Written by: Emadeldin Teama

World Chess Championship match - Game 1 :

Today we are going to review Game one of the world championship match. The game started with Nepomniachtchi playing with the white pieces while Carlsen playing with the black pieces.

The Battle started very fierce and intensive. Ian Nepomniachtchi started with 1-e4 declaring an open game fight. Carlsen chose to play 1-..e5 opting for symmetrical control of the center and perhaps going for a quick endgame with Berlin defense?

The game continued 2-Nf3 –Nc6 . Ian has a choice between the risky scotch game with 3-d4!? .the Italian game with 3-Bc4 or the standard Spanish opening 3-Bb5. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi chose the Spanish (which is also called the Ruy Lopez) for a couple of reasons.
First of all he is a world expert in the Ruy Lopez. Second, the square b5 itself is the best place for the light square bishop. The bishop is putting a pressure indirectly on the e5 pawn and white is preparing to castle quickly with maximum activity.

Carlsen follows up with 3-..a6!? putting a question mark on white last move, asking ian to make a decision either to go back or to give up the bishop pair for some structural damage.

The next moves are typical characteristics of this position. 4-Ba4 Nf6 5-O-O Be7 6-Re1 b5!? A normal move of this position ,However while black is driving white bishop back. He is inheriting weaknesses in the queenside!

7-Bb3 O-O 8-h3 Na5!? Black gives up a a pawn very early in order to obtain the bishop pairs!

9-Nxe5! Ian takes on the challenge asking Carlsen to show him what the compensation is he has for the sacrificed pawn? If Carlsen fails to do so, he should have a better position with chances in the endgame!

9-…Nxb3 10-axb3 Bb7 11-d3 d5! Opening up the position. Black is ahead in development and has the two bishops. Carlsen strike back in the center quickly

12-exd5 Qxd5 13-Qf3 offering trade of the queens. White after all ahead in material with a pawn. He would love to go into an endgame and try to get something out of this position.

13-..Bd6 improving the position of his bishops. In spite of the fact that ian is up a pawn it is a bit irrelevant here due to the maximum activity of black pieces. Black has full compensation for the pawn.

14-Kf1! A creative move by Ian that is surely out of Carlsen preparation. Ian knows that he is going into the endgame in the next few moves . White simply gets his king to the center in preparation of the endgame and strengthen its control over the e file

14-…Rfb8 simply improving the black rook.

15-Qxd5 Nxd5 16-Bd2 c5!? Very interesting play from Carlsen. Black has a lot of ideas to crush white queenside. While white is up a pawn, he is struggling for a plan here. The next moves shows how Ian is trying to regroup his pieces.

17-Nf3 Rd8 18-Nc3 Nb4!? White pieces will be tied down to protect his pawns

19- Rec1

19-…Rac8 20-Ne2 Nc6 21-Be3 Ne7 Ian is regrouping his pieces to improve his position. Carlsen also opened up his light square bishop and his rooks are in optimal squares.

22- Bf4!? Very typical idea. White want to exchange the dark square bishops to take away the Bishop pair advantage. The next move of Carlsen shows huge flexibility.

22-…Bxf3! 23-gxf3 Bxf4 24-Nxf4 Carlsen gave up the two bishops. However, he wrecked white pawn structure as we see in the next diagram

White extra pawn is irrelevant now. Black fully equalized.

24-…Rc6 25-Re1 Nf5 26 c3 Nh4 27 Re3 Kf8 normal maneuvers to improve the black king position while white is keeping control of the e file and protecting his shattered pawns.

28-Ng2!? Offering to exchange the knights. This decision is a simple admission from Ian that black equalized. Exchanging knights would result in a dry rook’s endgame with no progress for both sides

28… Nf5 29-Re5 g6 30-Ne1 Ng7 31-Re4 f5 32-Re3 Ne6 33-Ng2 b4!? White literally made no progress while black improved his pawn structure in the kingside, improved his knight position and now aggressively attacking the queenside. White must be extremely careful now. Any mistake can result into losing the whole queenside pawns!

34-Ke2 Calmly handling the position improving his king to help the queenside.

34-…Rb8 35-Kd2 bxc3+ 36-bxc3 Rxb3 white was forced to give back the pawn. Black is slightly better now. However, Ian shows great endgame technique to hold this position in the next moves.

37-Kc2 Rb7 38-h4 Kf7 39-Ree1 Kf6 40-Ne3!? Reaching some sort of fortress on both the kingside and the queenside. White is carefully controlling his weaknesses on both sides. It is very difficult for black now to improve his position more

40-…Rd7 time pressure, However the best move in this position 40..Nf4!? is still okay for white.it is hard to make any progress

41-Nc4 Re7 42-Ne5 Rd6 43-Nc4 Rc6 44-Ne5 Rd6 45-Nc4 repeating the position and agreeing to a draw after a big fight.

Conclusion

We can conclude from game one that this match is going to be a bloody one. Carlsen is not going to play defensively with black pieces. He wants to show the world why he is the best player for so many years and it is not just a match to defend his title. It is much more personal that this!!

On the other hand, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi showed us the Great Russian school technique in the endgame and a wise decision making. His calm play in a worse endgame secured for him a half point. Carlsen will need to do a lot more than this to win against Ian. We are going to cover all the world championship games day by day. Stay tuned!