Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi brilliantly won the Candidates Tournament (TP), which was held in Yekaterinburg, and received the right to play for the world chess crown with Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. Their match will take place from November 24 to December 16 in Dubai. Nepomniachtchi has time to recuperate after an exhausting tournament that has lasted for over a year. Recall that the first round started in the spring of 2020 and was interrupted due to the pandemic. The tournament resumed only 13 months later, that is, the athletes were in the process of constant preparation all this time.
Brilliant start
All the color of world men’s chess gathered in Yekaterinburg: the vice-champion of the world Fabiano Caruana (USA), the finalist of the World Cup Ding Liren (China), the winner of the strongest “Swiss” on the island of Meng Wang Hao (China), the best in the Grand Prix series Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi (both – Russia), the best average rating Anish Giri (Netherlands), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), who replaced Teimur Radjabov, who refused to play in the tournament, and the host country nominee, bronze medalist of the tournament on the Isle of Man Kirill Alekseenko (Russia). As of January 1, 2020, five out of eight TP participants were among the ten best chess players on the planet.
Before the start of the tournament, experts identified two obvious favorites – Caruana and Liren. The 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov explained this by the fact that the American and the Chinese have extensive experience in performing at the TP. Nepomniachtchi, for the first time, qualified for the coveted eight, but managed to prepare so well that he impressed everyone at the start.
The Russian grandmaster won three victories in six starting matches and had 4.5 points to his credit, one point ahead of his closest competitor, Vachier-Lagrave. Caruana, and especially Ding Liren, did not play at all – he lost in two games in a row.
True, there was a turning point in the seventh round. Vachier-Lagrave outplayed Nepomniachtchi in a full-time game and caught up with him in the number of points.
– An extremely unsuccessful game against Maxim. Perhaps the most difficult moment in the Candidates Tournament, – Ian Nepomniachtchi told Izvestia. – Then I thought for half an hour and mixed up the move. One made a draw, the other put in a virtually losing defeat. The best game was played in the first round against Anish Giri. I consider my victory in it to be a creative achievement. I knew the general ideas in the technical endgame, but found a series of precise moves. Subsequently, this victory had a very serious impact on the tournament layouts due to the advantage over Anish in personal meetings.
After the seventh round, the competition was interrupted and then postponed several times.
Bad dream, strong team
The tournament was resumed in mid-April and actually started anew. Over the course of a year, some of the grandmasters kept fit in online tournaments, while others focused exclusively on preparing for the TP. So the most sensational results could be expected. Yes, Nepomniachtchi and Vachier-Lagrave had a point advantage over their closest pursuers, but that could change very quickly. Moreover, Caruana was considered a favorite among bookmakers along with Nepomniachtchi. The American immediately confirmed his ambitions by winning against Vachier-Lagrave in the eighth round. In the next round, Giri also intervened in the fight for victory, beating Wang Hao (the rest of the games ended in a draw).
In the tenth round, three games also ended in a draw, and Yan outplayed his compatriot Alekseenko and again broke away from his pursuers by one point.
– The tension was strong, – continued Ian Nepomniachtchi. – Before the first two games after the resumption, I slept very badly. Therefore, I quickly went to a draw with Anish in the eighth round. Before the game with Kirill, I was able to get enough sleep, although it was still hard to relax. Objectively, this is the hardest tournament in my life.
In the 11th round, it was important for the Russian not to concede to Caruana. Nepomniachtchi played White and did not risk ending the game in a draw. Yang later admitted that when he commented on the two previous TPs, he realized that he should not lose his head. You can make boring draws, but never lose. He cited the example of the 14th world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who played seven out of 12 games at TP-2018 in Berlin.
On the next day, Yang beat Wang Hao with Black and made a serious claim to win. In the game of his main rivals Caruana – Giri, the grandmaster from the Netherlands celebrated success. Nempomniachtchi and Giri were separated by 0.5 points, and there were still two rounds left to the end. It seemed that there would be intrigue until the very end, but Russian chess players did not agree with this.
Moreover, it was not Nepomniachtchi who came to the fore (played a draw with White against Vachier-Lagrave), but Grischuk, who outplayed Giri in a brilliant style. Thus, Jan guaranteed himself the first place for the round to the end. Nepomniachtchi thanked his teammate for such a “gift” and noted how he managed to reach a fundamentally new level of his game.
– After 2016, I completely changed my attitude towards chess, – explained the contender for the title of world champion. – I used to consider myself a professional chess player, but did not work as a professional. He spent a lot of time playing computer and intellectual games, watching football. And now all the attention is focused on chess.
It should be noted that nIn addition to the coach Vladimir Potkin, Nepomniachtchi was helped to prepare for the TP by such experienced and eminent chess players as Pyotr Leko, Nikita Vitiugov and Ildar Khairulin.
Positive balance with Carlsen
Nepomniachtchi reached the main achievement of his career at the age of 30. He has balanced his style and character, has become a mature and mature athlete and is at his peak. Yana may well be considered one of the most uncomfortable rivals for Carlsen, as evidenced by the statistics of personal meetings, which is still in favor of the Russian.
It is clear that the Norwegian has much more experience in holding championship matches, but do not forget about the strong qualities of Nepomniachtchi.
– So far, Jan is not ready to fight Carlsen on equal terms, but there are six months to prepare, – noted FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. – I am sure that during this time any chess player of this level can prepare in such a way as to compete on equal terms in this fight. It will be difficult and difficult. Magnus is the most experienced and most successful chess player of the century. Everyone believes that he has a priori more chances. He has vast experience of match fighting, he has already defended his chess crown several times. From a chess point of view, both psychologically and physically, Yang can prepare for a match and fight.
Carlsen, 30, became world champion in 2013 by beating Viswanathan Anand of India. Since then, the Norwegian has defended the title three times, beating the same Anand (2014), Sergey Karjakin (2016) and Fabiano Caruana (2018)