The Week in Chess

Ian Nepomniachtchi won the FIDE Candidates in Madrid. In round 13 he had the white pieces against Richard Rapport. Nepomniachtchi said he hoped for a Berlin but instead he got a Sicilian, he chose a solid line which gave him a small but stable edge and was able to draw in 34 moves. Nepomniachtchi was obviously extremely happy to wrap things up. Nepomniachtchi said he was very unhappy when he lost in the final round of the Candidates last year and is very motivated not to repeat the result, he has black against Jan-Krzysztof Duda but his opponent may well be in the market for a quick draw.

Duda most likely can't wait for the tournament to finish. After drawing his first five games he lost against Nepomniachtchi and his event pretty much collapsed. He did beat Caruana but he lost his fourth game today against a motivated Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura kept things complicated even after making an error and won in 52 moves. Ding Liren drew against Alireza Firouzja and Teimour Radjabov drew against Fabiano Caruana. Tomorrow Ding Liren needs to beat Nakamura to finish in second place otherwise the American will. Points not tie-break coefficients will decide second place thank goodness. I'm not expecting any of the other games to amount to much although perhaps a couple of players will try with the white pieces at least a little.

The question as to whether Magnus Carlsen will defend his title against Nepomniachtchi or will resign the title allowing the second placed player here a shot has not yet been answered and may not be for some time. Nepomniachtchi looks in very good shape having been in training pretty much continuously for at least a couple of years now for the last Candidates and World Championship match.

Round 13 Standings: 1 Nepomniachtchi 9pts, 2 Nakamura 7.5pts, 3 Ding Liren 7pts, 4 Radjabov 6.5pts, 5 Caruana 6.5pts, 6 Rapport 5.5pts, 7 Duda 5pts, 8 Firouzja 5pts.

Round 14 Pairings: Rapport-Radjabov, Caruana-Firouzja, Ding Liren-Nakamura, Duda-Nepomniachtchi.