Magnus and Ian Nepomniachtchi Draws 4 game
The score in the FIDE World Chess Championship is 2-2 after a fourth draw between GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi on Tuesday. Did the challenger shut down Carlsen's 1.e4 in this match? It's too early to tell, but his preparation and accurate response to a nice idea from the reigning champion in the opening got Nepomniachtchi a comfortable draw. Game five is scheduled for Wednesday at 16:30 Dubai time (13:30 CET, 4:30 a.m. Pacific).
Chess.com's commentators GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Robert Hess, and IM Daniel Rensch all predicted a win for Carlsen today, but the wish for a decisive game was father to the thought. On the day he turned 31, Carlsen didn't get a birthday gift from Nepomniachtchi, who scored the most comfortable draw for the black pieces in the match so far.
Playing his second white game, Carlsen deviated from the previous on his very first move. After playing the Catalan following his 1.d4 on Saturday, the champion switched to 1.e4 for this game, the move Nepomniachtchi had tried twice as well. And where the challenger avoided his usual Grunfeld in game one, also this time he did not choose a sharp opening such as the Najdorf—which he often plays—but the Petroff instead.
It was a surprise that we saw this opening, originally popularized in the mid-19th century by Alexander Petroff of Russia (therefore, also called "Russian Defense" in some languages), but not a big one.
On the one hand, Nepomniachtchi had played it only twice in his long career in over-the-board chess. However, one of these games was against GM Wang Hao in April of this year at the important FIDE Candidates Tournament—a game that he managed to win as Black, and a tournament that he managed to win to qualify for this world championship match.
"I guess he wasn't very surprised," Nepomniachtchi would say after the game. "He went for a very long and forcing line which is, I believe for those who dig deep into the Petroff lately, these people should be familiar with this line."
Carlsen: "No, it was one of the main openings that I expected, seeing that he played it in the Candidates and also in the first black game he went for a more classical approach rather than a sharp one, so it was very much expected. I couldn't know, obviously, which exact Petroff line he was gonna go for but the Petroff in itself was very much expected."
Caruana, who drew twice against Carlsen using the Petroff back in 2018, said: "I thought that the most logical thing for Ian would be to play the Berlin; that seemed like a natural choice for him in case Magnus were to play 1.e4. But the Petroff is interesting, I really did not expect this."
For historical reference, the Petroff was played 14 times in world championship matches before, where White won twice (Karpov-Korchnoi 1981 and Kasparov-Karpov 1985) and Black once (Leko-Kramnik, 2004), alongside 11 draws.
Carlsen might not have seen it as the most likely defense against 1.e4, but surely took it into account. His 5.d4, a major decision where 5.Nc3 has been mainline for years, was taken quickly.
After 15 moves, the players were still following the game Vachier-Lagrave vs. Caruana(!) played at the 2017 Norway Chess tournament. Why Carlsen went for this was revealed soon, when he played the stunning novelty 18.Nh4!?.
"18.Nh4 is fascinating," said Caruana. "I didn't know this move and this is probably an excellent idea from Magnus."
