Ian Nepomniachtchi: My Next Target Is to Enter Top 5 and Cement My Place There
Grandmaster answered Vladimir Barsky’s questions for “Sport-Express” newspaper.
- Congratulations on your victory at the World Team Championship! How was our national team formed this time around?
- Sergey Karjakin and I remained at the two first boards from the Olympic team in Batumi last year. Vladimir Kramnik decided to take a pause in his career, so it was inevitable that new faces would emerge, though it’s difficult to call Alexander Grischuk a “new face”: he has played for his country for 20 years and he is an Olympic champion, unlike many of us. At the 4thboard, we had a Russian champion- Dmitry Andreikin. I think it’s appropriate that the current national champion plays for the national team. RCF President Andrey Filatov is trying to raise the prestige of our championships, so it’s logical that a sporting title should not only guarantee some cash and a Renault car as a prize, but also recognition. Vladislav Artemiev made his debut in the national team. He has long been recognised as a strong player and he has recently experienced a rapid ascent. Vlad performed his role wonderfully, finished with +5 and brought our team many points.
- Did Artemiev experience any problems in integrating himself into the team?
- Of course not, we’ve known him for a long time. A funny and friendly guy. As Grischuk said, he is our Chuck Norris!
- Was the battle in the championship intense?
- Head coach of Russian national men’s team Andrey Filatov couldn’t travel to Astana due to family reasons- his wife gave birth to a daughter, and we are all very happy for him. But Andrey was in constant contact with the trainers and before our match with China, he called me and said that he believed in my victory.
Our captain Alexander Motylev showed an interesting idea to Artemiev and me. Vladislav didn’t think much of it, but I decided to give it a try. The idea was pretty subtle. I swapped most of my pieces and behaved indifferently, to hint that I would be happy with a quick draw. I think this show had an effect. The opponent played without a care until he found himself in an unpleasant position. He basically lost in two moves: instead of a passive defence, he decided to activate his queen and move it forward without giving it the opportunity to take on a defensive role. I played well for the rest of the game.
- After the victory against China, did the team have any difficult matches?
- We drew twice- against England and Azerbaijan. I am happy that we didn’t lose a single match during the tournament and guaranteed ourselves first place with a round to go.
- Was the last round difficult?
- Yes. We achieved our task and our thoughts were elsewhere, but we were playing against a strong Indian team. We had to make an effort.
- You especially, without a piece!
- For India, a draw would have been enough to guarantee them a prize place- they even made that offer once, but we decided to play them. We played badly, but we managed to win. I didn’t make the right guess with preparation, although I worked hard. But I mixed up the first move in a critical position. Thankfully I didn’t lose straight away, Ganguly allowed the match to transition to an endgame, although he could have played harder. I calmed down a little, started to calculate options, and I was attracted by the idea of sacrificing a piece, since I didn’t want to retreat into passive defence. I thought that if there was a time for that type of game, this was it- when we had already won the tournament. The game went on for five hours and I managed to hold it. Meanwhile, Alexander Grischuk won.
- You and Grischuk currently have the highest rating out of all Russian players. Do you feel as if you’re a leader of our country’s chess?
- The term “leader” is too global; Kramnik is better suited for that role. Of course, a high rating gives a sense of satisfaction, since we are usually very competitive. But that’s not the most important thing. My next target is to become one of the world’s top five players on a consistent basis, and I need a rating of around 2800 for that. I’ll need to work harder, since the qualifying cycle will start this year.
By the way, I still don’t have any sponsors. Thanks to the Russian Chess Federation for paying for some training camps and trainers. But even with that invaluable help, I still need to get a team of a few people who will support me in chess and in general. During the last few years, I have worked with Vladimir Potkin, but since we don’t have a contract, he is sometimes busy with other projects.
- Will the coming year be very tough?
- Yes, it will have an unreal number of tournaments. Right now, I have a month of intense training, and the marathon begins in May. I took time to think whether I wanted to play in the Grand Chess Tour, but I decided to take a risk and try playing in both series. I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to play against some of the world’s best players.
