Controversial 21-year-old American Hans Niemann is in London this week as his Niemann v. World series against European masters continues against England’s world number one and former Russian player Nikita Vitiugov.
On Wednesday morning, Niemann won their first classic match in 48 moves, playing an impressive Anatoly Karpov-esque strategic attack. But in the second game, after creating the winning situation, he missed two easy tactical shots and had to end in a draw. Thursday’s third and fourth games were also drawn after ties.
The $20,000 tournament features 6 classic races Wednesday through Friday (starts at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.), 6 quick races on Saturday (starts at 6 p.m.), and 12 blitz races on Sunday ( Starting at 6 p.m.). The match, held at the Gem Fitzrovia Hotel on Bolsover Street, is free to spectators and is also broadcast live on lichess, with hundreds of people watching each day.
Guardian reader McGurn went to watch and was appointed deputy arbitrator (he is a qualified international German national arbitrator). He wrote: “The tournament room was an air-conditioned conference room in the basement of the hotel with 40 spectator seats. There were no viewing screens or wall panels. The spectator view was mainly from the side and you had to stand up to see the board properly .
The first game had to be scored on a Dutch score sheet, but for the second game I bought some English score sheets from a nearby chess and bridge store. The small audience was mostly young, not involved in leagues or tournaments, but following Niemann on X.
Vityugov arrived five to ten minutes before the start of the game, Niemann only arrived for one minute. Both players were scanned using handheld scanners before the game and were escorted to the toilet by Dutch chief umpire Frans Pieters, who also took the scanner with him.
Vityugov sat in a still, symmetrical posture, constantly studying the chessboard. Niemann, by contrast, is a real restless man. He crossed his legs, then crossed his legs, ran his hands through his hair, stretched, shielded his eyes with his hands, and scanned his opponents and sometimes the room. Some people would find him annoying, but I don’t think Vityugov noticed. Overall, Niemann had the advantage in time, while Vityugov lost the first game on time while losing ground.
Niemann shot to fame after defeating then-world champion Magnus Carlsen at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, sparking cheating accusations, a $100 million lawsuit, and two The enduring animosity between the people remains unresolved to this day. It is now generally accepted that there was no cheating involved and certainly no anal beads were involved.
Now, Niemann, who has jumped to No. 21 in the world rankings after falling out of the top 40 more than a year ago, is fighting for a spot in the major invitational tournament, where he has almost no chance due to the difficulty of his relatively low ranking. Opportunity to participate in these competitions.
Niemann defeated Dutch No. 1 player Anish Giri, one of the best players in Western Europe, in a $50,000 series in Utrecht earlier this month. Niemann won the mixed series 24-18, scoring 3 points for Classic, 2 points for Quick and 1 point for Blitz. After his match with Vitiugov, he will travel to Paris for a $30,000 series with France’s third-ranked Etienne Baquero. If he performs even better, he could be in the top 15 in the world.
Niemann’s philosophy of making up for the lack of high-quality tournament invitations through individual competitions has a precedent more than a century ago, when José Raul Capablanca toured cities including London and Multiple cities including Paris, and achieved +19=5-2 in the Masters.
Capablanca’s tour was so successful that it rivaled the legendary Paul Morphy’s 1858 European tour. Lasker’s outstanding challenger.
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In reality, Niemann should have had more modest ambitions. To reach the top 15-20 in the world at the end of the tour and then strip Carlson of his blitz ranking number one spot would be an extreme outcome.
Carlsen and Niemann will rematch in Paris on September 6, when the semi-finals and final of the chess.com Speed Championship will be broadcast live. To reach the semifinals, Niemann defeated Maxime Vashir-Lagrave and Wesley Sue, while Carlsen eliminated world No. 4 Arjun Eligues. Niemann gave an interview after his match with Sue in which he lashed out at “the chess establishment that conspired to destroy my career.”
The rematch will take place in an unusual format. Previous rounds of the Speed Championship have been played exclusively online, but Paris will be a hybrid event where opponents will sit face to face but compete on different computers. There will be a 90-minute 5+1 blitz, a 60-minute 3+1 blitz, and a 30-minute 1+1 bullet. Carlsen said he would prefer a different opponent, but “if I had a good day I could probably win without too many problems.” The other semi-final will be Hikaru Nakamura vs. Alirezaferu Zija.
The dispute between Carlsen and Niemann began at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup. The 2024 Sinkfield Cup, the culmination of the St. Louis Chess Tour, begins on Monday. The focus will be on Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju, who will compete together in the 14-match, $2.5 million world championship scheduled for November 23 in Singapore. Ding hopes to continue his recent improved form.
The full roster for Sinquefield 2024 is: Fabiano Caruana and So (USA), Firouzja and Vachier-Lagrave (France), Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Gukesh (India), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia/Faith Alliance), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) ) and Ding (China) ). The competition will kick off at 7:30pm BST on Monday 19 August and will be broadcast live on grandchesstour.org.
3933 1….Kf2+! 2 Qxb3 NG5+! 3 hxg5 Qh8 mate.
