Ian Nepomniachtchi

Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi (born 14 July 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Nepomniachtchi is a 2024 World Blitz Chess co-champion, alongside Magnus Carlsen. He is also a two-time Russian chess champion. He is one of very few players in history to have won two consecutive Candidates Tournaments. He is currently Russia's highest ranked active chess player.

Nepomniachtchi won the 2010 and 2020 Russian Superfinal and the 2010 European Individual titles. He also won the 2016 Tal Memorial and the 2008, 2015, 2025 and 2026 Aeroflot Open events. He won the World Team Chess Championship as a member of the Russian team in Antalya (2013) and Astana (2019). Nepomniachtchi won the 2015 European Team Chess Championship in Reykjavík with the Russian team. In October 2016, Nepomniachtchi was ranked fourth in the world in both rapid chess and blitz chess. He has won five individual medals (three silver, two bronze) at the World Rapid Championships and a silver medal at the 2014 World Blitz Championship, before winning the 2024 World Blitz Championship joint with Magnus Carlsen when the score in the final was tied at 3.5 points after 7 games. In October 2022, he won a silver medal in FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2022.

In December 2019, he qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2020–2021 by finishing second in the FIDE Grand Prix 2019. He won the 2021 FIDE Candidates tournament with a round to spare, which qualified him as the challenger in the World Chess Championship 2021 for the world championship title but lost his challenge to defending champion Magnus Carlsen. In July 2022, he won the 2022 FIDE Candidates tournament with a round to spare, thereby winning two Candidates tournaments in a row and again qualifying him to play in the World Chess Championship 2023; additionally, he garnered the then-highest score in any Candidates tournament since the modern format was introduced in 2013. However, he once again lost his challenge for the World Chess Championship title after losing to Ding Liren in 2023 during the 4th game of tiebreaks.