The World Chess Championship was already a week old when something stunning happened in Game 6: after nearly eight hours of play last Friday, someone actually won.
It was the first time in five years that a championship classical game—the format played under long time controls—didn’t end in a draw. The chess world could hardly believe what it was seeing. In the age of supercomputer-trained super grandmasters, there were widespread fears that world championships were becoming dull and predictable. Preparation seemed to trump inventiveness.