Chess world champion Magnus Carlsen has taken the next big step towards defending his title with his second win.
The 31-year-old Norwegian won the eighth game of the World Cup in Dubai on Sunday two days after his first success against challenger Jan Nepomnyashchi.
Experts speak of a preliminary decision for Carlsen, who now leads 5: 3.
His Russian challenger would need at least two wins from the remaining six games to get at least one jump-off.
Carlsen has only lost twice in 53 World Cup games.
The defending champion opened with the king's pawn, struck a variant against the Russian opening that had never been played at grandmaster level and quickly had a few small advantages.
It was noticeable that the tired Carlsen was actually only after another draw.
Nepomnyashchi's position was tenable until his 21st move, which was immediately and heavily criticized.
"How can you play like that?
Crazy! ”Said Fabiano Caruana, 2018 World Cup challenger. Anish Giri, third in the Candidates Tournament, excitedly stated:“ The game was over.
A whole pawn gone and the position is still bad.
It's just lost.
To mess up like that is crazy.
Totally crazy."
A detailed analysis by Stefan Löffler will follow in the evening at this point.