1. Ian Nepomniachtchi is the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion.
38 Facts About Ian Nepomniachtchi
1. 2.
Ian Nepomniachtchi is one of the very few players to have won two consecutive Candidates Tournaments.
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Ian Nepomniachtchi is currently Russia's highest ranked active chess player.
4.
Ian Nepomniachtchi won the 2016 Tal Memorial and the 2008,2015 and the 2025 Aeroflot Open events.
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Ian Nepomniachtchi won the World Team Chess Championship as a member of the Russian team in Antalya and Astana.
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In October 2016, Ian Nepomniachtchi was ranked fourth in the world in both rapid chess and blitz chess.
7.
Ian Nepomniachtchi has won five individual medals at the World Rapid Championships and a silver medal at the 2014 World Blitz Championship, before winning the 2024 World Blitz Championship joint with Magnus Carlsen when the score in the final was tied at 3,5:3,5 after 7 games.
8.
Ian Nepomniachtchi won the 2021 FIDE Candidates tournament with a round to spare, which qualified him as the challenger in the World Chess Championship 2021 for the world championship title but lost his challenge to defending champion Magnus Carlsen.
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Ian Nepomniachtchi's grandfather Boris Iosifovich Nepomniashchy was a famous teacher and lyricist in Bryansk.
10.
At age five, Ian Nepomniachtchi moved to Bryansk with his first coach, Valentin Evdokimenko, and trained until Ian Nepomniachtchi was 13.
11.
In 2002, Ian Nepomniachtchi won the World Youth Chess Championship in the U12 category, edging out Magnus Carlsen on tiebreak score.
12.
Later that same year, Ian Nepomniachtchi gained his second GM norm at the European Individual Chess Championship in Dresden.
13.
Ian Nepomniachtchi won the gold medal in chess at the 2009 Maccabiah Games.
14.
At the Chess World Cup 2011, Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Isan Reynaldo Ortiz Suarez in the first round and Alexander Riazantsev in the second round in tiebreaks, but he lost to Gata Kamsky in the third round in tiebreaks.
15.
Ian Nepomniachtchi was defeated by Wei Yi in the first round.
16.
Ian Nepomniachtchi won the silver medal at the World Blitz Chess Championship of 2014 held in Dubai.
17.
At the Chess World Cup 2015, Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Zhao Jun and Laurent Fressinet in the first and second rounds, but lost to Hikaru Nakamura in the third round in tiebreaks.
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At the Chess World Cup 2017, Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Mladen Palac and Baskaran Adhiban in the first and second rounds, but lost to Baadur Jobava in tiebreaks.
19.
On 10 December 2017, Ian Nepomniachtchi won a chess game against world champion Magnus Carlsen at the super tournament in London.
20.
In March 2019, Ian Nepomniachtchi contributed to Russia's World Team Chess Championship.
21.
Ian Nepomniachtchi was defeated by Yu Yangyi in the fourth round.
22.
Ian Nepomniachtchi finished second in the overall standings of the series, qualifying him for the 2020 Candidates Tournament.
23.
Ian Nepomniachtchi held Abdusattorov to a draw in their first playoff game, but lost in the second.
24.
In December 2021, Ian Nepomniachtchi played a friendly game with Nornickel president Vladimir Potanin, which ended with victory for the grandmaster in the 38th move.
25.
Ian Nepomniachtchi competed under the FIDE flag, following FIDE's suspension of the Russian and Belarusian teams from international competition.
26.
Ian Nepomniachtchi participated in the World Rapid Chess Championship 2022 and World Blitz Chess Championship 2022 but did not finish in the top three spots of these Championships.
27.
Ian Nepomniachtchi reached his peak rating of 2795, ranked 17th highest peak rating attained ever, in March 2023.
28.
In May 2023, Nepomniachtchi participated in the Superbet Chess Classic 2023, finishing in 9th place, after losing to Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
29.
Ian Nepomniachtchi later apologized for the incident in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel.
30.
Ian Nepomniachtchi participated in the World Rapid Chess Championship 2023, but did not finish in one of the top 3 spots in the tournament.
31.
Ian Nepomniachtchi placed 8th out of 14 players, with a score of 6.5 points.
32.
Ian Nepomniachtchi led or tied for the lead for most of the tournament, but was overtaken by eventual winner Gukesh D in round 13.
33.
Ian Nepomniachtchi was the only player not to lose a game in the tournament.
34.
Later that month, Ian Nepomniachtchi was crowned the joint winner of the World Blitz Championship alongside Magnus Carlsen when the pair controversially agreed to share the title after three tiebreak matches in the final ended in draws.
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Ian Nepomniachtchi is often referred to by the nickname "Nepo".
36.
Ian Nepomniachtchi was a member of the team that won the ASUS Cup Winter 2011 Dota tournament, and served as a commentator at the ESL One Hamburg 2018 Dota 2 tournament, using the nickname FrostNova.
37.
Ian Nepomniachtchi plays Hearthstone and introduced fellow Russian chess grandmaster Peter Svidler to the game.
38.
Together with 43 other Russian elite chess players, Nepomniachtchi signed an open letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin in March 2022, protesting against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people.