Champion of Europe

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 29 March 2010)

11th European Individual Championship Rijeka, Croatia March 6-18, 2010
Final Top Standings

1. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2656, 9.0/11
2-3. GM Baadur Jobava GEO 2695, GM Artyom Timofeev RUS 2655, 8.5/11
4-10. GM Zahar Efimenko UKR 2640, GM Zoltan Almasi HUN 2720, GM Igor Lysyj RUS 2615, GM Evgeny Tomashevsky RUS 2701, GM Ivan Salgado Lopez ESP 2592, GM Maxim Rodshtein ISR 2609, GM Arman Pashikian ARM 2652, 8.0/11

Total of 408 participants

Notes: (1) This was an 11-round Swiss System Tournament. Time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, after which the players get 30 minutes more for the rest of the game, 30-second increment starting the first move.

(2) 196 Grandmasters participated in the Championships

(3) From this event, 23 players qualified for the World Cup: Nepomniachtchi, Jobava, Timofeev, Efimenko, Lysy, Almasi, Tomashevski, Rodshtein, Salgado Lopez, Pashikian, Mamedov, Movsesian, Drozdovskij, Babula, Vorobiov, Akopian, Berkes, Potkin, Halkias, Nisipeanu, Alekseev, Grachev and Socko.

Nineteen-year-old GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (born 14 July 1990), underscored his reputation as one of the world’s fastest rising stars by winning the 11th European Individual Championship ahead of a host of GMs.

Ian is a product of the new Russian school of chess. He has been playing since the age of four and was nurtured by a series of great coaches, including the trainer of Russia’s national junior team GM Sergey Janovsky. He soon started picking up trophies in junior competitions. He won the European Youth Chess Championship three times, and in 2002 was the 12-Under World Youth Champion. In early 2008 this all changed -- Nepomniachtchi scored his first major achievement as an adult player by winning the world’s strongest open tournament, Aeroflot Moscow, and qualified for the Dortmund supertournament.

Nepomniachtchi is an uncompromising competitor who likes to castle queenside at the first opportunity and launch an attack against the enemy king -- it is no surprise that when asked who is favorite player is, he immediately named the late "Magician from Riga," former world champion Mikhail Tal. Take note that he comes from a tough age group -- those born in 1990 -- and his accomplishments still pale in comparison with his contemporaries Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is rising even faster -- but Nepomniachtchi will get there himself soon.

A humorous aside -- the popular chess journalist Mig Greengard calls Ian "ctrl+v," no doubt because his name is so difficult to spell that people usually wind up doing a copy+paste rather than try to type it out themselves.

Let us take a look at some of his games.

The Georgian GM Jobava led the tournament for most of the way, but lost to Ian in a spectacular game (which I will show you next column) in round 9 and could not come back. Jobava tried hard and even scored a terrific win over Khismatullin in the last round but saw this great effort come to naught when Ian produced a powerful give-you-no-chances-to-draw victory over former world vice-champion Vladimir Akopian.

Nepomniachtchi, Ian (2656) -- Akopian, Vladimir (2688) [C77]
11th EU-ch Rijeka (11), 17.03.2010
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Nepo finished with a 3.5/4 spurt to win the tournament. In the process he defeated Inarkiev (2667), Jobava (2695) and Akopian (2688). The following game started it all.

Nepomniachtchi, Ian (2656) – Inarkiev, Ernesto (2667) [C77]
11th EU-ch Rijeka (8), 14.03.2010
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We will continue the story in the next Chess Piece.