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Nepomniachtchi On The Dance Of The Knights: 'I’m Not Proud'
The knights begin their dance. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Nepomniachtchi On The Dance Of The Knights: 'I’m Not Proud'

Colin_McGourty
Colin_McGourty
| 55 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Daniil Dubov missed out on tying world number-one Magnus Carlsen for first place in the FIDE World Blitz Championship 2023 after both he and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi got zero points for the knight-moves-only draw they made in round 11. In a 59-minute New Year’s Eve podcast Nepomniachtchi talked about that game and a host of other topics, including Carlsen’s separate lounge, the dress code in Samarkand, and the way GMs Alireza Firouzja, Gukesh Dommaraju, and earlier Ding Liren, qualified for the Candidates Tournament.

Two-time world championship challenger and world number-five Nepomniachtchi ended 2023 with an English podcast that delved into all the drama of the World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. You can check it out below:

On His World Rapid And Blitz Performance

In the three-day rapid tournament, Nepomniachtchi finished on 8/13, only a win in the last round away from a 12-way tie for third place, but he called the tournament “one of the worst I’ve ever played in rapid.” He said he never got over his round-two draw against an untitled 15-year-old Kazakh player, Ernur Amangeldy: “I got probably outplayed by a 2000-rated young player from Kazakhstan, which was something I didn’t really expect to happen. Eventually the game finished in a draw, but it was quite shocking.”

Nepomniachtchi referenced a team that had suffered its worse start to a season (in terms of defeats) since 1930:

When you speak about the conditions and you speak about the form there is some good form, bad form, then my form in rapid. And then in the evening you check some sports results of the English Premier League and you see Manchester United, so that’s always an inspiration! By the way, wishing Man United the speediest recovery to their usual level. 

You check some sports results of the English Premier League and you see Manchester United, so that’s always an inspiration!

Nepomniachtchi described the two-day blitz tournament that followed as “much better but still far from excellence.” This time, however, there was a lot more to say, with the final standings requiring an asterisk. 

Dubov and Nepomniachtchi made a draw in round 11, but it turned into a loss for both players. All others things being equal, that half point would have seen Dubov tie Carlsen for first place, and while an extra half point would only have taken Nepomniachtchi into a tie for fourth place with GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, he lost out more, financially-speaking. Dubov took $50,000 for second instead of $55,000 for joint first, while Nepomniachtchi lost the $7,750 difference between a tie for fourth ($27,500) and a four-way tie for fifth ($19,750) with GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Levon Aronian, and Denis Lazavik.  

But now let’s get to the game.     

On The Dance Of The Knights: Dubov 0-0 Nepomniachtchi

It didn’t last long. Just 42 seconds separated 1.Nf3 from 13.Nf3 Draw, as Dubov and Nepomniachtchi danced their knights around the board.

The game instantly lit up social media, with some chess fans amused and some horrified. Nepomniachtchi addresses that reaction when he comments in the podcast:

I’m not a fan of this game, I'm not proud or something. I don't find it too shameful, but of course it's not something I would be glad to remember. So to those of you, I think there is some part of chess fans who found this disrespectful, I'm just sorry. It was never meant to be like this. It was obviously a form of protest, which I also find maybe too much, but basically, what’s done is done.

I’m not a fan of this game, I'm not proud or something.

Dubov would also later note on Facebook: “Of course such games are always feedback to the actions of the organizers and/or the work of the arbiters.”

What were they protesting about? Well, there were a number of issues, which we’ll get to, but the main one was a dispute five rounds earlier that had drastically prolonged what was already set to be the most grueling day of the championship. GM Andrew Z Hong appealed a loss on time against GM Yu Yangyi, with the Appeals Committee eventually concluding Hong had likely tried to press the clock but failed. 

Nepomniachtchi pointed out such things happen:

That day the glorious Appeals Committee… it took them one hour to decide if they should continue the game when one of the players lost on time. I think it's a nice precedent, so someone appeals, “OK, I lost on time, but I don't accept it, I disagree. I think the game should be played on for a bit more, so give me back my time, the clock isn’t working and so on,” but this is part of the game—everyone knows.

Nepomniachtchi explains something similar happened to Carlsen in their game in the 2021 World Championship, “but I can’t recall him appealing the result.” His real issue, though, was the delay to the tournament:

A very unfortunate moment, but obviously this is not something you should discuss for one hour. And also what was quite amazing, in a bad way, was the women’s tournament, which had no problems with appeals and had all the pairings ready, they could play I think two rounds during this time, and maybe they had something like two rounds or three rounds left, so our dear ladies were just waiting as well as all the other players, which in my opinion is just ridiculous.

For the Dubov-Nepomniachtchi game, nothing happened after it was played, and only a round later, at the end of the day, did Slovakian Chief Arbiter Ivan Syrovy publish a decision to punish the players with zero points each because they had done something “to bring the game of chess into disrepute.” 

Nepomniachtchi had few issues with the punishment:

I think this is quite fair, I have no problem. Obviously all the moves were played, and I understood that there’s a good chance of being fined in this or that way. The way he decided to act is one of the possible ways.

Obviously all the moves were played, and I understood that there's a good chance of being fined in this or that way.

He did object, however, to the decision not being taken immediately after the game, but instead leaving him and Dubov at the venue for another 90 minutes after the games ended at around 10 p.m. They appealed, though there was little reason for optimism, especially when it emerged their conversation before the game had been caught on ChessBase India’s microphones.

Dubov told Nepomniachtchi that the punishment motivated him as he went on to finish second as the only unbeaten player. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Nepomniachtchi also felt there was another fundamental issue with the Appeals Committee, and one that had been brought up by GM Jon Ludvig Hammer earlier in the day. 

Fortunately FIDE CEO GM Emil Sutovsky didn’t need to be used as a reserve member, since he’d already expressed his own highly critical view of the game on X/Twitter, but that just emphasizes Nepomniachtchi’s point in the podcast:

The thing is, all of these members, it doesn't matter if they're good players, bad players, active players or inactive players, but all those guys and the lady are members of FIDE. Everyone is a FIDE official, and this is, I think, unacceptable, because no matter if your appeal is good or bad, you’re not going to face too much objectivity, because I don't think a FIDE official will cancel the decision of another FIDE official or arbiter.

The appeal was rejected unanimously, with Nepomniachtchi unhappy that some issues he’d raised were dismissed with the one word "irrelevant":

This is a very dangerous practice, just saying, "don't bring into disrepute," well all right, but please specify, if it's a prearranged draw, then please don't use dual standards. There are numerous games which are prearranged in the same tournament and you don't act. Or if you don't like the move-orders, then all right, or maybe you don’t like the move quantity, but please specify. This would be, I guess, quite helpful to know, to keep up some logic. 

There are numerous games which are prearranged in the same tournament and you don't act.

Nepomniachtchi felt the case could potentially be “nice to shed some light onto this great part of professional chess” i.e. on how to handle draws in general. He doesn’t think banning draw offers, or limiting them to after a certain move as Chess.com has recently done, is the solution:

So speaking of the quick draws, the draw offer itself is a part of the game. I don't think it should be encouraged to offer a draw before the round, before the game actually started, so this is important, I agree. Restricting players from draws is slightly weird. It would end in a big explosion in popularity of the Berlin Variation, or the Catalan Bf4-Bc1 line, a well-known line as well. I think it recently happened in some of the top tournaments, or some Exchange Slav with Bf4 Bf5 and so on, and so on, and so on. There are many, many draws. Some are very spectacular, some are very boring, some are Berlin draws, Qe4-Qd4, so there is a very wide spectrum of all imaginable draws, and even now the dance of the knights probably will take its shameful place among the others, so this is basically a very good question: what to do?

There is a very wide spectrum of all imaginable draws, and even now the dance of the knights probably will take its shameful place among the others.

He suggests trying to encourage playing for a win, for instance with a three-points-for-a-win scoring system, or by making number-of-wins the first tiebreaker.

In Samarkand, meanwhile, there was nothing to be done but continue the games. 

That wasn’t the first drama Nepomniachtchi was involved with at the tournament. Let’s take the other issues briefly:

On Magnus Carlsen’s Private Lounge

The two-time challenger comments in the podcast: "I got perhaps unreasonably active on Twitter, but looking at some other guys, Twitter is pure enjoyment. I think even Wesley joined Twitter for quite some time."

The first tweet that made an impact was about privileges for the world champion:

The tweet clearly struck a chord, as it was soon retweeted by GMs Fabiano Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave. Nepomniachtchi notes that being able to rest and prepare between rounds may be worth 1-1.5 points over 20 games. The issue wasn’t so much that any players had privileges, since he lists previous events in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, and Almaty, where various top players either had personal lounges or were able to share a FIDE VIP lounge. He even notes that when GM Hikaru Nakamura got Covid in Warsaw it was “a little bit an awkward moment” as they’d been sitting for a long time in adjacent chairs.

Vachier-Lagrave and Caruana were among the players to protest at Carlsen's private room. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

This year, however, was supposed to be different:

Coming to this year’s championships, I also asked FIDE and FIDE said OK, finally there will be no preferences for any players, no one will get any private conditions, everyone will be equal. All right, so they ensured me that's the new state of things. Actually playing the first day of the World Rapid I got a little bit angry, because I saw that OK, no one has any access anywhere—no one but Magnus.

The row was defused by quietly inviting some players to the FIDE lounge as in previous years, while Carlsen clarified that he didn’t have access to a laptop.

 

On The Dress Code

The one chess drama that was entirely predictable before the event began was over the dress code, with the impeccably-dressed Dutch WIM Anna-Maja Kazarian falling victim to a ban (or was there?) on sneakers.

Nepomniachtchi comments:

Here I'll try to be candid—I think this is completely ridiculous. The dress code shouldn't be anything like that strict at any open tournament, because basically during an open tournament it's very hard to control a few hundred people following your dress code, whatever you call it.

He also took aim at FIDE’s directing criticism of the guidelines toward the FIDE Athletes’ Commission, made up of 14 players and chaired by Egyptian GM Ahmed Adly. 

I think this is quite weird by FIDE to readdress all the questions to their Athletes’ Commission, whatever it is. Maybe I’m not a frequent visitor of fide.com, but when I was told that, OK, it's not FIDE rules, it's the Athletes’ Commission who came up with this dress code for this year and bring all your questions to your fellow colleagues, this was a little bit shocking. So I asked some of my friends from the commission and they replied that they never heard a thing about this dress code, so they didn’t take part in working on those papers.

What would he suggest for a dress code?

It should be quite reasonable, so let's say not going in shorts. It would probably boost interest in chess, but maybe you shouldn't play in a bikini, and so on, but to be honest, I don't see any problem in jeanswear, some jeans, all sort of sneakers. Just look good, be stylish, and so on, and out of my experience, of course, it’s much more comfy to play in a hoodie or a sweatshirt rather than in some official trousers, jacket and a black tie. So I think this is quite unnecessary and I hope this will be changed.

Many pointed out that other players, or FIDE officials, seemed to be able to flout the dress code. 

It wasn’t only Samarkand that Nepomniachtchi touched on, however, since he turned to the subject of qualifying for the Candidates Tournament, the event that decides who faces the world champion in a match.

On How Firouzja, Gukesh, And Ding Qualified For The Candidates

Firouzja’s extraordinary path to qualifying for the 2024 Candidates Tournament in Toronto in place of GM Wesley So almost rivalled the World Rapid and Blitz for excitement over the holiday period. He qualified based on the January FIDE rating list, with Nepomniachtchi taking aim at that system:

First of all, I'd like to criticize the idea of qualifying by rating in terms of only one rating list which matters, January 1, 2024. It turns out that this system is quite easy, not to hack, but to in some way overrun the current standings.

He summed up the matches Firouzja played against veteran opponents in Chartres with, “I don’t think it was anything pre-arranged, if you ask me, but in general those players are not really capable of fighting with such a top-tier player on equal terms.”

Nepomniachtchi here felt FIDE should take action, as in the end they did by not rating the event, but notes that nothing was done when Ding met the requirements for the 2022 Madrid Candidates with some very curious events in China.

These qualification tournaments for Ding looked pretty bad. It was screamingly suspicious, but FIDE never interfered, and we all know where it led. In a way, I paid my price also for being silent. I thought maybe the only good moment to speak about this would be winning the [world championship] match and then speak my mind openly, but yeah, I came close, but not close enough, to that point, so anyway, it's better late than never. I don’t think using such loopholes in the rules should be encouraged.

It was screamingly suspicious, but FIDE never interfered.

Ding defended that event in an interview with Peter Doggers in the run-up to Wijk aan Zee.

There is a video recorded of it so I can prove that there was nothing wrong with it. Also, I am very proud about my performance since they are not nobodies; they are quite talented players. They also won the World Team Championship later that year.

Nepomniachtchi had fewer complaints about Firouzja’s 7/7 to get himself over the line in the Rouen Open, though his congratulations were grudging at best:

This is an example of some farming of the rating, but once again, as bad as it looks, technically he didn't violate any rules, at least in the Christmas tournament. So what can we do? Probably we can only congratulate him with qualifying to the Candidates.

So what can we do? Probably we can only congratulate him with qualifying to the Candidates.

Nepomniachtchi also suggests that a late event on the FIDE Circuit, the Chennai Masters, gave an unfair advantage to the Indian players it was designed to help—Gukesh and Arjun—who he notes by "a fun coincidence" tied for first place, with Gukesh snatching the spot that had previously been GM Anish Giri’s:

Other players who could compete for their Circuit place, I think it was Wesley as well as Anish, they basically had no such opportunity. So there were no normal tournaments and not so many places in the world you can organize a strong round-robin in a week or two weeks or something.

Giri may have missed out on the Candidates, but at least he escaped the sneaker tax. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Nepomniachtchi also questioned the number of points on offer compared to a grueling event like the Tata Steel Masters, and overall, as you can see, the two-time challenger isn’t thrilled with FIDE’s efforts. He pointed out that the late announcement of the event in Samarkand was another reason for a memorable New Year’s tweet:

Epilogue: The Knights Dance Again In Titled Tuesday

Just when the dance-of-the-knights drama had died down, it flared up again with yesterday’s late Titled Tuesday, which Dubov won after revisiting that earlier game in his round-eight clash with Nepomniachtchi. Two rounds later Nepomniachtchi did the same against Nakamura. Once again, illustrating just how polarizing this issue is, reactions varied wildly.

Will this be the last dance?

Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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