Chess is not known for fireworks, but Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen tested that theory on Friday as he clinched the Chess World Championship in style.
The championship, held in a soundproof glass box in Dubai over two weeks, was the most incident-filled in years, breaking records for viewership, and featuring the longest game in championship history — a seven hour and 46-minute-long marathon.
Chess has boomed during the pandemic, mainly thanks to the success of Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” and the rise of chess streaming on Twitch. In that time, chess sets sold out and celebrities like rapper Logic and actor Rainn Wilson starred in online tournaments. During Facebook’s rebrand to Meta last month, Mark Zuckerberg played virtual chess with haptic gloves.
Hype around the world championship has been equally pronounced.
Carlsen, who has been world champion since 2013, is regularly compared to Russian grandmaster Gary Kasparov — who was world champion for eight years in the 1980s and 90s — in the battle for the title of greatest player in chess history.
This championship, Carlsen faced down Ian Nepomniachtchi, a 31-year-old Russian grandmaster blessed with natural ability and revered for his incisive style.
The first five bouts of the 14-game series ended in tense draws, but Carlsen soon blew Nepomniachtchi away, seizing on blunders from Nepomniachtchi to win four of the next six games. The last time a player won a World Chess Championship by a four-game margin was in 1921 — exactly 100 years ago.
Even Nepominiatchi’s decision to cut off his trademark topknot after losing the seven-hour marathon match, an apparent attempt to shake off his bad luck, couldn’t save him.
The tournament also saw a number of firsts, and was beset with controversy and intrigue.
Carlsen’s first win in the championship came on December 3, and was the first outright result in the classical stage of a world championship since 2016.
One of the earlier drawn games was the most accurate ever played in a world championship, meaning that the moves the players made matched those of a computer model to determine the best possible moves more closely than ever before. At the top level, chess players are so good that they can calculate which moves on the board are least likely to result in danger later on.
The accuracy of the game, and others, also highlighted how important supercomputers have become in helping chess pros prepare their tactics before events.
Nepominiatchi was given access to Zhores, a supercomputer based at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow. One of the world’s most powerful computers, it let his camp evaluate tens of millions of positions per second.
Other games in the series were also not without controversy.
Half-way through game eight on Tuesday, it appeared that Carlsen had broken one of the more obscure rules in chess, when he touched one of his pieces but didn’t proceed to move or adjust it, as per the rules.
However, Nepominiatchi missed his chance to make Carlsen pay — he could have compelled him to move that piece — as he was away from the chess board at the time.
During the post-match press conference, Carlsen was visible irked when asked by a journalist about the apparent gaffe.
“Do better,” he said.
Rappers, actors, and NBA players were glued to the championship
There was also intrigue and drama away from the board.
Chess world championships often bring celebrities, some chess-mad, out of the woodwork.
The chess-fanatic rapper Logic and the actor Rainn Wilson appeared on chess.com to give their insights into the games. Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward and former Baltimore Ravens guard John Urschel were also scheduled to join chess.com’s coverage.
In Dubai, former Real Madrid soccer player Míchel Salgado made the ceremonial first move in Tuesday’s game.
Elsewhere, controversy reigned on December 5 when Alexandra Botez, one of the chess world’s most popular streamers, was criticized by users on Twitch after she appeared to defend the United Arab Emirates’ human rights record, which is considered poor, during a stream from Dubai. She later apologized.
In another moment of drama, it appeared that Nepominiatchi’s team, while analyzing a never-before-studied position on online chess databases before the championship, forgot to turn their research onto private mode, meaning the analysis was available for all to see online. The error was the chess equivalent of leaving an NFL football team playbook on the subway.
Chess masters commentating the game for Chess24 said the chances were high that Carlsen’s team had noticed it, but that it was impossible to tell for sure.
As world champion once again, Carlsen is approaching Kasparov’s record, but his win is also good news for his brand.
The Norwegian has monetized his chess like no player before him. He set up his company, Play Magnus, in 2013 and it has risen since to a market capitalization of $115 million.
Carlsen’s own stake in the company is worth around $9 million, The New York Times reported.
