“Liren not weaker than Carlsen”: Ian Nepomniachtchi responds to champion’s refusal

Double Challenger

Ian Nepomniachtchi won the World Chess Crown Candidates for the second consecutive year and throughout his career, again qualifying for the title match against Magnus Carlsen.

The Russian grandmaster’s first attempt in 2021 was not very successful. The opponents drew in the first five matches, and in one of them Nepomniachtchi was close to victory, but failed to raise the issue.

After that, Carlsen won the sixth game, which was too much of a psychological blow for January. Disbanded, made an incredible array of mistakes and blunders for a player of his rank, losing only three of the next five games to draw.

As a result, the Norwegian very easily retained the title of world champion, winning the match with a score of 7.5 to 3.5, and the match itself ended three games ago, as the competitor lost his chance to win.

Nepomniachtchi was not among the favorites of the 2022 Candidates’ Tournament, but he managed not only to win, but to cope with all opponents with super confidence. But Carlsen refused to fight him.

Even before the start of the competition for the title of world champion, the Norwegian said that he would enter the next title fight only if the Franco-Iranian wonder Alireza Firoudja won, but he was unsuccessful.

Nepomniachtchi’s win, which Magnus destroyed in last year’s match, should have been the worst of the deal for the Norwegian. He did not find the motivation to play against the Russians again and as a result officially refused the fight.

Now Nepomniachtchi must challenge the empty world chess crown in a match against Chinese Ding Liren, who finished second in the Candidates’ Tournament. He talked about his plans in a lengthy interview with Sports.ru.

“Magnus really proved it all”

“It’s been rumored for a long time that Magnus could refuse to play the match. I tried not to dive in: I deleted all games and social networks during the Candidates’ Tournament, I hardly read the news feeds. But the information still came in,” said Nepomniachtchi.

“Surprisingly, there were no distractions. Maybe the experience of the last Candidates’ Tournament and the match will help: I’ve been calmer. I can’t influence, what’s the point of worrying about it? I can’t tell him: “Leopold, get out!” This is his life, his decision. In a way, I understand.

Magnus really proved everything to everyone. We must not forget the enormous burdens chess players experience while preparing for a match. It is very difficult, boring and monotonous. Maybe Magnus decided that there was no point in throwing a few months out of his life again.

Another education will give him nothing. He has a situation, I have another situation, it happens. We corresponded a little after Madrid. But it didn’t tell me anything new compared to what’s in the press in general.”

“Ding Liren is no weaker than Carlsen”

Discussing the importance and complexity of the upcoming championship match with Ding Liren, the Russian athlete considers the Chinese as a grandmaster on the same level as Carlsen.

“In terms of the combination of his chess attributes, I would equate Ding Liren with Magnus. The Chinese are second-ranked in the world (over 2800), had 100 consecutive undefeated series of 100 games – that’s a crazy number. Magnus is exactly an athlete, an athlete. is stronger – I mean physical form, stability, mentality or mentality. But in terms of chess components Dean is not inferior, – Nepomniachtchi sure.

“Maybe the Chinese are less versatile. He’s not that outstanding athlete, but if he adds in that aspect, it’s even more dangerous. But my personal conversations with him were on par until my victory in Madrid. This is a very serious competitor, nothing to be underestimated here.

Will the winner of the match now become a “full” world champion? Of course. The winner of the match will be the world champion and Magnus will remain the world leader.”

“I never slept in the championship game”

The Russian chess player also talked to Carlsen about the difficulties he faced in the championship game he lost.

“After the championship match, my greatest wealth is experience. I made a lot of mistakes in preparation. The main thing was that I was tired even before the match started. Preparation must be difficult, tiring, otherwise it will not happen. But it is important to stop yourself in time for freshness. All the main work is done decently beforehand. Then my chess section ended less than a week before the first game, and that’s very little, – Nepomniachtchi was convinced.

“It is better to stop playing chess two or three weeks in advance. There are many ways to relax: the sea, the mountains, whatever. Probably, a full-fledged vacation will not work, all the same thoughts will be about the match. But I certainly won’t go into the wildness of the opening variations during this period. And I still play dozens of training games just like me. Then I played a lot more games at a training camp than any other tournament. This is not normal.

Another important point is physical fitness. Sport helps to withstand stress better, but at the same time, the sport itself should not become stressful. In my case, that’s what happened. While preparing for the match, I collected myself sharply: I trained every day, I lost ten kilograms. On the one hand, the result was undoubtedly positive, but on the other hand, it is possible that the negative impact of the stress during the match outweighed. Everything is good in moderation.

The championship game is only about 50 percent related to chess. Everything else is a series of different little things, each achieving half a percent, but they become very important if not decisive in the aggregate.

For example, how to play chess well if you can’t sleep at night? And during the match I only fell asleep for an hour and a half in the morning. Probably stress, adrenaline. He doesn’t sleep a night either – that’s okay, two – but when that goes on, at some point the head turns off.

This is evident from the sixth installment and especially after. In one or two movements, there were yawns that people enjoyed for a long time. Looking back, I realize that it would have been better to take sleeping pills. But then it seemed to slow me down, plus not all drugs are allowed.

“I made almost no mistakes in the Candidates Tournament”

Nepomniachtchi quite rightly considers the Candidates’ Tournament the best of his career. The grandmaster explained the reasons for the successful game.

“I played twice and won twice. It’s probably not a coincidence. In regular rounds, money and ratings are at stake. For me, that’s not super motivation. When it comes to the title of world champion, internally I feel completely different, – stressed Yang.

– This time, in general, I played pretty smoothly, except for a few minutes. I made far fewer mistakes compared to my usual tournament. Somewhere the wind blew into the sails, but I played with a big margin. There were also extremely difficult games – both with Caruana and the first with Nakamura. As a result, I took my chance, but my opponents did not.

It’s like I started playing a little stronger after the championship game. A tremendous amount of work has been done on chess in the preparation process, and it now shows. On the contrary, not quite literally: not all home preparations were shown, and in the match itself, two or three percent worked. But in general, I started to understand the game better.

I usually prepare for the Candidates for several months, but here I relied on the material I prepared for the match with Magnus. This allowed us to save significant energy and approach the tournament in a fresh way. For me this is extremely important.”