- Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi face off for $2m in Dubai
- Will Nepo’s supercomputer give him edge over Carlsen?
- Carlsen: ‘I am happy to win in any way possible’
- Tweet Bryan at @BryanAGraham or email him
Good afternoon from Dubai, where we are less than 15 minutes away from the start of game one. Outside the arena, where half a dozen chess sets are laid out, there has been a growing buzz with spectators congregating, chatting and playing games against each other. The press room, however, is a lot less hectic than it was in London in 2018 where so many journalists turned up there was scrum for tables as well as the free crisps and cans of Coke.
However the demand for tickets has caught some fans by surprise. I spoke to a mother and her seven-year-old boy, who were told two weeks ago they could just show up and get a ticket. But when they arrived two hour before the start, they received the news that day one was a sellout.
Carlsen will push for an early lead. “As a reigning champion you have a good chance to strike at the start,” he said. “That’s definitely something I am going to try.” Previous cases of first-time challengers who froze include Tigran Petrosian’s disastrous game one in 1963 against Mikhail Botvinnik and Bobby Fischer’s poisoned pawn capture against Boris Spassky in 1972.
In the 2018 match, Fabiano Caruana was shaky in the marathon first game and should have lost at move 38. Carlsen himself, in his second game against Vishy Anand in 2013, planned the Caro-Kann 1 e4 c6 but nervously knocked over his c7 pawn. However, there are also examples like 1927 and 2000 where the challenger scored early and went on to win the match.
