The game lasted almost eight hours and it showed Magnus at his very best: using excellent endgame technique and being willing to keep playing basically forever. This was the longest World Championship game in history, I think, at least so far. Here’s what Wesley had to say about the game, along with his gargantuan set of notes to the game. In a rather fortunate turn of events, today’s guest annotator is none other than World # U.S. Soon he was extending his hand in resignation. After truly impressive defensive efforts, Nepomniachtchi’s final errors came on move 130. The tablebases thought that Black could hold with best play, but ‘best play’ and ‘moves made while your clock is ticking’ are two completely different things. Soon Carlsen gave back a rook for pawn and bishop, reaching a position only he could win. After some mutual errors just before the time control, the players settled in for what would be a very long game.Ĭarlsen surprised many commentators with his two f-pawn pushes on moves 59 and 60, but for the slight weakening of his king safety, he gained space and put continual pressure on Nepomniachtchi’s shattered pawns. It was the longest game ever played at a World Championship - the former record was held by GMs Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi for their 124 move draw in Baguio.Īfter a deceptively quiet opening, Nepomniachtchi dramatically sharpened things by forcing a trade of Carlsen’s queen for his two rooks, radically unbalancing the position. GM Magnus Carlsen defeated GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in the sixth game of the 2021 FIDE World Chess Championship.

Open pgn chess file online