“Not in great shape”
Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi played their first classical game since the 2021 World Championship match on Friday in Saint Louis. Nepo, who had a terrific performance at the Candidates Tournament, was caught amid a run of bad form and ended up being outplayed by a ruthless Carlsen playing with the white pieces.
Let our authors show you how Carlsen tailored his openings to be able to outplay his opponents strategically in the middlegame or to obtain an enduring advantage into the endgame.
The world champion’s victory was the only decisive game of the day, which means he became the early sole leader at the Sinquefield Cup. Talking to commentator Alejandro Ramirez after the game, Carlsen reflected on his opponent:
This was just a game of someone who is not in great shape. He was not finding the right manoeuvres, overlooking some of my ideas. Also he was playing too fast at critical moments. [...] I think I did well in creating a situation that was not pleasant for him, but yeah, certainly he should have done better.
Notwithstanding Nepo’s performance, as Ramirez noted, Carlsen was customarily effective in making the most of the chances provided by his opponent.
At the opening ceremony, celebrated outdoors in untypical fashion for chess events (kudos to the organizers), a simultaneous exhibition was part of the function. Well-known streamer Eric Rosen — an International Master — was surprisingly among Carlsen’s opponents. After beating Nepo, the world champion pointed out that it had been helpful to try out a game in the Carlsbad structure, a usual weapon of Rosen’s, a day before facing Nepo with white.
In the game against Nepo, Carlsen showed his intentions of going for the win with 9.g4, a move most often seen in encounters played by the ever-creative Baadur Jobava. The contenders left theory soon after, though, and entered a positional battle in which White had the bishop pair and Black had barely any active alternatives.
Nepo did not assess the situation correctly. As Carlsen noted, his rival’s best chance was to simply wait and see what would White come up with, since it was not at all obvious how to break through despite the positional edge.
Instead, the Russian tried a pawn break on move 23.
Carlsen vs. Nepomniachtchi
There followed 23...c5 24.Nxc5 Nxc5 25.dxc5 Bxc5 26.Bd2 Rhe8, and then began what Olimpiu Di Luppi described as “arguably the weirdest minority attack you’ll ever see” — 27.b4
By this point, Carlsen already felt very confident about his winning chances. A move later, Nepo correctly gave up his a-pawn to try to put up a defence, but there was little hope for him, especially given how strong the world champion is in this kind of technical, superior positions.
The Russian’s decisive mistake came on move 35.
White’s bishop is clearly the stronger minor piece here and, although the rook endgame arising after 35...Nxd3 36.Rxd3 does not look attractive at all for Black, it was his best chance to keep the battle going. Instead, 35...Kc7 allowed Carlsen to keep his bishop alive with 36.Bb1 and proceed to target the weak pawn on d5.
The world champion grabbed Black’s central pawn shortly after, and it did not take long before Nepo decided to throw in the towel.
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Nc3 c6 6.Bf4 Bf5 7.e3 Nbd7 8.h3 Be7 9.g4 Be4 10.Be2N 10.Bg2 0-0 11.0-0 Re8 12.Nxe4 Nxe4 13.Nd2 Nxd2 14.Qxd2 Nf8 15.b4 Ng6 16.Bg3 10...Qb6 11.Qb3 Qxb3 12.axb3 Bg6 13.Nh4 Bb4 14.Nxg6 hxg6 15.f3 Nf8 16.Kf2 Ne6 17.Bg3 Ke7 18.h4 a6 19.Kg2 Rad8 20.Bf2 Bd6 21.Bd3 Bb8 22.Na4 Bd6 23.Be1 c5 23...Rde8= 24.Nxc5 Nxc5 25.dxc5 Bxc5 26.Bd2 Rhe8 27.b4 Bb6 28.b5! a5 29.Bxa5 Bxa5 30.Rxa5 Kd6 31.Kf2 Re7 32.Rd1 Rh8 33.g5 Nd7 34.Ra4 Nc5 35.Rg4 35.Rb4 Rhe8 36.Bf1 Rxe3 37.Rbd4 35...Kc7 35...Nxd3+± 36.Rxd3 Rd7 36.Bb1!+- Re5 36...Rd8 37.Ba2 Kb6 37.Ba2 f6 38.gxf6 38.Rxd5 Rxd5 39.Bxd5 Kd6+- 38.Bxd5 fxg5 39.b4 39.hxg5 Rh2+ 40.Kg3 Rxb2± 39.Rxg5 Rxg5 40.b6+ Kxb6+- 39...Ne6 40.Bxe6 Rxe6 41.hxg5 Re5 42.Rc4+ Kb6 43.Rd6+ Kxb5+- 38...gxf6 39.Rxd5 39.Rxg6?! Rxh4 40.f4 40.Rxd5 Rxd5 41.Bxd5 Rh2+ 42.Kg3 Rxb2+- 40...Re7 41.Bxd5 41.b6+ Kxb6 42.Bxd5 Nd7+- 41...Nd7+- 39...Rxd5 40.Bxd5 Nd3+ 41.Kg3 Ne5 42.Rf4 Rd8 42...Nd7 43.Bf7 g5 43.b6+ 1–0 - Start an analysis engine:
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Carlsen,M | 2861 | Nepomniachtchi,I | 2792 | 1–0 | 2022 | | GCT 9th Sinquefield Cup 2022 | 1.4 |
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The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

All black clothes, brown shoes — world champion Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Crystal Fuller
All four remaining games finished drawn. The first ones to split the point were Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana, while both in Leinier Dominguez vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Wesley So, long struggles in which one side had a tiny advantage were played out for over 60 moves.
Perhaps the player who was left most unsatisfied with his half point was wildcard Hans Niemann, who got a favourable position with white against Levon Aronian’s Berlin Defence.
Here Niemann played 33.Bf1, when 33.Nb6 Be6 34.h4 was the most trying continuation. Of course, beating the resourceful Aronian would have been a tall task nonetheless.
Moreover, this was a good start for the US grandmaster, who received the invitation to participate in this elite event at short notice — he received it while playing the Turkish League in Ankara, after having travelled from Belgrade to Miami and back to Turkey in a short period of time, as he told Ramirez in his post-game interview.
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.Re1 Nd6 6.a4 a6 6...Be7!? 7.Nxe5 Be7 8.Bf1 Nxe5 9.Rxe5 0-0 10.d4 10...Ne8N 10...Bf6 11.Re1 Re8 12.c3 Rxe1 13.Qxe1 Qe8 14.Qxe8+ Nxe8 15.Bf4 d5 16.Bd3 Be6 11.Nc3 Bf6 12.Re1 d5 13.a5 c6 14.Bf4 Bg5 15.Be5 Bf6 16.Qd2 Bxe5 17.Rxe5 Nf6 18.f3 Be6 19.Na4 Qd6 20.b4 Nd7 21.Re3 Rae8 22.Rae1 Re7 23.Bd3 Rfe8 24.R1e2 g6 25.c3 f6 26.Qe1 Kf7 27.Qh4 Nf8 28.Qh6 Bc8 29.Rxe7+ Rxe7 30.Rxe7+ Qxe7 31.Kf2 Qd6 32.g3 Kg8 33.Bf1 33.Nb6 Be6 34.h4 Bh3 35.Na4 33...Qc7 34.Nc5 Ne6 35.Nd3 Ng7 36.Qe3 Kf7 37.Qh6 37.Nc5 g5 38.Bd3 h5 39.Kg2 37...Kg8 38.Nc5 Ne6 39.Na4 39.Nxe6± Bxe6 40.Bd3 39...Ng7 39...Nf8= 40.Nb6 Be6 41.Qh4 g5 42.Qh6 Qf7 42...Qe7 43.g4 Bf5 44.h4 Bg6 43.g4 f5 44.Qxg5 44...fxg4 45.Qd8+ Ne8 46.Be2 Kf8 47.Qg5 Nd6 48.Qd8+ Ne8 49.Qg5 Nd6 50.Qd8+ Ne8 ½–½ - Start an analysis engine:
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Niemann,H | 2688 | Aronian,L | 2759 | ½–½ | 2022 | | GCT 9th Sinquefield Cup 2022 | 1.5 |
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Hans Niemann | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Round 1 results
Standings after round 1
All games
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- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
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