Chess - Carlsen & Nepo
Magnus Carlsen (right) and Ian Nepomniachtchi contemplate their moves in their third game in Dubai on Sunday.Image Credit: AFP

Dubai: Four-time Fide world champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi agreed to a draw in Game 3 of their World Chess Championship match - underway at the Dubai Exhibition Centre in Dubai Expo 2020. The duo head into the first rest day of their 14-round battle on Monday with scores tied at 1.5-1.5 after three draws.

“As the match goes along with each draw you get a bit more tense,” Carlsen said after the draw was agreed upon after 41 moves in two hours and 42 minutes. “But I would say so far, it’s three games. And personally, as I’ve been black in two of them, I’m fairly satisfied. There’s a lot of time to create something although obviously it’s not ever going to be easy against a very strong opponent.”

Russia’s Nepomniachtchi said after the game that he is experiencing “absolutely no frustration” after being unable to make meaningful headway in his first two games as white. “I guess it was a clean game and a very logical one,” he said at the post-game press conference.

“Even in the endgame, if I would be given a couple of tempi I could have posed some problems in this bishops endgame. But especially once black’s king enters c5, there was never anything for white. This is the current status of the chess theory. It’s hard to find some advantage.”

Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi draw in Game 2 of World Chess Championship – as it happened | Sport | The Guardian