Russians Partially Blame Dubov For Nepo’s Massive Loss

Yesterday, Magnus Carlsen retained his World Chess Championship title in a Match against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Nepo lost the match in a spectacular fashion, by blundering away three games and losing by 4 points with 3.5 to 7.5. Now Russian chess experts are (partially) blaming Daniil Dubov for the loss.

Daniil Dubnov preparing for Armageddon. Photo: World Chess

Daniil Dubov, a 26-year-old chess prodigy from Russia, has been part of Carlsen’s all-star team for the match and apparently contributed some important ideas that helped Carlsen in the match that eventually led to Nepo’s historic loss. At least this is what Russian experts are saying:

GM Shipov, top chess commentator: Oh, Dania, why? How much did you sell out for? Why didn’t you take a leave of absence for at least one match? You should have commented on the event on any chess platform, in a talented and bright way!…

Ilya Levitov, producer of Levitov Chess, a popular Russian-language chess streaming platform: First I thought that it’s a joke, but it tuned out to be true. I think it’s a complete @@@.

Sergey Karjakin, the former World Chess Championship challenger and member of the Nepo team:

Exact composition of Carlsen’s team was not known during the Match and was revealed in a video only after he secured his title. Carlsen described Dubov as someone who matured and was capable of bringing important new ideas to the group. The video was rather sweet.

After facing criticism back home for being a rat, Dubov countered by saying that the fans should probably be happy that he had an opportunity to work with the best chess player on the planet and possibly learned something that might help him become the Champion in the future. But no, one should not help the enemy, the chess experts say.

We would like to add one more opinion into the heated debate: Don’t blame Dubov.