Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
After Carlsen defended his title in 2014 against Anand, he had to defend his title again in 2016 and in 2018 - against the Russian Sergey Karjakin and against Fabiano Caruana from the US. Both opponents proved to be tough nuts to crack.
Against Karjakin, Carlsen lost game 8, but managed to strike back in game 10. After two more draws the match went into tiebreak, where Carlsen proved to be better. The first two tiebreak games ended in draws, but Carlsen won games 3 and 4. The beautiful final move of the fourth game spread around the world.
Two years later, Caruana proved just as difficult to beat as Karjakin, and all 12 games of that match ended in draws. However, Carlsen again proved to be the better rapid player and won the tiebreak convincingly 3-0.
When COVID broke out in early 2020, traditional "over-the-board" chess came to a halt, but Carlsen took the initiative and used his name to organize numerous well-funded online events, which continue to be played to this day. Apparently, Carlsen wanted to elevate professional chess to greater heights.
The fact that he often emerged as the winner of these tournaments did not diminish the joy of the public which could follow high-class chess or the joy of the players who had a chance to play. More chess was being played than ever before, albeit mostly online during this period.
Covid also affected the Candidates Tournament 2020. After the first cycle, the tournament was interrupted and the second cycle was played a whole year later in 2021.
Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi won and gained the right to challenge Carlsen. Once again, Carlsen faced a peer, and once again, his opponent—especially in the beginning—proved to be a very tough adversary. But then came the memorable sixth game, where Carlsen, playing with White, went all out. He avoided standard opening theory, even sacrificed a pawn (which wasn’t taken), and steered the game into a complex middlegame.
Carlsen took a lot of risks and at one point found himself in a worse position. However, fatigue and the complexity of the game took their toll on both players, and the position transformed into an unusual endgame, in which Carlsen was trying to win with rook, knight and two connected passed pawns against a lone queen.
Though the position objectively was a draw, it was very difficult to hold in practice and Carlsen slowly wore down his opponent. And indeed, on move 130, when it was past midnight in Dubai and the game had been going on for 7 hours and 35 minutes, Nepomniachtchi blundered. His move 130...Qe6? cost him the game, though a few precise and sharp moves were still required to secure the win.
On move 136 Carlsen came up with a brilliant after which Nepomniachtchi resigned. Which move was that and why did Black resign?
There was a hard-to-find defensive move (pointed out by the engine) that could have saved the game for Black, but the battle would have continued regardless! The way Magnus coordinated his pieces and passed pawns in the final phase of this marathon game was truly masterful! It demonstrated that, at this point in his career, the world champion was nearly unbeatable and, even under extreme fatigue, could still find all the right moves.
This blow was too much for the Russian. After a draw in the next game, Carlsen won games eight and nine. In the ninth game, Nepo played quickly and well, but at one point, he played too quickly, blundering his bishop.
After another draw the match ended after 11 games, when Magnus secured another victory. After this match, Carlsen hinted that he found the world championship matches extremely taxing. It wasn’t just the matches themselves but also the long preparation period. Everything had to revolve around the world title; he couldn’t play freely in other tournaments because new ideas and novelties had to be saved for that one crucial match.
But these matches lasted only 12 or 14 games... How must Karpov and Kasparov have felt, having played a total of 144 games (including tournament games) against each other?
In 2023, Carlsen made a big announcement: he would not defend his title, meaning a match would be played between the winner of the Candidates Tournament, which again was Ian Nepomniachtchi, and China’s Ding Liren. More on that later.
Key Concepts of Chess - Pawn Structures Vol.1 and 2
In this two-part course the emphasis will be on typical pawn-structures.
This week’s show (for Premium Members only)
| Advertising |
