Nepo,Carlsen G1 Nepo Surprises Draws with White.

I am back for the first game of the Nepo-Carlsen match. In this first game Nepo was doing quite well but then got the heat turned on under him, still he did quite well and surprised everyone with his wonderful play under pressure. The two players had played 14 classical games before and surpeisingly the score was in Nepos advantge 4-1. Carlsen has special ties to this city because he got his 3rd GM norm here and won the world rapid and blitz championships. Second in the blitz that year was Nepo. Without anymore lets dive into the game.

The Game:

First Nepo started with one of his most used openings the Ruy Lopez. Carelsen retorted with a Marshall Gambit that Nepo did not accept. Than Magnus played 8.Na5!? which Nepo quickly responded to quickly. The posistion now resembles a Gajewski Gambit. They continued normally until 14 Kf1 Rb8

Now the game is out of human theory but  Erwin l'Ami pointed out that many engines have covered this. Now White has a pawn but black has activity. The game continued until 33... b4 where Carlsen threatened to gain an advantage. But Nepo played well under fire and the game was drawn.

Quotes and Interviews:

For sure the quote of the day was when Carlsen was asked because of his openings whether he had a German on his team he replied "You may speculate as much as you want; that's half the fun of being a journalist at a world championship match!" He also said in the press conference that he felt "a little bit shaky at times." Nepo said this about drawing with White "I feel like you feel after a draw with the white pieces." About move 8(Na5) Grzegorz Gajewski tweeted "How many Gajewski Gambits are there??!!"

Last but not least I want to show you what Sam Shankland said about the game in the GOTD collection and the score box.

And with that bye and I hope to see you tomorrow for the next game.

                                                                                      @Verne9