S1 E20 World Championship Challenger - Ian Nepomniachtchi

Blindfold Chess Podcast

Looking for a second chance at the World Championship after faltering in 2021,
the current World Number 3, Ian Nepomniachtchi, will be taking on a different opponent,
hopefully with a better outcome for him.
How did he get to the near pinnacle of the chess world? He started at the age of 4 in Russia.
At the age of 5, he moved with his coach FM Valentin Evdokimenko until Ian was 13.
When Evdokimenko realized Ian needed a better coach, he handed him to IM Valery Zilberstein.
Side note: After Zilberstein passed in 2005, Ian created the Zilberstein Memorial and funded the tournament prize himself.
Ian won the European Youth Championship 3 times - in 2000 in the Under 10 category and 2001 and 2002 in the under 12.
In 2002, he edged out Magnus Carlsen on tiebreaks.
While he was 12, he won the Under 18 Russian Championships (only Kasparov and Gata Kamsky did similar feats).
In 2007, he picked up all 3 Grandmaster norms at Wilk aan Zee, European Individual Championship, and the Vanya Somov Memorial.
2010 he picked up the Russian Championship, 2011 the Tal Memorial.
In 2013, his blitz rating jumped from 2689 to 2830.
Fast-forwarding a little to 2019, Ian was one of the top two finishers of the FIDE Grand Prix which qualified him for the
2020 Candidates tournament, the winner of the Candidates moved onto face Magnus.
He was leading when the tournament was halted during the Pandemic,
then he maintained the momentum finishing with a +3 score.
The 2021 World Championship was a little rough for Ian.
Drawing the first 5 games, he lost the first World Championship classical game in 5 years.
The game last 136 moves over 7 hours and 45 min - records in both categories.
After that, the momentum swung to Carlsen where the champion won the match 7.5/ 3.5.
Looking for revenge, Ian came back strong in 2022 - winning by a full point and a half in the Candidates tournament and a +5 score.
With Magnus announcing that he would not be defending his title, Ian must not defeat World Number 2 - Ding Liren to be a World Champion.
In today's game, we are going to turn the clocks way back to 2005.
Ian Nepomniachtchi versus Clovis Vernay, Under 16 World Championship.
Now, if we're ready - let's begin.
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Bb5+
Nbd7 7. Nf5 a6 8. Bxd7+ Qxd7 9. Bg5 Nxe4 10. Nxg7+ Bxg7
11. Nxe4 O-O 12. Qxd6 f6 13. Be3 f5 14. O-O-O Qf7 15. Nc3 b5
16. f4 Bb7 17. fxe5 Rfe8 18. Bf4 Rac8 19. Rhe1 Bxg2 20. Rg1
Rc6 21. e6 Qb7 22. Qd2 b4 23. Nd5 b3 24. axb3 Qxb3 25. Nf6+
Bxf6 26. Qxg2+ Kh8 27. Qxc6 1-0
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1355597
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Nepomniachtchi
http://cassidynoble.com/