12.03.21 Game 6 of the 2021 World Chess Championship will go down as the longest game ever played in a World Championship match. A 136-move epic with all the plot twists and turns of a gripping thriller. In the end it was Magnus Carlsen who, to borrow a phrase from Savielly Tartakower, was the one to made the next-to-last mistake. With this win, the first in 20 World Championship games, the defending Champion takes the lead 3.5-2.5.

Game 6 was a game for the ages. The players did battle for an incredible 7 hours and 45 minutes.

We could call the opening a pseudo-Catalan as Carlsen held off on playing c4 early and instead went 3.g3 and later 6.b3 avoiding main line Catalan theory.

White's 26.Qxe8 resulted in trading the Queen for a pair of Rooks and mind-numbing complications followed.

On move 33 Carlsen missed a very difficult to see winning line which began with Rcc2 and instead played 33.Rd1. He was taken aback when asked if he considered 33.Rcc2 by Maurice Ashley in the post-game press conference.

The 30-second increment in this Match doesn't kick in until move 60. Reaching time control on move 40, the World Champion missed another opportunity that would have lead to a winning position by playing 40.Nxe4 rather than 40.Rdc2.

Baroque maneuvering ensued for 60+ moves!

A nearly imperceptible advantage for White manifested after Black's 130...Qe6 that Carlsen nurtured until the veritable death knell 133.e6. Nepomniachtchi resigned three moves later.

An inspired symphony of a game.

Game 7 begins at 7:30 a.m. eastern Saturday, December 4th.

Match Score

Watch The Games Live with Commentary on Chess.com

Games and Coverage from lichess

Official Site of the FIDE World Chess Championship

Game 6 Coverage on ChessBase.com

Regulations

The match will be played over 14 standard games.

The first player to reach 7.5 points wins.

At the opening ceremony, a drawing of colors determines who will start with the white pieces.

The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.

If the scores are level after the regular 14 games, four tie-break games will be played. These are rapid games with 25 minutes for each player with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.

If it's still equal, two blitz games will be played (5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment). If it's still equal, a second pair of two blitz games will be played. If there is still no winner after five such matches, one sudden-death game will be played.
The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces shall receive 5 minutes, the player with the black pieces shall receive 4 minutes whereupon, after the 60th move, both players shall receive an increment of 3 seconds starting from move 61. In case of a draw, the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.

The players cannot draw a game by agreement before Black's 30th move.

A claim for a draw before Black's 30th move is permitted only through one of the arbiters in
the cases of a threefold repetition.