Ian Nepomniachtchi got it right with black – Kommersant Newspaper No. 33 (7478) of 02/27/2023

Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi warmed up very well before the match for the world title with China’s Ding Liren at the WR Chess Masters supertournament in Dusseldorf. Having famously played his ending, Nepomniachtchi scored the same number of points with the two leaders – the American Levon Aronian and the Indian Gukesh Dommaraju – and lost the first place in the tie-break, it seems, only because he was forced to play it immediately after the marathon game with the German Vincent Kaimer.

The new supertournament WR Chess Masters will be remembered first of all for its chic ending, super-saturated final day, which was preceded by some rather curious events. By definition, among them were, of course, all the games of Ian Nepomniachtchi.

A month and a half later, a match for the world title opens in Astana, which Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who owned it for almost ten years, refused last year. The vacant title will be contested by Nepomniachtchi and Chinese Ding Liren. And for the Russian grandmaster, the WR Chess Masters seemed to be an important stage in preparing for the fight, an opportunity for him to get full-fledged game practice, without which it is almost impossible to ensure a good tone.

In this sense, for most of the tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi’s performance should rather disappoint those who care about him. He made six consecutive draws, breaking the world with the youth, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Gukesh Dommaraju and Andrey Esipenko, and experienced Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Anish Giri and Wesley So. At the same time, one cannot say about the majority of these parties that they were distinguished by some interesting, eye-catching content: everything is insipid and boring. However, this sometimes happens with the participants in the championship matches, who are trying their best not to reveal their trump cards to them.

But at the end everything changed. In the seventh round, Ian Nepomniachtchi played as black against Levon Aronian, who led the tournament table, the famous Armenian grandmaster who has been representing the United States for several years now. Aronian was just playing with a spark in Dusseldorf, as if he had thrown off ten years, and it seemed that the first place would not go anywhere from him. The opponents played the rejected Queen’s Gambit, a seemingly calm opening, hinting at a calm finale as well. But Nepomniachtchi suddenly played like in his best games, amazingly precise and sharp, almost every move forcing his opponent to solve problems. In the end, Aronian still could not stand it and made a mistake.

In the next, penultimate round, Ian Nepomniachtchi shared a point with Rameshbabu Pragnanandha, and it turned out that, despite the draw, he still had chances to win the tournament. Levon Aronian and Gukesh Dommaraju, who played each other, were ahead with a margin of only half a point.

The game between the American and the Indian ended in a quick draw, which both opponents seem to have agreed to in advance. And Ian Nepomniachtchi fought with Black against yet another prodigy, the German Vincent Kaimer. One might get the impression that the Party was also heading straight for a peaceful outcome. Pieces disappeared from the board, and with them the prospects for Nepomniachtchi’s much-needed attack. But he still did not give up and continued to fight for the win. The ability to squeeze water out of stone, to take absolutely equal games in many ways brought Magnus Carlsen to the top of the chess hierarchy, and also allowed him to defeat Nepomniachtchi in the 2021 championship match. Now the Russian grandmaster played in the style of Carlsen and, after finishing off Kaimer, was on a par with Levon Aronian and Gukesh Dommaraju. Moreover, if the old regulations had been in effect at the tournament, then Nepomniachtchi would have been higher than them in terms of additional indicators. But now in vogue showdown on a tie-break.

In Düsseldorf it consisted of games with extremely tight ten-minute controls. And the fact that Ian Nepomniachtchi did not shine in them was easy to predict. His battle with Vincent Kaimer lasted more than six hours, and the tie-break, which, given the peculiarity of control, requires exceptional freshness, had to be included immediately after it – and played with opponents who had time to rest. Nepomniachtchi lost to the 16-year-old Indian, and after him to Levon Aronian, saying goodbye to his hopes of winning the tournament (in the end, Aronian did not lose the first place), which, however, was hardly his priority in Dusseldorf.

Alexey Dospekhov