Wei Yi To Play Nepomniachtchi In Jerusalem Grand Prix Final
Wei Yi will be the opponent for Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the 2019 FIDE Grand Prix in Jerusalem. On Thursday, the Chinese grandmaster defeated David Navara in the tiebreak of their semifinal.
The final, starting on Saturday, will determine the winner of the last leg in this year's Grand Prix. The overall winner of FIDE Grand Prix is already known: Alexander Grischuk of Russia.
Nepomniachtchi can still finish second in the overall standings by winning the final, which will mean a big bonus for him: participation in the 2020 Candidates' Tournament. For Wei, the final will be just about Jerusalem, and a win there would be one of his biggest successes so far for the 20-year-old grandmaster from Yancheng.
The first rapid game between Navara and Wei was similar to their classical games: quite a bit of theory followed by a hard-fought ending with bare kings. It was Navara who had to defend for most of the time after a miscalculation in the middlegame:
The second rapid game was a different story. In a quiet opening, Navara forgot about a well-known idea, got into a bad position right away and lost without much of a fight.
"My opponent just played better than me today and won deservedly," Navara said. "I don't regret too much that I lost this match because I'm already tired and have lack of energy for the final anyway, but of course I tried to play well. And I'm a bit embarrassed about the way how I lost the last game. I can play better sometimes but not today."
Friday is a rest day in Jerusalem. The final between Nepomniachtchi Wei will start on Saturday at 3 p.m. local time (14:00 CET, 8 a.m. Eastern and 5 a.m. Pacific).
Previous reports:
- Jerusalem Grand Prix: Nepomniachtchi Knocks Out MVL
- Jerusalem Grand Prix: Nepomniachtchi Jeopardizes MVL's Candidates Qualification
- Jerusalem Grand Prix: MVL Clashes With Nepomniachtchi For Candidates Spot
- Jerusalem Grand Prix: Navara Through; 3 Tiebreaks On Monday
- Vachier-Lagrave, Nepomniachtchi Advance In Jerusalem, Mamedyarov Out Of The Candidates
- Grischuk Earns Candidates Spot After Jerusalem FIDE Grand Prix Draws
- FIDE Grand Prix Final Leg Begins in Jerusalem
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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