Magnus WINS Game 6 ! Dubai World Championship

Magnus did it !

Incredible tense game with Magnus running low on the clock but winning the game. 136 moves long game, a record for world championship game !

Key moments

Magnus played 10Nbd2!? offering a pawn but Nepo declined

After 22..Qe4, Black was doing fine as White's queen had to go to a2. Magnus rerouted the queen to c2 but this allows Black to maintain equality

Nepo capture White's queen for two rooks

But Magnus has chances here if he can coordinate his rooks.

very complex and players were under 2 minutes for the last moves to reach the 40th move time control !

Key position on 40th move, White to play

With seconds on the clock, White had to play 40 Rdc2 but instead Magnus went for 40 Nxe4.

This means the position remains equal here

52th move : another critical position !

Black to play

Here Black had to play Kh6 or Kg7 and wait. Nepo went to ..Qe4 which allowed a neat transformation

Magnus doesn't hesitate to eliminate the pawn on a3 , giving up his rook.

With queen and knight, White will try to press on the kingside. There is still a long way to go and Black should be able to defend with accurate play, but this is difficult and Nepo made further mistakes defending.

The key: White keeps the knight close to the king so that Black's queen cannot do perpetual checks.

This was a very long conversion and Magnus continued pressure paid off. He was very low on the clock and after 60th move relied on increments.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

A marathon game !

Here my annotations on this great win by Magnus

We can see the focus of the world champion in these pictures.

Look below, incredible focus around move 35. The way he managed to keep his focus and avoid mistakes in the marathon game is very impressive. He worked very hard at the board to score his first win in this match.