Norway’s Magnus Carlsen has enhanced his claims as arguably the best chess player in history by completing a dominant defence of his world title in Dubai.
The 31-year-old defeated the Russian challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi with the black pieces in game 11, to clinch the best-of-14 world championship match with three games to spare.
It is the fourth time Carlsen has defended the title since he first claimed it with victory over India’s Viswanathan Anand in 2013.
Carlsen’s final score of 7.5 to 3.5 over Nepomniachtchi included four wins, seven draws and no losses — making it the most one-sided world title battle for a century.
“I didn’t expect it go quite like this,” reflected Carlsen.
“I think it was just a very good professional performance overall. No regrets at all, just very satisfied.”
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The first five games of the match had ended in draws, before Carlsen broke the deadlock with a record 136-move victory in game six that will be remembered as an all-time classic.
“I’d had very, very few chances to play for anything more, then everything kind of clicked and after that it all went my way,” said the champion.
Nepomniachtchi appeared to become unsettled by the first loss, and went on to commit basic blunders that cost him games eight, nine and 11.
“The things that happened to me here have never happened to me at basically any events,” said the Russian.
Carlsen’s victory sees him take home nearly $2 million, 60 per cent of the prizemoney offered for the match.
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The Norwegian grandmaster will have spent a decade as world champion by the time he next has to defend it in 2023, and now has strong claims to have surpassed Garry Kasparov as chess’s greatest player.
“I don’t think it’s up to me to judge,” Carlsen said.
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