Anatomy of a GOAT: What makes Magnus Carlsen the world's best chess player

 What makes Magnus Carlsen the world's best chess player

What happened here has never happened before in my career," Nepomniachtchi said after Friday's game, in a perhaps unintended homage to the new champion. "I've lost lots of stupid games, but not as many in such a short time."In a technologically flat, AI-powered chess world where preparation among the best players can be almost equal, what really makes one guy stand out with his dominance and genius for this long?

Carlsen, perhaps the only current chess player with no apparent shortcomings in his game, holds a catalog of strengths - immaculate calculations, rare outright mistakes, superlative positional sense and an eagerness to trade material for activity. He's also perfected the art of turning the smallest opportunities into major breakthroughs. Former world champion Garry Kasparov once called him a combination of two greats Anatoly Karpov and Bobby Fischer who 'gets his positions and never lets go of his bulldog bite !

The imperious Magnus Carlsen confirmed his long-held place as the best chess player on the planet on Friday by retaining the world championship with a fourth win over Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 11th encounter of their showdown in Dubai.

A tightly wound contest that appeared bound for a draw immediately came undone when the Russian challenger made a ghastly blunder that gifted Carlsen the game and match, punctuating a dramatic breakdown that started a week ago when Nepomniachtchi came up short in the sixth game, a psychologically taxing 7hr 45min epic.

Magnus Carlsen’s world title victory also proves big win for armchair spectators

Carlsen’s winning score of 7½-3½ with three games to spare is the most lopsided result in a world championship match since José Raúl Capablanca’s triumph over Emanuel Lasker exactly 100 years ago in Havana. In that match, Capablanca won by a four-game margin without a single defeat – a stunning margin Carlsen matched on Friday with a fourth decisive result in six games after their first five meetings ended in draws.

“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,” said Carlsen. “You can point to things you could have done differently in every game of course, but overall I’m happy with my play, very proud of my effort in the sixth game, and that sort of laid the foundation for everything"

Ian Nepomniachtchi made another costly mistake in Game 11 as his world title hopes slipped away. Photograph: Jon Gambrell/AP

The challenger spent nearly 18 minutes pondering his response, seemingly taken out of his opening preparation, before playing 9 Nc2. Tension continued to build from there, reaching a flashpoint with the four pawns staring at each other in the center of the board after Nepomniachtchi’s 19 .... d4 and Carlsen’s 20 d5, although the chess supercomputers evaluating the match pointed towards a peaceful result.

Magnus Carlsen beats Ian Nepomniachtchi to retain World Chess Championship title – as it happened

Carlsen found the winning response within a minute and a half (23 ... dxe3) and from there the game and match was all but a handshake away. When the Russian finally resigned after 49 moves and 3hr 21min, the Norwegian’s fifth win in five world championship matches was done and dusted.

“I didn’t expect it go quite like this,” said Carlsen, who brings home a 60% share of the €2m (£1.7m) purse for winning before the tiebreak stage. “I think it was just a very good professional performance overall. No regrets at all, just very satisfied.”

He added: “After five games there were five draws and I’d had very, very few chances to play for anything more. Then everything kind of clicked and after that it all went my way. You don’t expect to necessarily run away with it in a world championship.”

Of his fatal blunders in the eighth, ninth and 11th games, a rueful Nepomniachtchi said: “These things which happened here, they have never happened to me at basically any events … In my career I lost quite some stupid games but not as many in such a [short] time

Absolute GOAT !