Nepomniachtchi Wins Moscow FIDE Grand Prix

The FIDE Grand Prix in Moscow was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi, who defeated his compatriot Alexander Grischuk on Wednesday in the second of two rapid tiebreak games.

A few days ago he said he had a positive feeling about this tournament from the start. Nepomniachtchi's good vibes lasted til the very end; he ended up winning the whole thing.

"I was trying to be solid," was how the youngest of the two Russian players in the final summarized his victorious Grand Prix (Nepo is 28, Grischuk 35), which earned him 24,000 euros and the top spot on the GP leaderboard (more on that below).

Playing black in the first tiebreak game, Nepomniachtchi surprised his opponent by playing the Petroff, also known as the Russian defense, for the first time in his career.

"I thought it’s the correct play; the Grand Prix is played in Russia and Russian players are playing, so the Petroff defence is the optimal choice," he quipped.

Just when you think the Moscow GP Final could not be more Russian... pic.twitter.com/zLc3IaZV5s

— Benjamin Bok (@benjamin_bok) 29 mei 2019

"The whole match was going wrong," said Grischuk. "The only game where I was better was where I played d3 on the third move; the only game where I was slightly pressing." Grischuk spent four minutes on 3.d3 and did get a slight edge, but no more than that.

Nepomniachtchi: "We quickly went out of any theory and I somehow managed to equalize."

Yet again, we didn't get to see a very long tiebreak. Nepomniachtchi played an excellent game as White, which should be useful for chess trainers as it perfectly demonstrates the "knight on the rim" theme.

"In general, White’s play is more simple than Black’s," said Nepomniachtchi. "I believe after 14…d5 and especially after 19.b5 Na5 Black could be in some trouble because the knight on a5 is out of play. In the game I managed to almost catch this knight and provoke …b6, c6 and after this I think the structure is already more or less winning for White."

Grischuk: "Maybe 14…d5 is already slightly wrong, then maybe 16…Qd7. But I quickly just got a completely hopeless position with this knight. I was trying to avoid slightly worse positions and I allowed just a completely winning position for White."

Neponiachtchi looked back at the tournament, reflecting on the knockout format with just two classical games followed by faster time controls in the tiebreak:

"It makes some harm to the quality of play. Sometimes you want to take a less risky decision, not take an extra risk and play safely and somehow you are missing the best continuations which are connected with some serious play. Especially the tiebreak, it’s very tough. But overall I am very happy with my result."

Grischuk had the opposite opinion:

"I think knockout is best for me; I usually play [my] best. I think it was my best tournament in terms of quality in a very long period. If I won today of course I would be happy but you cannot be happy when you lose."

The interview with the players after the game. | Video: World Chess.

Moscow was the first of four Grand Prix tournaments this year. Nepomniachtchi now has good chances to qualify for the 2020 Candidates Tournament but he isn't there yet. It's the two players who finish at the top of the Grand Prix final standings, which is based on Grand Prix points, who qualify.

(The other qualifiers are two players from the World Cup, in September in Khanty-Mansiysk, one player from the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss, in October, one based on rating, one wild card and Fabiano Caruana as the loser of the last title match.)

Below is a table with all four events, with the green pawns indicating which players will play in the remaining three tournaments. For Moscow, the Grand Prix points have been filled in. Note that all players who won a mini-match without a tiebreak got an extra GP point for each of those mini-matches.

2019 Grand Prix Standings After Moscow Leg (unofficial)

The 2019 FIDE Grand Prix series consists of four knockout tournaments, with 16 players each, who play two classical games per round and if needed a tiebreak on the third day. The remaining three Grand Prix tournaments are Riga/Jurmala, Latvia (July 11–25), Hamburg, Germany (November 4–18) and Tel Aviv, Israel (December 10–24).

Each of the four tournaments has a prize fund of 130,000 euros ($145,510). Prizes for the overall standings in the series total 280,000 euros ($313,405), making the total prize fund of the series 800,000 euros ($895,444).

The official WorldChess broadcast with GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and Daniil Yuffa.

Previous reports:

• FIDE Grand Prix Moscow To Be Decided In Tiebreak
• Nepomniachtchi Beats Wojtaszek To Reach FIDE Grand Prix Final
• 'Sudden Draws' As FIDE Grand Prix Round 3 Begins
• Grischuk, Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura Advance In FIDE Grand Prix
• Wojtaszek Knocks Out Svidler From FIDE Moscow Grand Prix
• Nakamura, So Through To Round 2 FIDE Grand Prix Moscow
• Top GMs Exit Early After Bloody FIDE Grand Prix Day 2
• Duda, Nepomniachtchi, Wojtaszek Start With Wins At FIDE Grand Prix Moscow
• FIDE Grand Prix Starts Friday In Moscow