Game 9 and two changes. Nepo has a change of hairstyle, gone is the man bun and also a change of opening. Nepo goes with an English. An even opening and play focused on the queenside. Some exchanges and Nepo played 26. Bxb7 and next move 27. c5 which is a blunder. Magnus trapped the Bishop with 27. ...c6 which was gone a few moves later. His reaction to Nepo's 27th move:
Nepo tried to force his passed 'a' pawn up the board, but Magnus was accurate and with an extra piece Nepo resigned on move 39.
Match is even more likely over now. That epic game 6 loss seems to have crushed Nepo, poor chap.
Game 10 from yesterday. Another Petrov's Defence. An early Queen exchange and a positional play on the Kingside but pieces exchanged and a draw on move 41.
Rest day today, Nepo needs a win urgently or all over by Saturday evening.
Game 11. Magnus one point away from victory and Nepo with white must go for a win to keep a very small chance of equalising. An Italian Game this time. All Bishops off in the opening then some central play and looking fairly even until Nepo plays 23. g3. Another blunder. Magnus responds 23. ...dxe3 sacrificing the exchange and goes to a Rook and pawn endgame where he promotes a passed pawn and Nepo resigns on move 49 and game and match over.
From no victories in 19 World Championship matches, Magnus gets four in a week and retains the World Chess Championship. Nepo just seemed gone mentally after last Fridays game 6 epic.
Great picture of inside the glass box. The photographers are only there for the first five minutes:
Just the presentation to go, presume it's today and all over again.
A fascinating match with five initas draws leading to call of boring chess, change the format etc. Then the epic Game 6 with 136 moves, the most in World Chess Championship history lasting 7hrs 45mins and which seemed to have crushed Nepo who then made three blunders in four games and match over.
Hope Nepo comes back from it, but Magnus is sublime in classical matches and the GOAT calls grow more.
Candidates match next year and next Championship in 2023 with most hoping for a Magnus v Alireza game.
For those interested (Jock and I are watching), yesterday the 2021 World Rapid and Blitz championships started. On for the next four days, all the best players are there; Magnus, Nakamura, Alireza, Caruana, Nepo and Duda.
Magnus currently holds both titles and the Classical he regained this month.
Formats are:
Rapid (Yesterday, today and tomorrow):
A 13-round Swiss tournament. The time control is 15mins + a 10sec increment per move.
Blitz (Wednesday and Thursday):
A 21-round Swiss tournament. The time control is 3mins + a 2sec increment per move.
Jock. Liking the FIDE comms IM Lawrence Trent and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili over Chess.com and their coverage seems a bit better though got both tabs open.
Referring back to the coverage by the BBC of the WCC. When I was very small Bill Hartson was a commentator and the opening titles were set to Prokofievs Dance of the Knights from his ballet score for Romeo and Juliet. Cannot find it on Youtube sadly.
Arthur Bliss wrote the ballet Checkmate for the founder of the Royal Ballet Ninette de Valois.
'I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.'Â Johannes Kepler
ovechkin8 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 25, 2022 6:31 pm
Referring back to the coverage by the BBC of the WCC. When I was very small Bill Hartson was a commentator and the opening titles were set to Prokofievs Dance of the Knights from his ballet score for Romeo and Juliet. Cannot find it on Youtube sadly.
Hey Ove, Hope you're good? We've mentioned Prokofiev before back on page 22 and 23. See I always thought it was the theme to Bill's 'Play Chess' which used to be on in school holidays, but the video on facebook seems to show different. Also, some of Bill doing his commentating.
Videos up later when they're up.
