Ian Nepomniachtchi, who won two Candidates tournaments but then lost world title matches to Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren, and Hans Niemann, whose controversial 2022 game with Carlsen is the subject of the Netflix documentary Untold: Chess Mates, tied an eight-game series in Belgrade this week with a win apiece and six draws.
Nepo won the first game and Niemann the eighth, after the Russian missed an easy opportunity to win game seven. They played two games a day at a brisk time control of one hour per player plus a 30 seconds per move increment which Fide calls “Fast Classical”. The event was opened by Serbia’s minister of sport, Zoran Gajic, and the veteran grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic made a ceremonial opening move.
This was arguably the most significant individual match between Russian and American players since Anatoly Karpov v Gata Kamsky in 1996, or even since the legendary Bobby Fischer v Boris Spassky match in 1972.There was no provision for a tie-break, although Niemann at the end of the eighth game proposed an extra Armageddon game, which Nepo declined.
Relations between the players were frosty even before they sat down. Nepo several times wanted a post-mortem at the end, but Niemann refused. It seems that the American still blamed his opponent for the 2024 Gashimov Memorial in Azerbaijan, when Niemann had his invitation revoked when Nepo allegedly joined opposition from the other players.
At the end, Niemann praised his opponent. He wrote: “Nepo is low rated by his standards right now, but we should not forget that he almost became world champion. He’s a two-time Candidates winner, two-time challenger, and has won many tournaments.
“My showing at this level is a great sign. I left a lot on the table, especially in the white games. This was not an easy match. This was not someone you could expect to farm. It was a great challenge, and being challenged in this way was a great learning experience.
“As a person, it’s a bit difficult. Because when someone tries to damage your chess career, you have to remain focused and unemotional.”
The course of the match was probably influenced by game one, where Nepo got an edge against Niemann’s Ruy Lopez Berlin Wall, and eventually converted. After that, Nepo seemed reluctant to press in his white games, while Niemann took the initiative in his own whites, all four of which featured the Rossolimo Sicilian 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5, and which led to a win in the eighth and final game.
The big missed opportunity came in game seven, which opened conventionally with a Ruy Lopez Anti-Marshall: 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 0-0 8 h3 Bb7 9 d3 d5 10 exd5 Nxd5 11 Nbd2 Nd4 12 Nxd4 exd4 13 Qf3 c5?? and now White can win material, the game, and the match by either 14 Rxe7! or, still better, 14 Re5! Neither of them noticed till too late, and Nepo chose 14 a4??
Norway Chess in Oslo starts its final round at 4pm BST on Friday with the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, already certain to at least equal his worst ever tournament result, four defeats, at the same event in 2015. Carlsen lost a second game to Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu after the Indian got the better of a 3 e5 French Defence where Carlsen again mishandled his clock time.
Norway’s scoring system is 3 points for a classical win, 1 for a classical draw, 0 for a classical loss, 0.5 for an Armageddon win and 0 for an Armageddon loss.
Open standings: Wesley So (US) 15.5, Praggnanandhaa 15, Alireza Firouzja (France) 14.5, Vincent Keymer (Germany) 11, Carlsen (Norway) 10, Gukesh Dommaraju (India) 8.
Norway Women, which has equal prize money to the open event, is turning into a significant failure for China’s reigning women’s world champion, Ju Wenjun. Ju, who has held the global crown for nearly a decade has been a far lower profile personality than her predecessors. Judit Polgar never played for the women’s title, but held her own against the very top men, while Hou Yifan, the all-time No 2, also competed in many open events.
Ju is clearly among the all-time women’s top six, but she has been out of form in Oslo, scoring only 50% in her classical games and losing six Armageddon tie-breaks. She has to defend her world title against the 2026 Candidates winner, India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu, in the next few months. If she survives that challenge, then Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva, who was the Candidates runner-up and has just won in Oslo with a round to spare, will be the favourite to win the 2028 Candidates and defeat Ju in the title match.
Ju is 35, while her two rivals are all in their early or middle 20s, as is Zhu Jiner, who defeated Ju in round eight in Oslo, so it seems probable that a changing of the guard will occur in women’s chess before 2030.
Women’s standings: Assaubayeva 16.5, Zhu 13, Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) 12, Ju 10.5, Divya Deshmukh (India) 10, Humpy Koneru (India) 9.
You can watch the final round from Oslo live on YouTube.
The European Senior Championships have just begun in Acqui Terme, Piedmont, Italy, with England’s GM Danny Gormally seeded sixth in the 50+ while GM Keith Arkell, who raised over £2,800 to support his participation via a crowdfunding appeal, is seeded third in the 65+.
Both scored with speedy miniatures in the opening two rounds. Arkell checkmated his opponent in 21 moves, while Gormally’s 17 d5! won decisive material and sparked resignation.
4027: 1 Qf4! and if 1…Qxf4 2 Re8+! Rxe8 3 Nd7 mate. If 1…Rd6 or 1…Qc8 2 Ne6+ wins decisive material.
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