Ian Nepomniachtchi is the strangest case in recent world-championship history. He has won the Candidates Tournament twice — back-to-back, with margins of more than a point each time. He has played in two World Championship matches. He has lost both. The trajectory from Candidates winner to World Champion, which seems straightforward, has produced two of the most studied defeats in modern chess.

Early years

Nepomniachtchi was born in Bryansk, a city southwest of Moscow, in 1990. He learned chess from his grandfather at four. By his early teens he was being trained by Vladimir Potkin and was a fixture in Russian junior chess. His best childhood result — coincidentally — was a series of victories over a young Magnus Carlsen in their junior years, including in the 2002 European Under-12 Championship.

He earned the grandmaster title in 2007 at age 17. He won the Russian Championship for the first time in 2010 and again in 2020. His rating crossed 2700 in 2010 and 2750 in 2017, putting him in the world’s top 20.

The two Candidates

The 2020-21 Candidates Tournament was held in Yekaterinburg in two halves separated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nepomniachtchi led the tournament from round 6 onward and finished 8.5/14, a full point clear of the field. The result qualified him for his first World Championship match — against Magnus Carlsen in Dubai 2021.

The 2022 Candidates Tournament was held in Madrid. Nepomniachtchi won it again, this time 9.5/14, 1.5 points clear of the second-place finishers (Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Ding Liren). This was the highest score in a modern Candidates and the largest winning margin since the format was introduced in 2013.

The back-to-back Candidates wins established Nepomniachtchi as the strongest non-champion player of the early 2020s. Whether the subsequent championship match results would change that evaluation became the question of his career.

Dubai 2021

The 2021 World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen, held in Dubai from November 24 to December 10, was 14 classical games scheduled. Through game 5 the match was even — five draws. Game 6, the longest game in World Championship history at 7 hours and 45 minutes, ended in Carlsen’s win. The match collapsed for Nepomniachtchi after that.

Games 8, 9, and 11 were also won by Carlsen. The final score was 7.5–3.5 — the most one-sided World Championship since Karpov-Korchnoi 1981. Nepomniachtchi lost four games to Carlsen’s zero. His preparation had been thorough but did not survive the eight-hour endurance test of game 6.

The match’s defining feature was the contrast between Nepomniachtchi’s strong Candidates form and his championship-match form. He had not lost a game in the 2020-21 Candidates. He lost four in three weeks against Carlsen.

Astana 2023

After Carlsen declined to defend his title, FIDE arranged a 2023 World Championship match between Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren — the two highest-ranked players from the 2022 Candidates. The match was held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from April 9 to April 30.

The classical portion ended 7–7. Three decisive games for Nepomniachtchi (games 2, 4, 12), three for Ding (games 4 — sorry, games 3 and 6 for Ding; the math is one for each through 12). The match’s defining games were Nepomniachtchi’s three classical wins — two from positions where he had been objectively level, one from a clear superiority in game 4. Ding’s three classical wins were rougher in character but equally decisive.

The tiebreaks were rapid chess. Ding won the playoff 2.5–1.5. Nepomniachtchi lost his second World Championship match in three years.

Playing style

Nepomniachtchi’s style is sharp and fast. He prepares deeply but plays quickly — his clock management at the highest level is generally good, which is itself unusual. His tournament results in 2020-2022 were among the most consistent in elite chess; his championship-match results were among the worst.

His specific strength is opening preparation. Several novelties he introduced in the 2021 and 2023 World Championship matches — particularly in the Ruy Lopez and the Sicilian — have become standard theory. His specific weakness, evident in both matches, is endurance: long games and long matches have produced the decisive losses that ended his championship chances.

He has continued to play at the top of the rating list since 2023. His Candidates 2024 performance was less dominant than his previous two — he finished fourth, behind Gukesh, Caruana, and Nakamura — but he remains in the world top 5.

References

For original sources and further study:

Cross-links inside Caissly: features in the Ruy Lopez, Najdorf, and QGD Ragozin articles.