Aggressive Draws at the FIDE World Chess Championships 2021

 


Hey these guys are sacrificing pawns and exchanges and throwing the kitchen sink at each other but ultimately ending each game peacefully. What is going on? Magnus Carlsen's two previous encounters with Karjakin and Caruana had bucket loads of draws.  Why on earth did we think it would be any different when Magnus played his former second, Nepomniachtchi?

Magnus Carlsen is totally up for it this time round, he seems ready to fight and his calculated risks seem more edgy than ever before. Magnus has so much to lose if he is unable to defend his title but he seems able to put the sum of all those fears aside and sacrifice material for unbalanced positions.

Chess like Tango does take two also so Nepomniachtchi is trying hard to get good positions out of the opening with his phenomenal preparation. Nepo seems to have done very well in predicting that Carlsen will go for main variations and choose sound less popular side lines. 

Experienced chess players will know that aggressive moves do not necessarily bring a decisive result.  The sacrifice of a pawn can do more to shut down the game than keeping the tension and avoiding forced variations that lead to a clearly drawn rook pawn endgame even a pawn down.

Magnus needs to prove he is the GOAT by winning actual games of classical chess and not sneaking through after a drawn match then getting lucky in the tiebreaks. We need to see this magnificent chess beast beating his peers and showing the quality we keep ascribing to him. 

Nepomniachtchi is an extremely canny opponent and is probably the trickiest foil to Magnus in years. He has a combative style and confident demeanour is a perfect antidote to the stodgy suffocating style of Magnus Carlsen. It would be very satisfying to see someone win who actually set out to win and not avoided losing.

Who will win? Well anyone who can risk it all. 

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