Last modified on Fri 30 Apr 2021 11.47 EDT
Ian Nepomniachtchi’s feat in qualifying as Magnus Carlsen’s official challenger in a €2m, 14-game world title series at Dubai in November has sparked Carlsen into a strong demonstration of his own skills. This week the Norwegian began the online New in Chess Classic with a 26-game unbeaten run as he aimed for his first victory of the Champions Chess Tour.
Meanwhile, Nepomniachtchi’s celebrations this week at winning the Candidates with a round to spare were hit by a defeat in Tuesday’s dead rubber against China’s Ding Liren. The 30-year-old Muscovite said later that he lacked motivation for the game, a strange comment when a win would have raised his Fide world rating close to 2800, the super-elite level, while as it was Ding’s victory regained the No 3 spot in the ratings that he had briefly let slip a few days earlier.
Alas, even wins against both Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi weren t enough for Daniil to earn a medal. He finished fourth, but thrilled spectators with his creative play and desire to fight in every game. We can t wait to see him online in the Airthings Masters, which starts on 26th December, as well as in the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee from January 16th.
Dubov played some fine games but missed out on first place after losing to Vladimir Fedoseev in the penultimate round - he said he didn t regret his choice to take risks, since wins for Ian and Sergey meant a draw wouldn t have been enough to fight for the title | photo: Eteri Kublashvili, ruchess.ru