Ian Nepomniachtchi, challenger to Magnus Carlsen's World Championship
title in 2021, is an outstanding chess talent. "Nepo" as he is
universally known is a fascinating player and this book assesses his
career and analyses his original and creative style in great depth with
numerous deeply annotated games.
Nepo is one of the very few players in the world to hold (at least prior
to the match) a plus score (four wins to one with six draws) against
Carlsen in classical chess. Nepo and Carlsen are peers and first started
playing each other in the Under-12 category of the World Youth
Championship in 2002. In that event, Nepo edged out Carlsen on
tie-break. At that time he out-rated Carlsen by 100 points and was
generally considered to be the more promising of the two prodigies.
Nepo is a fascinating player who loves open and irrational positions and
excels when on the attack. Unsurprisingly, he cites Mikhail Tal as his
all-time favorite player and says Tal is the player who has exerted the
greatest influence on him. As with that great Latvian genius, Nepo
thrives on anarchy and chaos and has frequently got the better of
Carlsen in games with mind-boggling complications. He is also lethal
when he has the initiative.
Nepo has steadily climbed the world rankings and his finest achievement
was his victory in the 2020/2021 Candidates' tournament with 81/2/14
points (+5-2=7) which gave him the right to challenge Carlsen for the
world title.
Cyrus Lakdawala is an International Master, a former National Open and
American Open Champion, and a six-time State Champion. He has been
teaching chess for over 40 years, and coaches some of the top junior
players in the U.S.
