World Chess Championship: Nepo blunder hands Carlsen second win
Two victories for Carlsen with white pieces in the last three games leaves Nepo staring at a premature end to his challenge in the best-of-14-game title-match.
Published : Dec 05, 2021 22:35 IST
An uncharacteristic blunder on the 21st move from Ian Nepomniachtchi was enough for Magnus Carlsen to find a sound winning plan in Game 8 for a 5-3 lead in the World chess championship in Dubai on Sunday. Two victories for Carlsen with white pieces in the last three games leaves Nepo staring at a premature end to his challenge in the best-of-14-game title-match. In the remaining six games, Carlsen needs only 2.5 points to retain his world crown. When the action resumes on Tuesday, Nepo will play white in Game 9. Once Nepo’s error of judgement - with a push of a queenside pawn - occured in a balanced position following the opening lines of Petroff Defence, he not only lost a pawn but also fell into a streak of passive moves.
READ: Carlsen, getting better with every passing move, simplified the position further and had two extra pawns after the 35th move in the queen-and-pawn ending. “I think, this game is going to haunt Nepo for the rest of his life,” said Viswanathan Anand once Nepo reached a completely lost position and Carlsen continued to make his rival suffer. Carlsen continued to torture Nepo by taking his time for the moves while the Russian could do very little to improve his dead-lost position. Eventually, Nepo resigned on the 46th move.
Game 8 - The Moves White - Carlsen; Black - Nepomniachtchi 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4. Bd3 d5 5. Nxe5 Nd7 6. Nxd7 Bxd7 7. Nd2 Nxd2 8. Bxd2 Bd6 9. O-O h5 10. Qe1+ Kf8 11. Bb4 Qe7 12. Bxd6 Qxd6 13. Qd2 Re8 14. Rae1 Rh6 15. Qg5 c6 16. Rxe8+ Bxe8 17. Re1 Qf6 18. Qe3 Bd7 19. h3 h4 20. c4 dxc4 21. Bxc4 b5