Sprint after the marathon – Sport – Kommersant

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The seventh game of the match for the world title, taking place in Dubai, in contrast to the previous one, which turned into a marathon thriller, turned out to be rather short and rather bland. The Norwegian title holder Magnus Carlsen, playing black, confidently defended a draw in the confrontation with the Russian Jan Nepomniachtchi and retained the lead in the match.

The fact that this game would turn out exactly like this, people who are famously versed in chess, guessed, of course, in advance. And the famous Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, who was commenting on its move on ChessBase, patiently explained to those who were not very versed in them that the struggle should be rather insipid, considering what had happened the day before. And on the eve, Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi spent a third of the day at the board, making a record number of moves for championship matches – 136, before the title holder forced the challenger to surrender and took the lead in a duel in which five previous games ended in draws.

And after such a marathon, there is no time and effort left for a thorough study of the strategy in a new battle – here you just need to get a good night’s sleep, to recover. And this is not so easy. Magnus Carlsen, for example, admitted that he hardly slept at all: “I was too excited.”

And without working out a strategy, without freshness, it is dangerous to climb into the wheelhouse again.

There was no felling. The Spanish game, which appears on the board in Dubai whenever Nepomniachtchi has white, is, one might say, Carlsen’s territory. The Norwegian adores this debut, he perfectly knows his theory to the smallest nuances, has achieved success, choosing him, in many important confrontations. And in the Dubai match, even with blacks, he constantly tried to “blow up” the situation in the “Spaniard” with unexpected, apparently prepared in advance as a surprise, “bomb” moves. But on Saturday everything was calm.

After the end of the debut part, American Fabiano Caruana, who competed with Magnus Carslen in the last championship match in 2018, stated: Ian Nepomniachtchi passed it successfully and got an opportunity for pressure. But in reality, of course, this was a tiny, ephemeral advantage, which can only be transformed into reality at risk.

But on this day, no one wanted to risk – or could not because of the lack of energy.

Exchanges and simplifications soon began, and it came to a draw on move 41, just two and a half hours after the first move.

This draw kept Magnus Carlsen in the lead. In the eighth game on Sunday, he will already have the white pieces.

Alexey Dospekhov

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