All top players have physical coaches nowadays. The physical coach of Carlsen did a better job.
Most games get decided in endgames. Nepo lost a table base draw in game 6.
Remaining seated and taking time to think pays off: that is what Carlsen did.
Walking around and blitzing moves leads to errors, that is what Nepo did.
what did you learn from the 2021 world championship match?
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What I got from watching the match is that the first 5 games were very close and those games or any of the other games werent decided by the opening. Each side had there preparation of course but it wasnt very ambitious....especially on Nepos side. He played the Ruy Lopez but not the most theoretical lines of the ruy. As black he played the petroff against e4 and solid lines aainst d4. I sort of got the impression that Nepo wasnt trying to win the game in the opening. His strategy was more to get a solid position and try to complicate things from there. He was most successful in this strategy in game six even though he lost that game. Anyway, that is a long winded way of saying that what I learned is its okay to play less ambitious openings and play for a small advantage in the middlegame and endgame. With all the draws I guess this strategy didnt work out too well for either player....at least through the first 5 games but its more reasonable to expect it to work for an amateur like myself.
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The other thing I learned is stamina and focus is very important in chess. Game six must have been very exhausting for both players but it seemed to affect Nepo more which makes sense. When you lose a game where you expend a lot of energy the fact that you lost makes you feel even more depleted. You still feel tired but the fact that you won gives you some energy. Anyway all of this is fairly obvious but its something all of us probably need to work on. We spend a lot of time doing tactics, opening theory and endgame but how many of us are working on stamina and focus? I mean its good to understand all that complicated theory but if you blunder due to fatigue and nerves, what good is it? On the other hand how do you go about working on stamina and focus? Physical conditioning is definitely part of it but what else? Maybe 8 hour study sessions or something? Anyway this match reminded me I need to work on these things if I want to win a tourrnament like the World Open. Any thoughts?