his defeat of Nepomniachtchi, it was widely reported that Carlsen may opt out of defending the title again owing to a lack of moti-vation. He was reported to have said: “It doesn’t mean as much any more as it once did.” The only thing likely to persuade him otherwise is if 18-year-old Iranian-French Alireza Firouzja is his next challenger. But first, Firouzja has to win the next Candidates’ tourna-ment
Chess game
Magnus Carlsen won four games in the 2021 World Chess Championship Match. Here is his final victory.
White: Ian Nepomniachtchi
Black: Magnus Carlsen
Event: 2021 World Championship Match, Dubai, UAE, Round 11
Type of Game: Italian Game, Classical Variation
1. e4e5 2. Nf3Nc6 3. Bc4Nf6 4. d3Bc5 5. c3d6
6. O-Oa5 7. Re1Ba7 8. Na3h6 9. Nc2O-O
10. Be3Bxe3 11. Nxe3Re8 12. a4Be6 13. Bxe6Rxe6 14. Qb3b6 15. Rad1Ne7 16. h3Qd7 17. Nh2Rd8
18. Nhg4Nxg4 19. hxg4d5 20. d4exd4 21. exd5Re4 22. Qc2Rf4 23. g3dxe3 24. gxf4Qxg4+
25. Kf1Qh3+ 26. Kg1Nf5 27. d6Nh4 28. fxe3Qg3+ 29. Kf1Nf3 30. Qf2Qh3+ 31. Qg2Qxg2+
32. Kxg2Nxe1+ 33. Rxe1Rxd6 34. Kf3Rd2
35. Rb1g6 36. b4axb4 37. Rxb4Ra2 38. Ke4h5
39. Kd5Rc2 40. Rb3h4 41. Kc6h3 42. Kxc7h2
43. Rb1Rxc3+ 44. Kxb6Rb3+ 45. Rxb3h1=Q
46. a5Qe4 47. Ka7Qe7+ 48. Ka8Kg7 49. Rb6Qc5. 0-1. White resigns.
