On March 6, 2020, Teimour Radjabov withdrew because of concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic,[10] and this rule was used to select Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as his replacement.

[19] Bids were originally to be presented to FIDE no later than 1 March 2019, with inspection of the proposed venues between 1 July and 15 August 2019.

[26] In January 2021, FIDE announced that the match would take place in Dubai from 24 November to 16 December 2021, as part of Expo 2020.

[1] Due to WADA sanctions against Russia, FIDE confirmed that Nepomniachtchi would not compete under the Russian flag, but would play as a neutral player.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a ban on Russia competing at World Championships, and it is implemented by WADA in response to the state-sponsored doping program of Russian athletes.

[31][32] Carlsen's seconds were revealed after the match as Peter Heine Nielsen, Laurent Fressinet, Jan Gustafsson, Jorden van Foreest, and Daniil Dubov.

Carlsen confirmed that Nils Grandelius, who helped in previous World Championship preparation, was not on his team for this match.

In response, Dubov contended that he considered it to be a match between two individuals, and said that a counter-argument was that working with Carlsen would improve his chess and hence help the Russian team.

With Carlsen pressing, Nepomniachtchi defended accurately, returning the pawn to neutralize Black's initiative and reached a threefold repetition draw.

The game continued to be complicated, with commentator Sam Shankland writing that he thought White had an advantage before consulting an engine, which clearly favoured Black.

[41] White had an opportunity to push for more, but an inaccuracy by Carlsen allowed Nepomniachtchi to force a theoretically drawn position.

White had a small initiative, but after an accurate bishop maneuver by Black (17...Bc8 followed by ...Be6 preparing ...d5), mass exchanges into a drawn endgame followed.

Although the position looked risky for Nepomniachtchi with a knight stuck on f8,[43] the passed a-pawn provided strong counterplay.

[47] Ultimately, Nepomniachtchi made the decisive error 130...Qe6 (130...Qb1 and 130...Qc2 were the only drawing moves according to the tablebase), allowing Carlsen to begin advancing his pawns towards inevitable promotion.

[52] Later in the match, The New York Times called game 6 "the breakthrough that blew open the contest" and "an epic struggle that rewrote the chess record books.

Carlsen equalized smoothly out of another Ruy Lopez, after which the players heavily exchanged material leading to a drawn position.

The position was completely lifeless by the 28th move, with the remainder of the game a formality to accede to the rules regarding draw offers.

Nepomniachtchi blundered a pawn in the middle game, leaving him with a lost position, and Carlsen carefully and accurately converted his advantage to a win in the queen-and-pawn endgame.

Nepomniachtchi replied with 10...Kf8, avoiding the queen trade and probable draw which would have resulted from 10...Qe7, a decision which was criticized by multiple GMs, including Giri and Anand.

Commentators also considered Black's subsequent defense imprecise; several GMs, including Giri, Anand, Caruana and Polgár suggested 23...Bxh3 as a possible improvement, while Stockfish rates 24...Rd6 a blunder.

Nepomniachtchi made a last-ditch effort to create perpetual checks, but Carlsen calmly spent his available time to ensure this could not occur.

Nepomniachtchi surprised commentators by again meeting Carlsen's 1. e4 with the Petroff Defense, indicating that he was happy with a draw despite the match situation.

The queens were quickly exchanged and a symmetrical position with no weaknesses on both sides appeared on the board, leading to a draw.

He did not play the most ambitious moves, and Black achieved the central pawn break ...d5 – thematic in the Italian – before White did.

Carlsen did not play the most direct winning lines afterwards, but still simplified the position into a comfortable pawn-up rook endgame which he converted without trouble.

[64] A number of commentators expressed regret and surprise over Nepomniachtchi's poor performance in the second half of the match, where he lost three games due to uncharacteristic blunders.

The American grandmaster and commentator expressed what seems to be the general feeling in the chess world: that Nepomniachtchi's painful collapse after game six did not reflect the high level that he had shown in the first half of this championship or at the Candidates Tournament.

I really think if he can manage to consistently bring Nepo A to the board, he can be very ambitious about playing in another world championship match and giving Magnus a better fight someday.

Nonetheless, Karpov acknowledges that Carlsen has proven he is the world's strongest player and therefore deserves the title.

However, Carlsen announced in July 2022 that he would not defend his title, citing a lack of motivation, and Nepomniachtchi instead played Ding Liren, the runner-up of the Candidates Tournament.