Carlsen-Nepomniachtchi, Game 1: A Draw After an Opening Surprise

Both players were inaccurate at times in the first game of their World Championship match, but it was nevertheless an interesting, hard-fought, and reasonably well-played game between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen.

Nepo had White in game 1, and played his usual 1.e4. Carlsen replied with 1...e5 - his old repertoire choice, before he became a Sveshnikov Sicilian player for his 2018 title match with Fabiano Caruana. After 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 we were thankfully spared the sight of the Berlin, and Carlsen went into a Closed Ruy and threatened the Marshall Gambit with 7...0-0. White played the 8.h3 Anti-Marshall, and here a bit of a shocker: 8...Na5!? This is very much a minor line, but it's Marshall-like: Black sacrifices a center pawn for the bishop pair and some central control.

It turned out that Nepomniachtchi had done his due diligence, and while Carlsen surely spent more time preparing the line than Nepo did, the challenger had done enough to sidestep any traps and achieve a position where he could slowly fight for a win. This remained the assessment until his 22.Bf4, which is at best a serious inaccuracy and maybe just a mistake. In general, swapping two pairs of minor pieces and getting rid of both black bishops was a great idea, but he underestimated Black's chances and the problems with his kingside structure. After further inaccuracies, he was almost in trouble after Carlsen's excellent 33...b4. Fortunately for Nepo, the damage wasn't too severe at that point, and after gaining his bearings he found a good defensive idea, and the game petered out to a draw.

You can replay the game here, with my brief notes. (Subscribers can look forward to a much more deeply annotated version later today, along with my video recap. If you're interested in joining them, you can find more information here.)