The World Chess Championship 2021 was a chess match between the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen and the challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi to determine the World Chess Champion. It was held under the auspices of FIDE and played during Expo 2020 at Dubai Exhibition Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, between 24 November and 12 December 2021. It was originally scheduled for the latter half of 2020 but was postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, this is the first sporting event to be held at an international exposition since the 1904 Summer Olympics during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, United States.
The match began with five consecutive high-quality draws, before Carlsen won a closely-contested eight-hour struggle in Game 6 that, with 136 moves, was the longest ever game in a World Chess Championship. Following this loss, Nepomniachtchi's level of play worsened, with Carlsen capitalizing on a series of one-move blunders by Nepomniachtchi in Games 8, 9 and 11 to win another three points. This gave Carlsen a convincing match win with four wins, seven draws and no losses.
Candidates Tournament
The challenger was Ian Nepomniachtchi, who qualified by winning the Candidates Tournament 2020–21, an eight-player double-round robin tournament in Yekaterinburg, Russia.Dates for the Candidates and the 44th Chess Olympiad announced , FIDE, 12 Nov 2019 Originally scheduled for 15 March to 5 April 2020, the tournament was halted at the halfway point on 26 March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second half was played between 19 April and 27 April 2021, also in Yekaterinburg.FIDE resumes the Candidates Tournament , FIDE, February 16, 2021
The qualifiers for the Candidates Tournament were:Bidding Procedure for the FIDE Candidates' Tournament 2020 , FIDE, 8 March 2020Regulations for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2020 , FIDE
+Qualification methodPlayerAgeRatingWorldranking(March 2020)Top 100 Players March 2020 - Archive , FIDE2018 World Championship runner-up Fabiano Caruana 2728422The top two finishers at the Chess World Cup 2019 Teimour Radjabov (winner). Withdrew. 33 2765 9 Ding Liren (runner-up)2728053The top finisher in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 Wang Hao (winner)30276212The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2019 Alexander Grischuk (winner)3627774 Ian Nepomniachtchi (runner-up)2927745Highest average rating Anish Giri25276311 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (replacement for Radjabov)2927678Wild card chosen by organizer, subject to eligibility criteria Kirill Alekseenko (highest non-qualifier in Grand Swiss)22269839
If one or more players declined the invitation to play in the Candidates Tournament, the players with the next highest average ratings would qualify. On March 6, 2020, Teimour Radjabov withdrew because of concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, and this rule was used to select Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as his replacement. Radjabov was given a direct entry into the next Candidates Tournament.
Results
Championship match
Organization The organization rights belong to World Chess, the commercial partner of FIDE.
The match was a best-of-14 match, with tie breaks if necessary. It was increased from best-of-12 (in place for every world championship match since 2006), after all 12 regular games were drawn in the previous match in 2018.FIDE updates and the World Championship cycle , Chessbase, April 26, 2019
On 29 June 2020, the match was officially postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The prize fund was €2 million, split 60% vs 40% between winner and loser. If the match had been tied after 14 classical games, the prize fund would have been split 55% vs 45% in favor of the tiebreak winner.
The chief arbiter was Mahdi Abdulrahim from United Arab Emirates, and the deputy arbiter was Andy Howie from Scotland.
The first move of each game was ceremonially performed by guests invited by the organisers:
Game Guest 1 Arkady Dvorkovich FIDE President 2 3 Anastasia Myskina Former tennis player and the 2004 French Open Women's singles winner 4 Saeed Hareb General Secretary of the Dubai Sports Council 5 Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan Head of the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Social Development 6 Sergey Sobyanin Mayor of Moscow 7 Andrey Guryev Jr. CEO of PhosAgro 8 Míchel Salgado Former Real Madrid football player 9 R Praggnanandhaa The fifth-youngest chess grandmaster in history 10 Amna Al Qubaisi The first Emirati female racing driver 11 Adi K. Mishra Representative from Algorand Inc
Match regulations The time control for each game was 120 minutes per side for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting with move 61.Regulations for the FIDE World Championship Match 2020, FIDE, 2020, archived from https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/FWCM2020.pdf
The match was best of 14 games; a score of at least 7½ would win the world championship. If the score had been equal after 14 games, tie-break games with faster time controls would have been played: 4 rapid games with 25 minutes per side and a 10-second increment starting with move 1. If a player had scored 2½ points or more, he would win the championship. If the score were equal after the rapid portion, up to five mini-matches of two blitz games would have been played, each mini-match comprising two blitz games with a time control of 5 minutes per side and a 3-second increment starting with move 1. The first player to win such a mini-match would have been declared the champion. If all five blitz mini-matches were drawn, one sudden death (Armageddon) game would be played. In this format, black has 4 minutes and White has 5 minutes with a 2-second increment for both players starting with move 61; black wins the match if he wins or draws the game. Players were not allowed to agree to a draw before Black's 40th move. A draw claim before then was permitted only through the arbiter, if a threefold repetition or stalemate had occurred.Regulations for the FIDE World Championship Match 2021 , FIDE, 2021
Previous head-to-head record Prior to the match, Nepomniachtchi and Carlsen had played 13 games against each other at classical time controls, of which Nepomniachtchi won 4 and Carlsen 1, with 8 draws. Several of these games were played when they were juniors, however, and in the five years before the match their head-to-head score was 1 win each with 4 draws. Their most recent pre-championship game, during the 2021 Norway Chess tournament, was a draw.
+Head-to-head recordCarlsen winsDrawNepomniachtchi winsTotalClassicalCarlsen (white) – Nepomniachtchi (black)0527Nepomniachtchi (white) – Carlsen (black)1326Total18413Blitz / rapid / exhibition22321064Total23401477
Location Bids were originally to be presented to FIDE no later than 1 March 2019, with inspection of the proposed venues between 1 July and 15 August 2019.
Early interest was expressed in 2018 by Monaco and Vienna, though nothing came of these. Stavanger, Norway, announced a bid in March 2019, but withdrew it in June 2019 after Carlsen expressed reluctance to play the match in Norway.Norway not to bid for the 2020 World Chess Championship , Norway Chess press release, June 27, 2019 In November 2019, FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich announced that FIDE had received bids from Dubai and Argentina.Hamburg GP starts as Candidates race heats up , chess24.com, 5 November 2019 In February 2020, he announced the match would most likely take place in Dubai.World Championship match almost certain to take place in Dubai , Chessbase, 2/29/2020
In January 2021, FIDE announced that the match would take place in Dubai from 24 November to 16 December 2021, as part of Expo 2020.Expo 2020 Dubai to host FIDE World Chess Championship , FIDE, 28 January 2021
Sanctions against Russia Due to WADA sanctions against Russia, FIDE confirmed that Nepomniachtchi would not compete under the Russian flag, but would play as a neutral player. The sanctions apply only to the world championship match, not to other FIDE events such as the Candidates Tournament. The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a ban on Russia competing at World Championships, and it is implemented by WADA in response to the state-sponsored doping program of Russian athletes.Nepomniachtchi Can't Play Carlsen Under Russian Flag , Peter Doggers, chess.com, April 30, 2021Ian Nepomniachtchi will not be able to play next to Russia flag against Carlsen , Leonard Barden, The Guardian, 1 May 2021
Nepomniachtchi played under the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) flag. Before the first game, WADA sanctions barred FIDE from using an initial flag with the full name "Chess Federation of Russia", so FIDE officials deployed a flag with the initials "CFR".FIDE scrambles to replace Nepo's flag before start of play , Leon Watson, chess24.com, 26 November 2021Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi draw chess world title opener after flag furore , Sean Ingle, The Guardian, 27 November 2021
Seconds Nepomniachtchi was helped by Sergey Yanovsky, Vladimir Potkin, Peter Leko and Sergey Karjakin. Carlsen's seconds were revealed after the match as Peter Heine Nielsen, Laurent Fressinet, Jan Gustafsson, Jorden van Foreest, and Daniil Dubov. Carlsen confirmed that Nils Grandelius, who helped in previous World Championship preparation, was not on his team for this match. Non-loginwalled link at bibliogram.pussthecat.org
Dubov was criticised by a number of other Russian players, including Sergey Karjakin and Sergei Shipov, who suggested that Dubov (a Russian grandmaster) should not aid a non-Russian in a match against a fellow Russian. In response, Dubov contended that he considered it to be a match between two individuals, and said that a counter-argument was that working with Carlsen would improve his chess and hence help the Russian team.Dubov hits back at accusations of betrayal , chess24.com, December 12, 2021
Schedule In previous world championships, the players followed a simple two days on, one day off schedule. For this match, FIDE changed the format to a weekly cycle: 3 games Friday-Sunday, rest Monday, two games Tuesday-Wednesday, rest Thursday. Days with games are shaded. The tighter schedule was deliberately designed to try and ensure more decisive games.
Games started at 16:30 local time (GST), which is 12:30 UTC.
Colours were drawn at the opening ceremony, and Nepomniachtchi received the white pieces for the first game. Colours alternated thereafter, with no switching at the halfway point as in previous matches.
Date Event Wednesday, 24 November Opening ceremony Thursday, 25 November Media day Friday, 26 November Game 1 Saturday, 27 November Game 2 Sunday, 28 November Game 3 Monday, 29 November Rest day Tuesday, 30 November Game 4 Wednesday, 1 December Game 5 Thursday, 2 December Rest day Friday, 3 December Game 6 Saturday, 4 December Game 7 Sunday, 5 December Game 8 Monday, 6 December Rest day Tuesday, 7 December Game 9 Wednesday, 8 December Game 10 Thursday, 9 December Rest day Friday, 10 December Game 11 Sunday, 12 December Closing ceremony
The final three games were scheduled for 11, 12, and 14 December and tiebreaks were scheduled for 15 December; however, these were not required because Carlsen reached 7½ points after Game 11. Consequently, the closing ceremony, originally scheduled for either 15 or 16 December, depending on whether or not tiebreaks would be required, was moved up to 12 December.
Results +World Chess Championship 2021Rating Match games Points 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Ian Nepomniachtchi (CFR) 2782½½½½½0½00½0Not required3½ 2856½½½ ½½1½11½17½
Note: Since Carlsen reached 7½ points with game 11, the match ended even though not all 14 games were played.
Games
Game 1: Nepomniachtchi–Carlsen, ½–½