The world championship

‘Time to say Dubai,’ tweeted Magnus Carlsen, like some wry Bond villain, when he learned that the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi would be his next challenger for the world championship title. Hosted at the Dubai Expo, battle will commence on Friday 26 November.

Carlsen wrested the title from Viswanathan Anand in 2013, and since then has defended his title against Anand (again), Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana. But the Norwegian downplayed his match experience in appraising his prospects against the new challenger: ‘My biggest advantage is that I am better at chess.’ Still, world championship matches have an intensity all of their own, in which nerves and stamina are as indispensable as good moves. The match runs until mid-December, lasting for 14 classical games, with a possible rapid tie-break.

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The Inner Game by Dominic Lawson (first published in 1993, republished this month by Silvertail books) is about the 1993 world championship match between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short. Lawson, then editor of The Spectator, had a unique position as friend and confidant in the Short camp, and provides a gripping insight into the colossal pressure that the combatants must endure. By game 14 (of a scheduled 24 — matches were longer in those days) the exhaustion on both sides was plain to see. After a seesaw battle, Kasparov, ostensibly the dominant party in the match, seemed barely able to recognise that he had landed in a hugely advantageous position. Only fatigue or confusion could explain Kasparov’s draw offer, which Short elatedly called ‘stark raving bonkers!’ in the cab home. Curiously, by the next day, he felt as enervated as the champion.

Watching the players in Dubai, one is spoilt for choice. Viswanathan Anand will bring his vast experience of multiple title matches to the official broadcast, at fideworldchampionship.com.