Heavy is the head

On International Chess Day, 20 July, Magnus Carlsen announced that he will not defend his world championship title next year. The Norwegian won the title in 2013 by beating Viswanathan Anand in Chennai, and went on to defend his title against Anand once more, then Sergey Karjakin, Fabiano Caruana and most recently Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Carlsen stressed that he has no intention of retiring. In fact, his stated goal is to keep improving, unencumbered by the grind of preparing for a new world championship match. (Each one might easily demand six months of preparation.) Reaching an international rating of 2900 is still a target he has in mind, though that Everest remains a long way off.

Carlsen had signalled for some time that abdication was on his mind, though many doubted that he would go through with it. But the likes of Anand and Kasparov, who know just how exhausting a world championship match can be, expressed sympathy with his decision.

During the recent Candidates tournament in Madrid, it was clear that most participants considered that only the top spot was worth fighting for. But Carlsen’s announcement means that Ding Liren, the Chinese runner-up, is due to face the winner, Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, in a world championship match in 2023. That’s a cruel turn of events for Hikaru Nakamura, who was beaten and overtaken by Ding Liren in the final round.

Ding headed for an endgame that looked innocuous, but Nakamura, needing only a draw, never quite managed to neutralise the pressure. Nakamura felt that his problems set in gradually, starting from the moment when Ding advanced 18 h4 (see diagram), setting up ideas of Nf3-g5+. Although 18…h6 was a natural response, he came to regret it after 19 Rdc1!, keeping tension in the position.