The traditional London Chess Classic started on Friday, and Hans Niemann, the most controversial character in the game, arrived at the board in the form of his life. The US 20-year-old, who made headlines when the world No 1, Magnus Carlsen, refused to play him, and who subsequently launched a $100m lawsuit against Carlsen and others, has been in constant action since their out of court settlement three months ago.
Niemann’s form had dipped below the 2700 elite grandmaster level, but he performed well in the recent Grand Swiss and US Championships before his stellar and career-best success at Zagreb, Croatia, this week, where he outclassed a strong field, winning first prize by a three-point margin in a complex, confident style.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Niemann provocatively compared himself to Bobby Fischer, who had also won in Zagreb in 1970 during his world title campaign which led to his 1972 victory over Boris Spassky.
Kresimir Podravec, the secretary of the Zagreb Chess Federation, which organised the tournament, is reported to have told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten after round seven: “Niemann’s result is out of this world, but we have no definite proof that he cheated. We have some indications, but we don’t know if anyone wants to report him.”
Others then pointed out that the organisers were themselves responsible for anti-cheating measures, but had failed to include any apart from a delay to the online game transmission. The London Classic, where Niemann competed on Friday, is expected to have full anti-cheating procedures including body scanners.
The American’s performance rating after scoring 8/9 was 2946. This number is not far behind the three greatest results in modern tournament history, Fabiano Caruana’s 3098 in the 2014 Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen’s 3002 at Pearl Springs, China, in 2008, and Anatoly Karpov’s 2985 at Linares, Spain, in 1994. All were much stronger events than Zagreb, but the quality of Niemann’s games has been impressive.
Niemann defeated the top seed, Anton Korobov, in Thursday’s morning’s final round by a classic 39-move checkmating attack on the Ukrainian’s king, before taking the three-hour flight from Zagreb to London, where the Classic began at 2pm on Friday.
Four of his other highlights were: victory over Vasyl Ivanchuk, where Niemann’s king’s rook performed a nine-move dance round the board before ending at d8 with an unstoppable mate threat; a tactical Modern Benoni against Zdenko Kozul, played in the style of Mikhail Tal; an underpromotion to knight against Robert Zelcic, with the surprise decider 46 Nh6!; and a 25-move miniature against Ivan Cheparinov, where one white knight was trapped on the rim at a4 by b7-b5 and the other was trapped at h4 by g7-g5.
Not all the losers took defeat well. According to observers of the live feed, Cheparinov just got up, took his coat and was gone. Ivan Sokolov, Uzbekistan’s Olympiad gold medal trainer and former champion of Yugoslavia and the Netherlands, who had criticised Niemann for his admitted historical cheating in online events, offered his hand after the game, but did not look at or speak to the American.
Later, Sokolov took to X and posted: “It is hard to fight 98 accuracy. There are (apart from delay) no anti-cheating measures. Not even a scan.”
Hikaru Nakamura, the world No 3, told his YouTube subscribers that “Hans having a great tournament made sense, because he started well and tends to be a streaky player.” Jacob Aagaard, the former British champion and chess author, wrote that Niemann had made some errors but “no gross blunders. These are the types of mistakes that get you into trouble at 2750, He is a 2700 player, facing 2600 average and having a good run.”
On Friday afternoon in London, Niemann participated in a much higher class tournament than Zagreb, so it will be interesting to see if he can maintain his frenetic pace. Nine grandmasters and an ambitious 14-year-old compete in the Classic for a prize fund of nearly £40,000. The event will not be open to spectators due to space restrictions, but can be followed online from 2pm daily via the tournament website or at other leading chess sites.
Dommaraju Gukesh is the top seed despite his recent poor form, and the 17-year-old Indian still has a chance of qualifying for the 2024 eight-player Candidates in Toronto, particularly if rumours are correct that a special tournament will be organised in mid-December to improve India’s chances of fielding a third Candidate besides Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi.
If the top seed misfires, England’s new No 1, Nikita Vitiugov, who won the 2021 Russian championship then emigrated and changed federations in response to the war with Ukraine, has a serious chance. The 36-year-old, whose new home is in East Anglia, impressed at the Fide Grand Swiss on the Isle of Man, where only a defeat in the final round kept him out of a high place, and again at the European teams last month. Vitiugov is strong in opening preparation, having helped Peter Svidler in Candidates tournaments and Ian Nepomniachtchi in his two world title matches.
England’s other representatives in the Classic are Michael Adams, the eight-time British and now world over-50 senior champion, Luke McShane, who narrowly missed a board prize at the European teams where he was England’s top scorer, and Shreyas Royal, the 14-year-old from Greenwich who already has one GM norm and missed a second norm on the Isle of Man by just half a point.
In 1980 Nigel Short, then also 14, made his debut, also in London, in a top tournament. Short finished last then, but 13 years later he was challenging Garry Kasparov, again in London, for the world crown.
In Friday’s opening round of the London Classic, Gukesh beat Mateusz Bartel (Poland) and Adams won against Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei (Iran) , while three draws included Jules Moussard (France) v Niemann. The American halved easily as Black in a Ruy Lopez Berlin.
Fabiano Caruana, the world No 2, won the traditional Sinquefield Cup in St Louis on Thursday, raised his Fide rating to over 2800, and confirmed that he will be the favourite for next year’s Candidates, for which he has qualified by three different routes. Final leading scores were Caruana 5.5/8, Leinier Domínguez 5, Wesley So 4.5. Alireza Firouzja was next to last on 3/8. Caruana won a 25-move miniature against So.
The Fide Circuit and rating spots for the eight-player 2024 Candidates, which will decide the next challenger for Ding Liren’s world crown, remain undecided. Alireza Firouzja had seemed assured of the rating place, but the 20-year-old Frenchman has performed poorly in St Louis.
The rating contest is now close: So 2757, Domínguez 2756, Firouzja 2750, Anish Giri 2749, while Giri, Gukesh and So are the leading Circuit contenders
It is an individual race, but in the background there is an implicit struggle for national supremacy between the two chess superpowers, India and the United States. They currently each have two Candidates, Vidit and Praggnanadhaa for India and Caruana and Nakamura for the US. A third qualifier for either or both nations could tilt the balance in what looks like an open contest in Toronto, so the race for the final two Candidates places may continue until the last few days of December.
3896: 1 Kc4! Ka7 2 Qc7! Ka6 3 b8=N mate!
