Undoubtedly one of the most exciting world title matches in history. Very changeable, on several occasions Ian Nepomniachtchi took the lead, but Ding Liren managed to equalize. In total, 6 of 14 games ended in victory for one of the two rivals.

The 7-7 equality in the classic modality forced a tiebreaker in rapid games, where the players also showed enormous parity, just as they did during the first 14 games. There were draws in the first three, but the fourth game finally defined the champion.

First world champion for China

Playing with the black pieces, that fourth and final game went to Ding Liren, who thus became the new FIDE world champion, taking the place that until now belonged to Magnus Carlsen. He will be the first Chinese outright world champion, as the women’s championship has already had several Chinese players as champions (including current title holder Ju Wenjun).

Many specialists describe Tata Steel as the “Roland Garros of chess”. It has been played since 1938 (except in 1945 because of the war). Many of the best in history have played in it, including world champions such as: Max Euwe, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spaski, Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Anatoli Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik, Gari Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, and of course the last champion, Magnus Carlsen.

The 2023 edition of this tournament will be characterized by including many young talents, such as Gukesh, 16; Praggnanandhaa, 17, Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 18; and Arjun Erigaisi, 19. 5 of the 14 contestants are players under the age of 20, which makes Niemann’s absence all the more surprising.

Niemann out the 2023 Tata Steel tournament

Another young talent who will also not be at this tournament is Alireza Firouzja, who fell out with the event organizers after a controversial finale to the 2021 tournament. Niemann’s case, however, has been much worse, as it is a problem that started. at the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, in which Magnus Carlsen accused the American of cheating.

Since then, other GMs have shown their distrust of Niemann, the most notable being Hikaru Nakamura. In addition, the Chess.com website published a report on alleged cheating in online games by the young American, who in turn filed a defamation lawsuit.

According to the Chess24.com website: “Hans Niemann claimed in his $100 million lawsuit (which he brought against Carlsen, Nakamura, and Chess.com, among others) that negotiations with the organizers stopped after the events in St. Louis.”

For this reason, the world championship must be defined by the champion and runner-up of the 2022 Candidates Tournament. And precisely one of those players will participate in Tata Steel. The Chinese Ding Liren is one of the main candidates, together with Carlsen, to win this tournament, so the Wenzhou-born player will have to be closely watched.

The 2023 edition will be marked by young talent, since several of the participants were child prodigies who little by little stop being promises to become reality. Gukesh, 16, Praggnanandhaa, 17, Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 18, and Arjun Erigaisi, 19. In this section there could also be, although they won’t, Hans Niemann (due to what happened after St. Louis) and Alireza Firouzja (who fell out with the organizers after the event’s controversial final in 2021).

The Masters Tournament participants

There will be a total of 14 players, including three Americans: Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Levon Aronian. Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo will replace Polish Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The full list of players is as follows:

Magnus Carlsen
Ding Liren
Fabiano Caruana
Anish Giri
Wesley So
Richard Rapport
Levon Aronian
Dommaraju Gukesh
Parham Maghsoodloo
Arjun Erigaisi
Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Vincent Keymer
Jorden van Foreest
R Praggnanandhaa

Start of the tournament and first round

The tournament begins on January 13 and ends on the 29th of the same month. A total of 13 rounds will be played all against all and the winner will be the one who obtains the most points. However, on January 13 there will be no activity on the board, but the opening ceremony will take place and the games begin on Saturday the 14th. The clashes are not yet defined, but they will surely be determined in the next few hours.

Hans Niemann has been on the lips of the entire chess world due to the controversy he aroused at the beginning of September when, at the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis, United States, the world champion Magnus Carlsen withdrew before the end of the tournament due to alleged cheating committed by the american against him.

Although Carlsen did not directly accuse Niemann of cheating, with his withdrawal from the tournament (something not very common to see in the world champion) plus other statements, they hinted that he was indirectly accusing the young talent of cheating. As a result of this, Niemann began to be on the lips of the entire chess world.

The story adds new chapters

One of those who spoke about what happened, although trying to be prudent and without attacking Niemann directly, was the famous streamer and chess player Hikaru Nakamura, who somehow agreed with Magnus Carlsen by joining the accusations against his compatriot for doing cheating in the Sinquefield Cup.

The controversy continued in online chess, more precisely in the sixth round of the Julius Baer Generation Cup tournament, where Carlsen was supposed to play Niemann, but gave up after making just one move, and again generating criticism for and against the young chess player.

And what started as a feud within the chess world turned massive when the famous platform chess.com published a report showing that Niemann had cheated in more than 100 games on the website, later published in the Washington Post. Hans Moke admitted to having cheated in online games in his youth, although not in that amount and never in face-to-face games.

The lawsuit

Although many point out that this was beneficial for Niemann since he went from being a complete unknown to one of the most recognizable faces in chess, the truth is that his reputation was damaged and that has affected him professionally. It was expected that he would be invited to the prestigious Tata Steel tournament, but as a result of this trouble it seems that the organizers have given up doing so.

For this reason, Niemann started a lawsuit not only against Magnus Carlsen but also against the Norwegian’s online chess platform, Play Magnus; Chess.com executive Danny Rensch and American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. The document with the demand of Hans Moke consists of 44 pages.

According to the website chess.com (one of the entities involved in this case): “against all five entities, Niemann is claiming slander, libel, unlawful group boycott under the Sherman Act, tortious interference with contract and business expectancies, and civil conspiracy. For each cause of action, at least $100 million is claimed”.

Another who also had a great tournament, or to tell the truth a very good second half of the tournament, was Teimour Radjabov, who with his victory against Richard Rapport reached 7.5 points. Without a doubt, if he had had a different start to the tournament, everything would have been different for the Azeri. In addition, the French prodigy, Alireza Firouzja, beat Fabiano Caruana and thus avoided being last. Bad tournament for the American from whom much more was expected.

The most anticipated game of this round would be the duel between Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren, second and third in the standings respectively, since the second place in the tournament would be defined between them, something important not only because the biggest prize money for the runner-up is better, but also because if Carlsen doesn’t finally defend his title, the runner-up will have to play the world championship match with “Nepo”. Finally, the Chinese achieved a great victory thus obtaining the precious second place.

2022 Candidates Tournament: Final standings

However, and although the last round is already only to complete the tournament, a fight suddenly appeared that takes place taking into account Carlsen’s statements, who assured that only against Firouzja would he defend his title. If the Norwegian finally decides to retire, the world title should be defined between the first and second of the 2022 Candidates Tournament.

With Ian Nepomniachtchi in first place, it will be necessary to closely monitor who finishes in second place, and for the moment that place is held by the American Hikaru Nakamura, who, with his victory against Duda, surpassed Ding Liren (drew Firouzja) with whom until round 12 shared second place. The other American, Fabiano Caruana, drew Teimour Radjabov.

2022 Candidates Tournament: Round 14th Clashes

The next round will take place on Monday, July 4 at 9 AM (ET).

Richard Rapport vs Teimour Radjabov
Fabiano Caruana vs Alireza Firouzja
Ding Liren vs Hikaru Nakamura
Jan-Krzysztof Duda vs Ian Nepomniachtchi

2022 Candidates Tournament: Standings after 13 rounds

Only two rounds remain until the end of the 2022 Candidates Tournament, so each player can get a maximum of 2 points, for which of course they should win the two games they have left to play. The leader Nepomniachtchi has had a very good performance obtaining a total of 8.5 points out of a possible 12.

In other words, the Russian player has obtained 70% of the points, which in a tournament as demanding as this is undoubtedly enormous. And the fact that his chess has been truly great can be seen not only in the points obtained, but also in the evaluation of his total performance: no less than 2937 elo points. Levels only comparable to Karpov in Linares 1994.

How could Nepomniachtchi lose first place in this tournament?

First of all, it should be noted that Nepomniachtchi can no longer lose first place. But a combination of results could see him share that top spot with someone else, and then other tiebreakers would have to be applied. Those who are still able to match “Nepo” are Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren, both with 6.5 points (2 less than the Russian player).

In short, for Ian Nepomniachtchi to share first place with the American or the Chinese (or both), he would have to lose the two games he has left to play (to Richard Rapport in the 13th round and Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the 14th) and that any of the mentioned players won their last two games. Practically impossible.

With this, “Nepo” is on the verge of being the winner of the tournament again with 1.5 points above “Naka” and Ding Liren, who was defeated by Teimour Radjabov and his Nimzo-Indian defense, although in favor of the Chinese, it must be said that he tried to be somewhat more incisive than Hikaru Nakamura, although in the end it did not work out. If the Russian draws in his 13th round game, he will be crowned champion no matter what happens in the other games or in the final round.

Fabiano Caruana had a tough game against Richard Rapport. The American player tried his best to exploit the free H-file pawn in a rook endgame, but the Hungarian defended well and it all ended in a draw. In addition, there was a draw betweenJan-Krzysztof Duda and Alireza Firouzja, the last two of the tournament.

2022 Candidates Tournament: Round 13th Clashes

The next round will take place on Sunday, July 3 at 9 AM (ET).

Teimour Radjabov vs Fabiano Caruana
Alireza Firouzja vs Ding Liren
Hikaru Nakamura vs Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Richard Rapport

2022 Candidates Tournament: Standings after 12 rounds

In addition, like all Candidates Tournament since 2013, it has a two-round league format. So far, 11 of the 14 rounds have been played and the winner of the 2022 Candidates Tournament will face Carlsen in the World Championship scheduled for 2023.

Four games were played in round 11, two of them ended with a winner, while the other two finished in a draw. Hikaru Nakamura and Teimour Radjabov drew with Richard Rapport and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, respectively. While Ian Nepomniachtchi and Liren Ding both played with black pieces and defeated Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana, respectively.

Standings after 11rounds of the 2022 Candidates Tournament

It remains to be seen how the tournament will end, but Carlsen said he will only defend his title against Firouzja, and the Frenchman is currently in last place in the standings.

2022 Candidates Tournament 12th round: Clashes

Richard Rapport vs Fabiano Caruana
Liren Ding vs Teimour Radjabov
Jan-Krzysztof Duda vs Alireza Firouzja
Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Hikaru Nakamura

So far, 10 rounds have been played and if necessary, a playoff will be held on July 5. In addition, like all Candidates Tournament since 2013, it has a two-round league format. The winner of the 2022 Candidates Tournament will face Carlsen in The World Championship scheduled for 2023.

Four games were played in round 10, and three of them ended with a winner, and there was only one draw. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja drew, Richard Rapport was defeated by Liren Ding, who played with black pieces. Jan-Krzysztof Duda won against Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura beat Alireza Firouzja.

Standings after 10 rounds of the 2022 Candidates Tournament

It remains to be seen how the tournament will end, but Carlsen said he will only defend his title against Firouzja, and the Frenchman is currently in last place in the standings.

2022 Candidates Tournament 11th round: Clashes

Hikaru Nakamura vs Richard Rapport
Alireza Firouzja vs Ian Nepomniachtchi
Teimour Radjabov vs Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Fabiano Caruana vs Liren Ding

The last time an American was world chess champion was in 1972, after Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky in “The Match of the Century”. Before him, only two Americans had challenged the world champion (although it should be noted that Paul Morphy is considered by FIDE as an unofficial champion).

One of them was Wilhelm Steinitz, who was originally Austrian, but when he tried to recover the world title from Lasker (twice: 1894 and 1896), he already had American nationality. The other was Frank Marshall, who in 1907 also unsuccessfully tried to beat Lasker. After Fischer, only two more Americans were official challengers, one of them being Gata Kamsky (of Soviet origin) in 1996, one of the last.

The last American official challenger

The last official challenger born in the United States is one of two currently playing the Candidates Tournament. He was the winner of this tournament in 2018, and was the official challenger for Magnus Carlsen, against whom he played a very tough match. It is nothing less than Fabiano Caruana, who this year seeks to have a new opportunity against the Norwegian.