4 December 2021

Magnus Carlsen Wins Game Six of World Championship Match

The score has become 3,5:2,5 in world champion’s favour.

Photo credit: Niki Riga / FIDE
Photo credit: Niki Riga / FIDE

 

Friday, December 3, game six of the Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi World Championship match finished in Dubai. The symbolic first move was made by Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin in presence of FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and Governor of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug - Yugra Natalya Komarova. Moscow and Khanty-Mansiysk will host the World Chess Olympiad in 2022. 

As in game two, Magnus Carlsen opened the game by moving his queen pawn. A position typical of the Catalan opening arose soon after, only with the inclusion of not very desirable move b2-b3 for White. Black exploited this tempo to confidently solve his opening problems. In the pursuit of initiative, he decided to give up his two rooks for the queen. It gave rise to the turbulent tempo game. For the first time in the match, both opponents got into time trouble (in Dubai, a 30-second increment per move starts only after the move 60), having missed serious chances of winning one after another. 

After passing the time control, the position became level. However, in an attempt to complicate the game, Ian exchanged his strong passed pawn for his opponent's less important counterpart, which he shouldn’t have. On getting a technical position with minor but stable advantage and lack of any counterplay for his opponent, the world champion was patiently and ingeniously building up his chances of winning. The game lasted nearly eight hours; on move 136 Black had to admit his defeat.  

The overall match score has become 3,5:2,5 in Magnus Carlsen’s favour. Game seven is taking place Saturday, December 4, with Ian Nepomniachtchi playing the white pieces.   

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