Sergey Smagin, Vice President of the Russian Chess Federation, shared the view that Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi has grown stronger since his first loss for the world chess crown against Magnus Carlsen.
“It was already obvious before the match. Jan also played very well in the match against Carlsen. But he turned out to be completely unprepared psychologically. As they say about boxers: “glass chin”. He missed a hit and everything fell apart. Of course, Jan got stronger, but his opponent isn’t Carlsen after all. But Nepomniachtchi really got stronger mentally, matured, looks good, probably added in physical form. But now it doesn’t matter anymore. All scores will depend on whether he wins the match or not. Win – means added. No, we will scold and say nothing has changed. Sport is sport. He is cruel, ”Smagin said in an interview with a socialbites.ca correspondent.
Nepomniachtchi won the match against Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren for the world chess crown with a score of 6:5 after 11 matches. After a day’s rest, we have three more classic matches ahead of us.
It was previously reported by Ding Liren presented own version of changing the format of the match for the title of world chess champion.