[caption id="attachment_133068" align="alignleft" width="374"]
Nepomniachtchi in a typically expressive mood during a game Photo Lennart Ootes [/caption]
Dear members of the media: Don't panic. If you are new to chess, we will give you a crash course on how to pronounce Nepomniachtchi.
It was telling that this was the first tweet made by FIDE when Ian Nepomniachtchi earned the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the world title by winning the Candidates tournament finished last week. One would think that pronouncing Nepomniachtchi should not be a big deal for a community that uses Fianchetto and Zugzwang in regular day-to-day chit chat, but what it really showed was that despite being the highest ranked Russian for quite some time now - a no mean feat - ‘Nepo’ and his chess exploits have often gone under the radar.
A Candidates tournament like no other
The Candidates tournament is one of the oldest sporting traditions with a colorful history, but describing this particular edition as unprecedented may not fully provide it justice. It kicked off on 16th of March, 2020 in Yekaterinburg, Russia just when the pandemic was starting to hit hard.
All pre-tournament headlines were dominated by uncertainty. Teimour Radjabov, who won his place in the Candidates by winning the 2019 FIDE World Cup, was evidently unsatisfied with FIDE's health and safety precautions and withdrew. Fabiano Caruana, the world number two and the pre-tournament favourite, had his initial flight to Russia cancelled. The presence of two Chinese players, Ding Liren and Wang Hao, complicated things further. (Remember when Corona was a “Chinese virus”?)
Amidst all the disruptions, FIDE acted (spectacularly) tone deaf. They were quick to ignore the warnings of Radjabov, and quickly proceeded to replace him. A now-infamous picture, showing nearly 1000 mask-less attendees packed into the Yekaterinburg Expo for the opening ceremony, sadly told its own story of ignorance and negligence. Somewhat predictably, the event had to be stopped midway when the Russian government was on the verge of announcing the closure of air traffic with other countries. All this meant a sizable mid-tournament “adjournment”. It took nearly thirteen months for the event to restart.
The most important win
Interestingly, Nepo’s first round win over Anish Giri, played more than 400 days ago, proved pivotal. The “Direct encounter” tie-breaking method dictated the direction of play in the last few rounds as Anish Giri tried his hardest to finish ahead of the Russian. Nepomniachtchi also identified this technical win as his greatest achievement of the tournament.
After repelling his opponents brilliant opening preparation (Giri blitzed out the first 19 moves!), Nepo showed impressive resilience to take control. In the resulting endgame the following very instructional position arose, with Giri appearing to have created a game-saving fortress.
[caption id="attachment_133069" align="alignnone" width="300"]
After 67.Rg3[/caption]
How can black win the game if white keeps moving his rook back and forth from g3 to e3? Nepo found the way.
67...Kh5 68.Rh3+ Kg4 69.Rg3+ Kf4 70.Re3 Qd1 71.Ra3 Ke5 72.Rg3 Kd4 73.Re3 Qd3! white resigned.
[caption id="attachment_133070" align="alignnone" width="300"]
The fortress is broken![/caption]
74.Kf1 (74.Rg3 Kc3-d2-e1) Qxe3 would lead to a winning pawn ending known to “Every Russian schoolboy”.
The only one he ever feared?
Magnus and Nepo go back a long way. Both were born in 1990. They were childhood rivals (with Nepo winning the World Under 12 title in 2002 edging Magnus in a tie break). Later they became really good friends. In fact, the first ever post on Nepo’s instagram happened to be a picture of the two smiling together.
[caption id="attachment_133071" align="alignleft" width="296"]
Nepo’s first ever Instagram picture back in 2014[/caption]
Nepo’s style of play is characterised by fast play and imaginative tactics. But does he stand a chance against the mighty Magnus? Surprisingly, he has some things going his way.
The Russian happened to be the only top player with a positive score (4-1 with six draws) in classical games against the World Champion. Although this dates back to junior championships nearly two decades ago, it’s quite an achievement. He has extreme confidence in his own powers and will certainly not be overawed by the opponent nor the occasion. Whether he can match the machine-like consistency of the Norwegian remains to be seen.
We’ll stick with ‘Nepo’, thank you.
Nepomniachtchi in a typically expressive mood during a game Photo Lennart Ootes [/caption]
Dear members of the media: Don't panic. If you are new to chess, we will give you a crash course on how to pronounce Nepomniachtchi.
It was telling that this was the first tweet made by FIDE when Ian Nepomniachtchi earned the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the world title by winning the Candidates tournament finished last week. One would think that pronouncing Nepomniachtchi should not be a big deal for a community that uses Fianchetto and Zugzwang in regular day-to-day chit chat, but what it really showed was that despite being the highest ranked Russian for quite some time now - a no mean feat - ‘Nepo’ and his chess exploits have often gone under the radar.
A Candidates tournament like no other
The Candidates tournament is one of the oldest sporting traditions with a colorful history, but describing this particular edition as unprecedented may not fully provide it justice. It kicked off on 16th of March, 2020 in Yekaterinburg, Russia just when the pandemic was starting to hit hard.
All pre-tournament headlines were dominated by uncertainty. Teimour Radjabov, who won his place in the Candidates by winning the 2019 FIDE World Cup, was evidently unsatisfied with FIDE's health and safety precautions and withdrew. Fabiano Caruana, the world number two and the pre-tournament favourite, had his initial flight to Russia cancelled. The presence of two Chinese players, Ding Liren and Wang Hao, complicated things further. (Remember when Corona was a “Chinese virus”?)
Amidst all the disruptions, FIDE acted (spectacularly) tone deaf. They were quick to ignore the warnings of Radjabov, and quickly proceeded to replace him. A now-infamous picture, showing nearly 1000 mask-less attendees packed into the Yekaterinburg Expo for the opening ceremony, sadly told its own story of ignorance and negligence. Somewhat predictably, the event had to be stopped midway when the Russian government was on the verge of announcing the closure of air traffic with other countries. All this meant a sizable mid-tournament “adjournment”. It took nearly thirteen months for the event to restart.
The most important win
Interestingly, Nepo’s first round win over Anish Giri, played more than 400 days ago, proved pivotal. The “Direct encounter” tie-breaking method dictated the direction of play in the last few rounds as Anish Giri tried his hardest to finish ahead of the Russian. Nepomniachtchi also identified this technical win as his greatest achievement of the tournament.
After repelling his opponents brilliant opening preparation (Giri blitzed out the first 19 moves!), Nepo showed impressive resilience to take control. In the resulting endgame the following very instructional position arose, with Giri appearing to have created a game-saving fortress.
[caption id="attachment_133069" align="alignnone" width="300"] After 67.Rg3[/caption]
How can black win the game if white keeps moving his rook back and forth from g3 to e3? Nepo found the way.
67...Kh5 68.Rh3+ Kg4 69.Rg3+ Kf4 70.Re3 Qd1 71.Ra3 Ke5 72.Rg3 Kd4 73.Re3 Qd3! white resigned.
[caption id="attachment_133070" align="alignnone" width="300"] The fortress is broken![/caption]
74.Kf1 (74.Rg3 Kc3-d2-e1) Qxe3 would lead to a winning pawn ending known to “Every Russian schoolboy”.
The only one he ever feared?
Magnus and Nepo go back a long way. Both were born in 1990. They were childhood rivals (with Nepo winning the World Under 12 title in 2002 edging Magnus in a tie break). Later they became really good friends. In fact, the first ever post on Nepo’s instagram happened to be a picture of the two smiling together.
[caption id="attachment_133071" align="alignleft" width="296"] Nepo’s first ever Instagram picture back in 2014[/caption]
Nepo’s style of play is characterised by fast play and imaginative tactics. But does he stand a chance against the mighty Magnus? Surprisingly, he has some things going his way.
The Russian happened to be the only top player with a positive score (4-1 with six draws) in classical games against the World Champion. Although this dates back to junior championships nearly two decades ago, it’s quite an achievement. He has extreme confidence in his own powers and will certainly not be overawed by the opponent nor the occasion. Whether he can match the machine-like consistency of the Norwegian remains to be seen.
We’ll stick with ‘Nepo’, thank you.