Magnus Carlsen – Ian Nepomnyachchi: World Chess Championship Game 7 – LIVE! | sports

And after Nepomnyakhchi played the role of 41. RA 7, the players shake hands. He tied after 41 moves, two hours and 30 minutes. Perhaps it’s a missed opportunity for the Russian rival: he’s still down by one match point and Carlsen has more games with the white pieces. But who can blame him after he came right back after yesterday’s eight-hour crucible?

Carlsen leads 4-3 in best of 14 matches with seven competitions remaining.

The crows came out, and the queens came out. We should end here for a moment: 33. g3 h5 34. Kg2 Kg7 35. Ra5 Kf6 36. Rb5 Kg7 37. Ra5 Kf6 38. Rb5 Kg7 39. Ra5 Kf6 40. Ra6 + Kg7 …

This one is fading fast. Motions are flying on the board now: 25. Nxe5 Rxe5 26. Rxe5 Qxe5 27. Qc3 Qxc3 28. bxc3 Rc8 29. Ra5 Rxc3 30. Rxb5 Rc1+ 31. Kh2 Rc3 32. h4 g6 …

Simplification continues with 23. … Bxc5 24. Rxc5 Nxe5. More to come soon as the tie appears likely.

Nepomnyakhchi looks to the side and shakes his head after 21. e5 Qf5 22. dxc5 dxc5 23. Bxc5. Looks like we’re headed to a tie today.

Nepomniachtchi plays 20. Rec1 After about 18 minutes. Carlsen takes 97 seconds before replying with 20. … c5. According to the Norwegian supercomputer Sesse, the situation is dead till. “Today’s match is as if the previous match never happened,” Dutch master Anish Gehry said on the Chess24 broadcast. “Neither side ever adjusted their strategy, which makes a lot of sense because they didn’t have time to adapt. They finished too late and there was no rest day.”

Carlsen plays Commit 17. exd4 after nearly nine minutes, giving up his stronghold in the middle. Nepomniachtchi contemplates his options for seven minutes before regaining his hand c-pawn (18. cxd4). Carlsen then quickly begins exchanging the bishop before pushing his knight to the side (18. … Bxb3 19. Qxb3 Ng6).

Nepomniachtchi plays 17. d4 Carlsen has gone to the center of thought. He spent more than seven minutes thinking about his response and was more than 20 minutes behind his opponent on time.

“I think the opening went well for Ian,” said American senior professor Fabiano Caruana Chess.com broadcast. “It’s not a very big advantage but it’s pressure and he’s working around the clock. That’s a bit of an opening success. But we saw the last time he was white he got an advantage but he wasn’t able to follow it in the most subtle way.

“So this is only the beginning. Although he may have won the opening fight in a small way, he still needs to outsmart Magnus from this position. Which is really difficult because this is Magnus area. Roy Lopez positions, he has been playing in Top level, and world championship level, for more than a decade.”

Nepomniachtchi checks the position for nearly 10 minutes before playing 16. Be3. Carlsen replies with 16. …Be6 exactly six minutes later.

It took Carlsen over 20 minutes to think about his response to 15.c3. “I’m not sure if this is an opening success for Ian,” commentator John Christian Haar said on the Chess24 broadcast. “It seems to me that Magnus has tied. But then again, it depends again on what Ian wants to get out of this game. He has a very strong position and he is not finished after this match or tie or anything.”

In the end, Carlsen retracts his knight 15. …Ne7. Early days, but he fell 20 minutes behind Nepomnyakhchi on time.

We’re going after a technical problem! After players start firing their opening moves into an anti-Marshall version of the closed off Roy Lopez (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. OO Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3), players continue 7. … OO 8. a4 Rb8 9. axb5 axb5 10. h3 d6 11. d3 h6 12. Nc3.

Carlsen, who is playing in black today, has his first long thought of the day, taking nearly 13 minutes before making a decision on it. 12. … Re8, before 13. Nd5 Bf8 14. Nxf6 + Qxf6 15. c3 Leave us in the current situation.