2/27/2022 – The most exciting and talked-about game of the 2021 World Championship was game 6. Statistically, the sixth game of a World Championship match has yielded more decisive results than any other game. This one proved to be no exception, as records kept tumbling. The game had various layers of action and consequences. GM Sundararajan Kidambi explains the game arising out of a Catalan opening. | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

1/5/2022 – The World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi was the chess highlight of the year 2021, and chess fans all over the world followed the games and the match avidly. Carlsen won 7.5-3.5 and defended his title. Shortly after the match, Oliver Roeder and Simran Parwani took a look at some statistics of the match and presented their findings on www.538.com, a statistics-oriented website that focuses on American politics and sports. | Image: FIDE

12/16/2021 – Judit Polgar followed the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai particularly closely. She was in Dubai and commentated the match live. In an interview with Sagar Shah after the match she talks about criticial moments of the match, claims that it is sometimes good to be a "bad boy", and reveals what it takes to win a match against Carlsen. | Photo: Screenshot from the interview

12/15/2021 – After Magnus Carlsen convincingly won the World Championship match 7.5-3.5 against challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi, the old and new World Champion seems to be tired of defending his title. In a Norwegian podcast interview with his friend Magnus Barstad, Carlsen indicated that he lacked the motivation to defend his title again. Unless the next challenger would be Alireza Firouzja. | Photo: FIDE | Niki Riga

12/14/2021 – Soon after defending the World Championship title in Dubai, Magnus Carlsen revealed the team of seconds that helped him keep his crown. Among them was Daniil Dubov, a member of the Russian team. A controversy erupted, with some of Dubov’s compatriots criticizing his decision to work for Ian Nepomniachtchi’s opponent. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/13/2021 – On Sunday, December 12, Magnus Carlsen of Norway lifted the trophy for the World Championship aloft for the fifth time in a row. The closing ceremony was broadcast live on a range of media and culminated with the champion, a gold medal around his neck, trophy raised, in a long, breezy shower of gold confetti. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/11/2021 – “The second half of the match wasn’t the fight we all wanted to see, with most of the games being blundered away (b5,c5,g3 and others). Still, the World Champion barely made a mistake in 11 games, and never gave a chance once in control. Hopefully Nepo can recover from what must be an absolute nightmare of a match”, writes GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov in his analysis of the match’s eleventh and final game. | Photo: Austin Fuller

12/10/2021 – Magnus Carlsen picked up a fourth win at the World Championship match in Dubai to secure overall victory with three games to spare. Playing black, the world champion saw Ian Nepomniachtchi all but self-destructing for a third time in the match. This was Carlsen’s fourth consecutive successful defence of the title after becoming world champion in 2013. | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE

12/10/2021 – Magnus Carlsen picked up a fourth win at the World Championship match in Dubai to secure overall victory with three games to spare. Playing black, the world champion saw Ian Nepomniachtchi all but self-destructing for a third time in the match. This was Carlsen’s fourth consecutive defence of the title after becoming world champion in 2013. | Replay all the games with computer analysis. Full report to follow shortly | Photo: Niki Riga

12/9/2021 – "A short and quite uneventful draw, which totally makes sense as Magnus is on the verge of match victory." This is how Wesley So summed up game 10 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi. However, in his analyses he still managed to dig deep and indicates a lot of hidden subtleties of the game, particularly in regard to opening theory and match strategy. | Picture: FIDE

12/8/2021 – An uneventful draw in game 10 of the World Championship match kept Magnus Carlsen’s 3-point lead going into the fourth rest day of the contest. The defending champion only needs to score 1 point in the remaining 4 encounters to keep his crown. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/8/2021 – After blundering in game 8 of his World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi also blundered and lost in game 9. Carlsen now leads 6-3 and with five games to go the match is practically over. Wesley So took a close look at game 9 and concludes: "Ian was playing very well early on in the match but ... game 6 was clearly the turning point in this match as before that both players were playing equally well and it seems that Ian was no inferior to Magnus. ... Ian is a great player and even the greatest players make mistakes. Unexpected and miserable stuff happens to us all, and we hope Ian will be able to move on and get his mojo back asap!" | Photo: Wesley So (Archive) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/7/2021 – The World Championship match in Dubai might theoretically finish after 11 (out of 14) games, as Magnus Carlsen scored a third victory in four games after Ian Nepomniachtchi inexplicably blundered a piece in an equal position on Tuesday. The challenger now needs to win 3 out of the 5 remaining encounters to take the match to tiebreaks. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/5/2021 – Magnus Carlsen now has a two-point lead at the World Championship match in Dubai, after beating Ian Nepomniachtchi’s Petroff Defence in Sunday’s game 8. Nepo made a couple of inexplicable moves in positions that seemed to be all but forcefully heading to an inevitable draw. Find here the crucial encounter analysed by elite grandmaster and theoretical expert Anish Giri. | Photo: Eric Rosen

12/4/2021 – Wonder how it looks inside the arena where the World Championship match is taking place? In a big pictorial report, correspondent Venkatachalam Saravanan lets us feel the ambience surrounding the most important chess event of the year. Not to be missed! | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE

12/4/2021 – After a gruelling fight on Friday, Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi played a rather uneventful game at the World Championship match in Dubai. The 41-move draw they signed marks the halfway point of the event, as Nepo now has seven games tu surmount the one-point deficit on the scoreboard. Saturday’s encounter was analysed by Dutch star Anish Giri. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/3/2021 – In what will surely be remembered as a highlight of World Chess Championship history, Magnus Carlsen defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in a 136-move marathon which included missed chances, deep time trouble and a number of subtle manoeuvres worthy of a combat for the highest prize in the world of competitive chess. Find here the fantastic encounter annotated by super-GM and elite analyst Anish Giri. | Photo: Eric Rosen

12/1/2021 – On Wednesday, Ian Nepomniachtchi got the white pieces for a third time in the World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen. The Russian got an advantage out of the opening but could not make the most of his chances. Super-GM Anish Giri annotates the game with instructive insights and pertinent variations. | Photo: Alina l’Ami

12/1/2021 – For the first time at the World Championship match in Dubai, Ian Nepomniachtchi clearly won the opening battle against Magnus Carlsen. The Russian missed a couple of chances to put his opponent under more pressure, which led to a fifth draw in the 14-game duel. The contenders will get a second rest day on Thursday. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

12/1/2021 – On first sight, game 4 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi does not seem to be particularly spectacular. Nepomniachtchi went for the Petroff and appeared to be well prepared for Carlsen's novelty 18.Nh4 and after 33 moves the game ended with a repetition and a draw. But as English Grandmaster Luke McShane points out in his analysis, the game contained a lot of hidden tactical possibilities.

11/30/2021 – The match for the World Championship in Dubai is still tied, as Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi signed a fourth consecutive draw on Tuesday. The defending champion went for his first 1.e4 with the white pieces, to which Nepo responded by setting up a Petroff Defence. Carlsen spent quite a while investigating options that might create trouble for his opponent, but ended up going for a triple repetition on move 30. | Photo: Niki Riga

11/29/2021 – Game 3 of the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi was full of opening subtleties and refined maneuvering that, however, eventually led to the third draw of the match. David Navara took a closer look at the game and its hidden subtleties.

11/28/2021 – The battle of theoretical preparations continues at the World Championship match, with Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi signing a third consecutive draw on Sunday before the first rest day in Dubai. Once again, the defending champion deviated from mainstream theory only to see his opponent well prepared and ready to discuss the ensuing sidelines. | Photo: Eric Rosen

11/28/2021 – A remarkable battle between the protagonists of the 2021 World Championship match ended in a draw on Saturday. It was the second tense draw in a row, with both contenders showing deep theoretical preparation. Game 2 was a Catalan, and by no means was it a boring positional struggle. Grandmaster Luke McShanes analyses. | Photo: Niki Riga