Rescued Quotes from Nepomniachtchi
The World Chess Championship is over. We have a new Champion. Ding Liren from China. The world press has been overflowing with articles about the match and the winner. I noticed Sean Ingle from the Guardian wrote an interesting article called “Sleeping pills, thrills and a new king: the inside story of the World Chess Championship”.
Sean Ingle posted some quotes from his interview with Nepomniachtchi on Twitter that there wasn’t room for in the article. I thought it was some insightful quotes worth sharing in full, so I asked Sean for permission to post them here.
”At some point, after not winning another good position, I felt myself like an antagonist of some routine in a sport drama. He has everything against him. Leaked analysis.
Some mental problems. Yet still, somehow he is in the fight. I would give him huge credit in the second part of the match, understanding the conditions of the players after like, three-week marathon, and so on. I would say he was quite, quite sharp in the tie breaks though. He also was under some pressure. At some point it would hurt him a little, struggling to think, and then in the shorter time control he played quite well. He's a very, very strong player but he surely played with more confidence [in the tie-breaks] then in the last five or six classical games.” — Ian Nepomniachtchi
Tie-breaks
“So the tie-break was to my advantage. In the first game I mixed up things in the opening but then I think I tricked him with this mating idea. And it was very satisfying to play this axb6 move, which I was sure should bring me to the lead in the time breaks.
But then, like, speaking of drawbacks of not sleeping for two days in a row... let's say after Nb5 I guess instead of like some Qe7 and then Qd7 playing a tempi, I created some very artificial line like Rd2, Rc7, and then some move - Bh3 and I missed Bxh3. So that was like the level of my calculating skills. So the most logical move was out of my radar. And then I had lots of some other some very nice advantage probably from a classical it would be decisive in the second game but went wrong. And the third game was just a control. And then the fourth game was really, really murky. I think I tricked him on the opening a little bit again, but then I made a sequence of very bad moves. So thankfully, he didn't go for Nf4 so I didn't lose immediately.
But then again, I stabilised I think outplayed another time. And even was shaking his hand in desperation, but once again, as bad as it looked for him, it was never it was never close to over. It was quite a quite astonishing to check the games later with a computer. The position looks completely ugly. But there's always some salvation.”
— Ian Nepomniachtchi
“And then again, this Rg6, I wouldn't say it is playing for a win but is creating some troubles.
I wanted him to punish him for this move but allowing c4 blunder just turned the tables completely. So for example, some normal move like h4 we would end up with something like Qg4, Qxg4, Bc5, and rook endgame and go home but I felt Rxf5 is a nice one. And then after c4 he got a second idea. Later on I had this chance but I mean, it was already some time trouble so I wouldn't excuse me for not paying Bxg7 with seconds on the clock. I mean, it's normally it's very hard to believe that there is a perpetual check when the bishop and queen make controlling some ikey diagonals and they're not actually not so passive. But here because I think because of the c3 pawn which blocks the way for the black king it is perpetual. h5 was of course the move but you wouldn't you wouldn't expect some perfect play in some extremely stressful situations. Yes, Rg6 worked like a charm. But I wouldn't say it was like the cornerstone.” — Ian Nepomniachtchi
The quotes from Ian Nepomniachtchi give us a rare look into what he thought shortly after the match was over. I hope you agree that they were worth saving. Remember that you can join as a paid subscriber and support my work. In the next 4 days, you can save 30% on an annual subscription.
/Martin
Where did you find the first image?
Very insightful. Thnx