World Chess Championship: Ian Nepomniachtchi’s glare, Magnus Carlsen’s shadow and freezing Astana

On a day Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi managed to sneak ahead of his rival Ding Liren in the race to be the 17th World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen ended up casting a long shadow over the 64 squares.
The Norwegian, who had been the world champion since 2013, forfeited his right to defend his throne and went on to say he “didn’t care” who would replace him.
“I haven’t got any plans to follow the world championship. I’ll probably follow it, but I don’t plan on watching the games live,” Carlsen had said earlier this year.

As if to reinforce how serious he was, clips of him playing poker games surfaced on Twitter in the middle of the ongoing World Championship.
Then, on Saturday, Carlsen posted an image of himself on Instagram with the cryptic caption, “Astana calling.”

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It caused a flutter, with people wondering if Carlsen was heading to the city hosting the World Championship.
“As they say, ‘I literally don’t care,’ yeah?” said a grinning Nepomniachtchi, when he was asked to decode the meaning of Carlsen’s caption right after his win on Saturday. “I guess he’s turning into a streamer or something.”
Carlsen had famously remarked “I don’t even remotely care” at a press conference during the 2021 World Championship when asked which former world champion’s commentary he would enjoy lening to. At that time, Nepo was also on stage with him.

While Carlsen has stayed away from the event — so far at least — his decision to not defend his title has come up multiple times in commentary over the past four games as the man who was world champion before the Norwegian, India’s Viswanathan Anand, was behind the mic. With Grandmaster Daniil Dubov replacing Anand in commentary, it is unlikely Carlsen will not come since the Russian was a second for the Norwegian when he took on Nepo in 2021 (much to the chagrin of Russians, who slammed him for betraying his fatherland).
Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay has been analysing games of the World Chess Championship for The Indian Express. You can read his analysis of Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, and Game 4.
As Astana freezes, rivals warm up
While Nepo had won Game 2, Ding had drawn level winning Game 4. Playing white on Saturday, the Russian blitzed his way at the start, at one point accumulating over 40 minutes of time advantage over his opponent, who he forced into deep thought for most of the game. Like in the first two games, Ding again found himself in time trouble, and made his 40th move with just 30 seconds left on the clock (tournament regulations stipulate that the first 40 moves have to be made within 120 minutes before more time is added).
Both players had spent considerable amounts of time over the past four games seeking refuge in their private lounges during games. On Saturday, however, barring brief sorties to their private rooms, both players spent most of the four hours 15 minutes of Game 5 in the playing hall under the glass dome.
While Ding preferred to lean over the board, concentrating hard, Nepo paced around the stage obsessively. At multiple points during the game, cameras caught sight of him in his chair, leaning over the board eyeballing Ding (who would surely have seen his opponent’s face in his peripheral vision). There was also the sight of him realising that the endgame was near after making the 48th move, pacing on the circular stage itself with his hands behind the back. It was a marked departure from the way the two players had treated each other in the first few games where they would flee from the stage, not wanting to be caught in the other’s company.
The players revealed that there was a practical reason for them loitering around in the playing hall. On Saturday, temperatures in Astana had dipped to minus seven degrees with the city experiencing snowfall. This meant the private lounges for the players had become too cold, forcing them to stay near the stage.
“Normally, I like to keep the window in my lounge open. But today there was a note there saying it’s better not to open it,” added Ding, smiling for the first time since the first move of Game 5.
Nepo pointed out that barring the lounge, they weren’t particularly affected otherwise, since both players are living in the same hotel and they’re “not footballers, who play outside”.
And as for constantly staring at his opponent throughout the game, the Russian joked: “That’s because after the rest day, I really missed him. A little.”