Chinese Wei Yi won the chess super tournament in Wijk aan Zee

The results of the first chess super tournament of the year, which took place in the Dutch Wijk aan Zee, turned out to be very bad for world champion Ding Liren, who returned to the board after a long break, and very mediocre for his opponent in last year’s title match, Ian Nepomniachtchi. It was also remembered for its uniquely dramatic ending, which led to the success of the Chinese grandmaster Wei Yi.

In terms of background, the two central characters Tata Steel Chess Tournament There were, of course, the Chinese Ding Liren and Yang Nepomniachtchi. The Chinese is the world champion, the Russian is a participant in the last two matches for the title. In general, titans. But, strictly speaking, in Wijk aan Zee they had to be more like extras. At this tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Ding Liren in a head-to-head game and took a place one line above him in the final classification. However, this can hardly be considered great valor. Nepomniachtchi’s place was eighth, despite the fact that 14 chess players took part in the competition, and only those who were noticeably weaker in class were left behind. Well, except, of course, Ding Liren.

But they didn’t expect much from him either. After the April championship match in Astana, in which he defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi, the Chinese suffered some kind of breakdown. He had not played chess for more than six months and back in them, in fact, it is in Wijk aan Zee. The Dutch events confirmed that it is impossible to quickly get into shape after such a pause.

For those worried about the immediate future of the Russian chess frontman, one nuance makes the results of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament doubly alarming. The fact is that it could well be considered as a good test before the most important competition of the year for Ian Nepomniachtchi.

This is the April Candidates Tournament in Toronto, which will determine Ding Liren’s opponent in the next championship match. Nepomniachtchi will play in it against seven elite grandmasters, and four of them played in Wijk aan Zee. So, all of them – the Indians Gukesh Dommaraju, Rameshbabu Pragnanandha and Vidit Gujrati, as well as the Frenchman Alireza Firouzja – were higher than Nepomniachtchi in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament classification. The results of personal meetings with them turned out to be extremely bad for the Russian. He lost to Dommaraj and Firouzja, and made peace with the other two chess players.

But this super tournament in Wijk aan Zee will be remembered, of course, primarily not for the mediocre performances of Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi, but for its ending. It was, in fact, unprecedented – at the highest level of chess you cannot find absolutely exact analogies, no matter how hard you try.

It was already fantastic that before the final round, five chess players were in the lead with an equal number of points – Gukesh Dommaraju, Vidit Gujrati, Chinese Wei Yi, Dutchman Anish Giri and Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov. What happened in this very final round looked even more fantastic. Only Gujrati dropped out of the race for the main prize, losing to Wei Yi. All other trophy hunters took a point. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament regulations provide for a tiebreaker in such cases. Here it looked like a real mini-tournament – four grandmasters, semi-final and final blitz matches.

And it was also filled to the brim with drama. For example, in the first semi-final game against Abdusattorov, Wei Yi was hanging by a thread, was in an almost lost position, but somehow managed to get out of it and then put the finishing touches on the Uzbek prodigy. And then in the final, the Chinese defeated the second young talent in a row – Dommaraju – and finally celebrated the first big victory in a rather strange career.

Wei Yi, now 24, became one of the youngest grandmasters in chess history a decade ago when he knocked out superstars Nepomniachtchi and Alexei Shirov at the World Cup.

They talked about the Chinese as perhaps the most dangerous among the potential opponents of the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who then reigned on the chess throne, noting his incredible tactical sense. But time passed, and there were no truly valuable successes. And after everything worked out in Wijk aan Zee, Wei Yi admitted that his status as an outsider, at least in the tiebreaker, helped him – the opponents were indeed rated higher. Thanks to him, he relaxed.

Alexey Dospehov