Ian Nepomniachtchi, of Russia, left, and Magnus Carlsen, of Norway compete during the FIDE World Championship at Dubai Expo 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo / AP
Ian Nepomniachtchi, of Russia, left, and Magnus Carlsen, of Norway compete during the FIDE World Championship at Dubai Expo 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo / AP
Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen has officially retained his world title after defeating Russian challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi.
The match came to an abrupt end after a blunder by Nepomniachtchi on Friday evening.
Carlsen, who turned 31 during the competition, has now won five world titles in a row after taking the crown in 2013.
Nepomniachtchi had needed a miracle to overcome the growing points differential after disastrous losses in games six, eight and nine.
Fair warning: we have some heavy chess terminology coming up here.
The dark square bishops were exchanged and with 11. Nxe3, the position transposed to a blitz game between France's Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and US player Fabiano Caruana.
Carlsen manoeuvred and managed to push through the critical d5 to equalise. Nepomniachtchi sent his pawn forward to d4, maximising the tension in the centre.
Magnus Carlsen, of Norway, competes during the FIDE World Championship at Dubai Expo 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo / AP
In the resulting exchange Carlsen's rook went deep into enemy territory.
In an attempt to repel it, Nepomniachtchi blundered with 23. g3. The computer evaluation immediately plunged to a dire -11.
Carlsen began a scintillating attack, sacrificing the exchange and exposing the Russian's king.
The Norwegian missed a clear winning line, but navigated the position to a rook endgame.
Carlsen's active rook and pawn advantage proved too much for Nepomniachtchi.
"It's hard to feel that great joy when the situation was so comfortable to begin with, but I'm happy with a very good performance overall," Carlsen told the post-match press conference.
The Norwegian said game six in the match was critical.
"After five games there were five draws and I had very few chances to play for anything more," Carlsen said.
"Then everything kind of clicked and it all went my way."
The two men had been rivals since the 2002 under-12 championship when Carlsen cracked in his final game against English youngster David Howell to hand Nepomniachtchi, who is slightly more than four months older, the title.
Magnus Carlsen, of Norway, attends a news conference after winning the FIDE World Championship at Dubai Expo 2020 in Dubai. Photo / AP
Carlsen has called the setback "one of my worst memories in chess".
Entering the world championship, and excluding draws, the Russian had a 4-1 edge over the Norwegian in matches in the traditional long format, but in Dubai, Nepomniachtchi cracked.
"You don't expect necessarily to run away with it in a world championship," Carlsen said. "That's fine by me."
Nepomniachtchi implied one of his problems was nerves.
"Experience is never easy. It should be tough to gain some real experience. It was a little bit too much here," he said.
"The tension is not a reason to overlook some simple things you would never ever overlook in a blitz game," he added.
Carlsen sympathised. "He couldn't show his best chess, which is a pity for the excitement in the match," he said.
