Psychology in the 2021 World Chess Championship
In the wake of Magnus Carlsen's victory against challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2021 World Chess Championship, fans and professionals alike have been left wondering how Nepo, Russian super grandmaster and world rank #5 with a positive score against other world champions such as Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand (and even Carlsen going into their 2021 match), managed such a lackluster performance in the latter half of the match. While chess is very evidently a game of skill, preparation, and hard work, there is a psychological aspect that people tend to dismiss despite its effect on many of these top games. This World Chess Championship series is a prime example, with the gap in the mental strength of the two grandmasters first becoming apparent after game 6 and culminating with Nepo's subsequent blunders and losses. This article will examine, from a psychological perspective, challenges of the World Championship format, critical moments from the games themselves, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of both players.
Match regulations include a time control of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting with move 61. A best of 14, the victor is the first one to 7.5 points. In short, it is a long and grueling format that is incredibly mentally taxing. On top of that, after each match the players are required to answer interview questions from all ends of the spectrum of usefulness and relevance. One can only imagine a question like "How do you feel?" immediately after a loss is not the most pleasant to answer. Not to mention playing on a stage where the whole world is witness to every little detail comes with its own pressure. The only reprieve comes from the rest days littered between every 2-3 matches. In fact, they can be one of the psychological keys to the World Championship. For example, in the 2016 World Chess Championship Carlsen-Karjakin, Karjakin managed to score the first point of the match in game 8, despite Carlsen's attempts to play the game on his terms. However, with a rest day immediately following this loss, Carlsen was able to reset and approach the rest of the match with the right headspace.
This year, Nepo was not so lucky, losing game 6 and still having to play two more games before the next rest day. It is this game 6 that is the first critical moment of the World Championship, already famous for breaking the record for the longest match in World Championship history at 136 moves and praised for the sheer physicality demonstrated by both players. However, while they both had winning chances at some point, it was eventually Carlsen who came out on top of the 7 hours and 45 minutes struggle.
Nepo makes the decisive inaccuracy 130...Qe6, allowing Carlsen to begin advancing his pawns towards inevitable promotion
The reason why this game is so instrumental in Carlsen's eventual victory is because it exhausted Nepo. From that point on and with no rest day in sight, Nepo's only options were to move on or break. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. With his mental shattered, Nepo went on to make unbelievable blunders at the GM level, losing three more games so that the World Champion was already decided by game 11.
In an interview, Carlsen compares the result to the 2013 World Chess Championship. In 2013, he won game 5 after a long endgame and exhausted Vishy. After winning game 6 in an endgame as well, the match was basically decided. In the same way, after the initial loss, Nepo found himself swept away. Carlsen says:
"Obviously Nepomniachtchi couldn’t at some point show his best chess, which is a pity for the excitement in the match. But I think that’s what happens sometimes when you get in a difficult situation. Then all of that preparation and everything doesn’t necessarily help if you can’t cope at the moment."
And Nepo agrees with him, saying:
"The match of course consists of many aspects. It’s not only chess preparation but physical and psychological preparation. Of course it’s really tense and it’s a little more tense than I expected. But I guess anyway the tension is not a reason to overlook some simple things you would never overlook in a blitz game. What can I say? I should find out why it did happen and improve."
Interestingly enough, Carlsen predicted Nepo's weaker mental game. In an interview before the match, when asked what Nepo's biggest challenge would be, he said:
"In Norway Chess he seemed very strong for the first 3-4 rounds, he had a small setback, and then he collapsed. That's not something he can allow himself in a World Championship match. I am not going to fall even if I am hit in the face once. Perhaps that will be his biggest challenge, to handle the setbacks that will come, regardless of whether it’s a good position he fails to convert, or a game that he should have held to a draw but ends up losing, or opening preparation that goes wrong — that will be a huge challenge for him."
Additionally, on their previous interactions, Carlsen said:
"We spoke a bit during these tournaments, but didn't have much contact for years, until 2011, when we had a training session together. He was a player rated in the low 2700s and struggled a bit to make it to the very top. He complained that he didn't get enough invitations to the best tournaments, and felt that the players at the very top were not better than him. I told him that his problem was that he wasn't disciplined. He had one good tournament, followed by two bad ones. He could start an event with three wins in the first four rounds, then in his fifth game he would not win a better position, leading to a collapse. A very moody player."
From these quotes, one gets a better sense of why the World Championship spiraled out of control for Nepo so quickly. With his greatest weakness being his resilience, it was only a matter of time before he cracked against someone as consistent and unrelenting as Carlsen.
While these factors explain why Nepo lost, it is also important to understand why Carlsen won. With this being his fifth World Chess Championship, Carlsen is no stranger to the amount of preparation it requires and how demanding the match is in all its aspects. In an interview regarding the 2018 World Chess Championship, Fabiano Caruana noted how he was not expecting the level of psychoanalysis that Carlsen and his team did to strategize against him in the match. It was not just about looking for strong novelties, but about putting Carlsen in positions that he enjoyed but Caruana would not favor. On the other hand, Nepo admitted that even getting used to the tension was more than he expected. So one can see how it is already difficult to compete with Carlsen considering how much practice he already has in this format. However, in general, Carlsen's victory can be chalked up to two factors: his confidence and consistency. First of all, Carlsen has an unwavering confidence for chasing the best result he can. For example, in game 6, even with three minutes and three seconds left to play ten moves, he plays 30. h4, still fully intent on playing the position for a win.
Carlsen plays 30. h4, going for a win despite the time pressure
Not many have the conviction that Carlsen does when it comes to playing ambitiously and with full confidence in one's ability. The other aspect of Carlsen's success is his resilience and consistency. During game 6, he was simply the one who lasted the longest, even if there were moments when the game was lost or drawn. And once he had that edge, Carlsen continued to play solidly, not allowing Nepo to destabilize his position while also taking full advantage of the other grandmaster's blunders.
In the end, this World Chess Championship match served as a prime example of the psychological aspects of chess that can decide a game just as easily as opening preparation or endgame knowledge can. While Nepo displayed a strong start in the first six games, he was eventually overtaken by the mental weight of his first loss. On the other hand, congrats to Carlsen for defending his title as World Chess Champion.
