- Russian flag banned in buildup to showdown in Dubai
- Defending champion Carlsen says he ‘was a little bit shaky’
Simmering tension on the board, unexpected drama off it. Magnus Carlsen’s defence of his world chess title in Dubai began with a 45-move draw against his Russian challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi – and a surprise intervention by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The first game of the 14-match encounter, which has a prize fund of €2m, was eagerly followed by hundreds of thousands of spectators online – another sign of the chess boom that accelerated at the start of the pandemic and again after the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit.
