Shall We Win? (They Do Not Win)
Game 4 of the World Chess Championship gave us a version of chess absurdism...
Some wag once described Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot as “a play where nothing happens… twice…” In Game 4 of the World Chess Championship, we were treated to a similar display of absurdism: a game of chess where nothing happened… twice…
An empty room. A board.
Evening.
Carlsen, sitting at the board, shakes hands with his opponent, Nepomniachtchi, and moves his e-pawn to the fourth rank. They both write in their little pads.
Nepomniachtchi: “I shall go for another solid opening.”
Nepomniachtchi pushes his e-pawn to the fifth rank.
Carlsen: “I would like to go into a Berlin line.”
Carlsen moves his knight to f3.
Nepomniachtchi: “I would not like that.”
Nepomniachtchi moves his knight to f6.
Carlsen: “Ah! The Petrov!”
Both players shuffle their pieces around on the board.
Outside the room, some people with video cameras and microphones bustle about. They look through the window expectantly but they do not enter.
The Media: “This game is drawn!”
Carlsen shifts on his chair in the small room and moves his knight to h4.
Carlsen: “This game is not drawn!”
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
Same day. Same time.
Same place.
Both Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi are sitting in the small room by a board. The sun has gone down. Some of the pieces have been shuffled around but it still looks much the same.
Outside the room, people still look through the window.
Muzychuk: “Excellent preparation from Nepomniachtchi.”
Anand: “We're talking about microscopic advantages. There's no one better in the world to take advantage of microscopic advantages than Carlsen.”
Carlsen thinks for 15 minutes and then moves his knight to f6.
Carlsen: “Check.”
Nepomniachtchi moves his king out of check.
Carlsen moves his knight to e8.
Carlsen: “Check.”
Nepomniachtchi moves his king out of check.
Some more pieces are shuffled.
Carlsen thinks for a long time.
Carlsen: “Shall we win?”
Nepomniachtchi: “Yes, let’s win.”
They do not win.
Curtain
END OF ACT TWO
Don’t forget to follow our big picture round-ups after every game over at The Chess Pit. Here’s the Game 4 recap:
