2021 World Chess Championship Full Recap: I was wrong

Hey y'all, welcome to the Lightning Reports! Today, I will be giving you my full recap of the 2021 World Chess Championship. Now, I have already posted what was essentially a recap of the first half of the match 2 weeks ago in my previous blog, but I will still include the games here with my analysis if you want to see them below. If you have already seen my previous blog, feel free to skip over the first seven games of this one.

The 2021 World Chess Championship match was probably the best I've ever seen. Well, that is, until around game eight. From the high-quality chess to the high-quality commentary, there was so much to enjoy and it looked like it was going to be an exciting, close match. Unfortunately, Nepo lost a historical game six and seemed to be tilted for the remainder of the match. This eventually leads to Nepo losing the match by a stunning 7.5-3.5 score, which is the first time a World Chess Championship match was decided by 4 points in 100 years, I believe. I openly admit I was wrong about Nepo winning the match. I was way off about that...

Even still, I think it is important to say that he deserves your respect. He earned his spot in this match as the challenger by winning the Candidates tournament, and he will be in the next Candidates tournament as well. We could very well get a rematch soon enough. Regardless, stop hating on Nepo. You and I couldn't have done any better, both on the board and at the press conferences. Just making it to the match should be enough for him to have your respect, and the way he handled the press conferences says a lot about him. At the end of the day, however, Magnus Carlsen is the G.O.A.T of chess, and he was the better player. Hats off to both players. With all that being said, let's get to the games!

THE FIRST SEVEN GAMES

As I previously said, if you read my previous blog, you won't see anything different here and can skip to the next section for my analysis on the final four games. If not, do read on

The first seven games of the match featured plenty of excitement, despite 6 draws. We saw several exchanges sacrifices, four Ruy Lopez games, a rare decisive result, and a historical, record-breaking game in round 6, as Magnus earned a solid 4-3 lead. 

Game one was the first of four games in which Ian Nepomniachtchi, the challenger, would play the Ruy Lopez. Magnus sacrificed a pawn for compensation, making for an exciting game, but ultimately it was a draw.

Similarly, in round two Magnus gave up an exchange for compensation, leading to a second consecutive exciting game, but once again it was meant to end in a draw.

Game three, the second in which we see the Ruy Lopez, did not have the fireworks we had in games one and two. This one was a more solid, efficient game that always seemed likely to be a draw.

Game four was also less exciting than the first two games, but both players did have their chances. But again, it ended in a draw, the 4th straight to start the match.

Game five, the third game in which we see Nepo play the Ruy Lopez, was similar to game three. In fact, not much was different at all aside from the moves that were played. The game was similar ins style, solid and efficient, leading to a 5th straight draw.

Game six is where we finally see that decisive result, as Magnus grinds it out for 136 moves, a new World Chess Championship record, winning an endgame in which it seemed drawish until the end. This was the first decisive result in the World Chess Championship in 5 years.

Game seven was the 4th straight game in which Nepo plays the Ruy Lopez as white, and the result was no different this time around. Just like in games three and five, it was a solid and efficient game by both players, leading to a draw.

With that, the first 7 games of the match, which I thought was going to be the halfway point of the match as I thought we would see 14 games played, have concluded with Magnus holding a 4-3 lead. Nepo still has reasonable chances to come back and tie the match. The only thing keeping this match from being tied is Magnus winning an incredibly close game in game six that I think only he could have won. Plenty of chess to be played... right?

GAME EIGHT

Heading into game eight, Magnus has a 4-3 lead, leaving Nepo little margin for error. Even after losing game six, I felt like Nepo still had good chances to come back and even the score. After all, he had played so well in the first half of the match. What could go wrong? As it turns out, the answer to that innocent question would be game eight...

GAME NINE

Although losing game eight absolutely sucks for Nepo, he's not out of this just yet. Sure, his chances of making the comeback just plummeted severely, but at least there's a chance! Nepo has white in game nine, so, logically, he is gonna go all out and try to win, right? Well, about that. You can't really win if you are getting your own pieces trapped...

GAME TEN

Nepo is now coming off back-to-back losses and now finds himself down 3-6. This was just a very close 3-4 match, but, as it turns out, losing back-to-back games in an event like this pretty much dooms you. Yes, technically, Nepo could win 3 of the final 5 games and force a tiebreak. But come one, do you really think Magnus, with a 2 point lead, is going to lose 3/5 games? Yeah. Me neither. Pretty much everyone knows by now what the result will be, but give credit to Nepo for being such a good sport at press conferences and putting up with all of this. Even still, despite facing a 3-6 deficit that should prove to be too much to overcome, Nepo continues to fight on. Game ten doesn't show that as much, as both players seemed content to play out a drawish game and end the run of decisive results.

GAME ELEVEN

Going into game eleven, the score is 6.5-3.5 in favor of Magnus. Nepo has to get 3.5/4 the rest of the way just to get to a 7-7 tie. Nepo's chances of tying/winning the match are in life support. The way he plays in game eleven was sure to show how he would approach the remainder of the match. As it turns out, whatever his approach was, it was the wrong approach...

FINAL THOUGHTS

Well, that was some match. After the first 7 games, Magnus only had a 4-3 lead, having barely won an instant classic in game 6. But that proved to be a huge difference-maker. If Nepo hadn't lost that, I seriously wonder what would have happened. Nepo probably wouldn't have been tilted. He wouldn't have played some awful blunders in 3 other games. And perhaps this would have been a lot closer in the end. But I suppose we will never know. I think a big part of how this match played out was not only that Magnus was the better player, but he has a ton of experience playing in these big matches, whereas Bepo was only in his first World Chess Championship. The experience factor was not something I considered when I made my prediction. That was, perhaps, foolish of me. Magnus won this comfortably, but I do not believe it was as easy as the final score indicates. In any case, Magnus came to play, defended his title successfully, and has convinced many (including myself) that he is the G.O.A.T of chess. Well done, Magnus. Well done. I won't be predicting you to lose again anytime soon 😅

As can be seen above, I have only two more blogs planned for the rest of the year. I won't reveal what they are going to be about just yet, but be on the lookout for those to drop as scheduled! And for anyone who remembers that I had been planning to post this blog on the 17th, I didn't think the match would end so early. But it did, so that means my blog is out a week early. Regarding future plans for my blog, I don't have anything planned for 2022 yet. I have ideas, but I don't know what I'm going to do. I want to try to grow my YouTube channel, so if you could check that out I would truly appreciate that. I've got a new series planned for 2022 and I'm excited to get to work on that. Anyway, if there is anything you want me to cover or report on in my blog, leave a suggestion in the comments and I'll consider it. Finally, regarding my new pfp for the week... I lost a bet to @Roger436. We agreed the winner of the bet, which was about who would win the match, would choose the pfp of the loser for a week. Nepo lost the match, so I lost the bet.

Alright, that's all I've got for y'all today. Thank you so much for reading, I truly hope you enjoyed it! Leave a comment below, I love reading them. As you know, I respond to pretty much any comment you leave. I'm prepared to get roasted for my failed prediction, and I welcome it. Best roast gets a shoutout in my next blog and YT vid  

Again, thanks so much for reading. I'll cyall in the comments Stike some Lightning!