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    33. World Chess Championship 2021 - Megathread

      Text 812 words
      Warning: this post may contain spoilers
      SPOILERS. If you care about those, don't look at the schedule or scoreboard below either.

      Final result: Magnus Carlsen successfully defended the World Title by winning in round 11. The competition is over. Long live the king!

      Why am I posting this thread?

      Honestly, I'm really excited about this. Isn't that enough? :)

      What is it?

      The World Chess Championship (WCC) is the topmost competition of the sport, and basically determines the best player in the world. It is disputed between the winner of the Candidates Tournament and the current champion. Since his first title in 2013, Magnus Carlsen successfully defended the title on three different occasions and is the undisputed favorite. The challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi does have a positive score against Magnus, but most don't give that much importance, since most of his victories happened when they were much younger. Chess.com combed through the data and gave Magnus 72% winning odds. In terms of style, Magnus is considered a universal player. Nepomniachtchi is generally more aggressive but adopted a more conservative style in the Candidates Tournament.

      Since 2014, the WCC happens once every 2 years, alternating with the Candidates Tournament. The current edition was supposed to take place in 2020, but was postponed due to covid. It will happen in Dubai.

      The World Chess Championship starts this Friday, November 26, at 16:30 local time, 12:30 UTC.

      Where to watch

      In the United States, the NBC over-the-air television channel will broadcast daily 30 minutes highlights.

      The players

      Player Country Age GM Age Rating Peak Rating
      Magnus Norway 30 13 2855 2882 (2014)
      Nepo Russia 31 13 2782 2792 (2021)

      Time controls

      In chess, time controls determine the time each player has to make their movies. A time control of 10 minutes means that each player has 10 minutes to use throughout the game. There can also be increments, which are added to a player's overall time after each move. For example, with a time control of 10 | 5 each player starts with 10 minutes to make their moves, and automatically gains 5 seconds on the clock every time they make a move.

      The time controls for the World Championship matches may seem a bit complex at first. This is just for reference, if you intend to follow the games online, I'm certain that the commentators will make sure to remind you of these details.

      Stage Moves Time (min)
      1 01 to 40 120
      2 41 to 60 60
      3 61 to \u221e 15 + 30s

      The table above means that, on stage 1, each player has 120 minutes to make their moves. On stage 2, they have 60 minutes. On stage 3, each player has 15 minutes, with an addition of 30 seconds after each move.

      Format

      • Draw by agreement is only allowed after the 40th move (it used to be the 30th).

      • There will be 14 standard games (it used to be 12). The first to achieve 7½ points will be World Champion.

      • If, after the 14 games, the score is equal, there will be tie-break games in that order, with the subsequent tie-break only being disputed if the previous one maintained the tie.

        1. 4 rapid games of (TC: 25min + 10s)
        2. Best out 5 blitz games (TC: 5min + 3s)
        3. 1 armageddon game.

      Scoreboard

      Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12-14 Total
      Magnus Carlsen ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 N/A 7 ½
      Ian Nepomniachtchi ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 N/A 3 ½

      Magnus won on round 11. Rounds 12 to 14 will not be disputed.

      Schedule

      All games, as well as the closing ceremony, are scheduled to 07:30 AM EST / 12:30 UTC.

      This will be updated with the results for each match, as well as the sum of the overall points. I will also try to sum up some experts commentaries for each selected games. Adding notes to every game would require more effort than I initially thought! I'll create a top comment with links and basic info on each game, but will not be adding personal notes to all of them. Feel free to add your impressions to the top comments. Thanks!.

      Date Event Result
      Nov 26 GAME 1 Draw
      Nov 27 GAME 2 Draw
      Nov 28 GAME 3 Draw
      Nov 29 REST
      Nov 30 GAME 4 Draw
      Dec 01 GAME 5 Draw
      Dec 02 REST
      Dec 03 GAME 6 Magnus Win
      Dec 04 GAME 7 Draw
      Dec 05 GAME 8 Magnus Win
      Dec 06 REST
      Dec 07 GAME 9 Magnus Win
      Dec 08 GAME 10 Draw
      Dec 09 REST
      Dec 10 GAME 11 Magnus Win
      21 votes

    35. What board games have you played recently?

      Ask (survey)
      I went through a phase where we seemed to have board games nights with friends a couple of times a month but with the whole pandemic thing that has dried up. Tonight, I finally got around to...

      I went through a phase where we seemed to have board games nights with friends a couple of times a month but with the whole pandemic thing that has dried up.

      Tonight, I finally got around to trying Lanterns with my wife and we really enjoyed it. It's sort of similar to sushi go with more steps. You play lake tiles which contain lanterns and collect lantern cards based on how you place the lake tiles, then you dedicate those lanterns in different sets to gain honour (points) and at the end, who has the most honour wins.

      11 votes