The most respected coaches in the former Soviet Union, where chess was a national passion, advised a quick draw after a painful defeat. Ian Niepómniashi followed that rule this Saturday to the letter, despite the fact that he had the initiative of the white pieces, in the 7th round of the 14 scheduled in the World Cup that he disputes against the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen at the Dubai Expo. The Norwegian will lead them on Sunday in the 8th, from 1:30 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time).
The fortitude with which Niepómniashi faced his defeat at midnight on Friday, after eight hours of torture and 136 movements, sowed some doubt about his attitude in the following game. It seems very clear – in addition, it was always a very common practice among Russian elite athletes of any discipline – that their preparation plan for the Dubai duel has included sessions with psychologists specialized in high performance. Not only because of how well he put up with his face Friday night at the press conference, but because psychological instability has always been his Achilles heel. And there are still more; Asked about it after the tie in the 7th game, the Russian was blunt: “I am mentally very strong.” That phrase would have produced pitying smiles just two years ago, but now it sounds plausible.
However, going out to ram a sports monster like Carlsen 16 hours after being badly gored doesn’t seem sensible because, after all, Niepómniashi is human, and not Superman. So the Slav grabbed the Spanish Apertura for the fourth time in this duel, insisting on the honor of the clergyman Ruy López de Segura, the first unofficial world champion, in the 16th century, under the patronage of Felipe II.
For a moment it seemed that the novelty of the Russian in his eleventh set surprised the champion, deep in thought. But nothing extraordinary happened: as he explained later, Carlsen invested that time in refreshing his elephantian memory to recall what he had prepared with his analysts on that position in his day; then he made a few very precise movements and balanced the fight completely. The rest was a small paripe to get closer to movement 40, because the regulation prohibits signing the tie before, unless there is a triple repetition of positions.
After only two and a half hours of fighting, it was the appropriate day for journalists to divert their questions to collateral issues. For example, if Carlsen had suffered some pang of conscience defending his title in a dictatorial country and questioned in the field of human rights, with a prize pool of two million euros. “No comment”, settled the champion.
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