Early career Nepomniachtchi learned to play chess at age four. His grandfather Boris Iosifovich Nepomniashchy (1929–1998) was a famous teacher and lyricist in
Bryansk. Nepomniachtchi's first coaches were his uncle Igor Nepomniashchy, Valentin Evdokimenko, international master Valery Zilberstein, and grandmaster Sergei Yanovsky. At age five, Nepomniachtchi moved to
Bryansk with his first coach, Valentin Evdokimenko, and trained until Nepomniachtchi was 13. Under the guidance of his coach, he took part in the World and European Championships. Nepomniachtchi won the
European Youth Chess Championship three times. In 2000, he won the under-10 category, and in 2001 and 2002, he came first in the U12 championship. In 2002, Nepomniachtchi also won the
World Youth Chess Championship in the U12 category, edging out
Magnus Carlsen on tiebreak score.
2007–2009 In 2007, he finished second in the C group of the
Corus Chess Tournament in
Wijk aan Zee earning his first grandmaster (GM)
norm. Later that year, Nepomniachtchi gained his second GM norm at the
European Individual Chess Championship in
Dresden. The third and final norm required for the GM title was won at the ''5th Vanya Somov Memorial – World's Youth Stars'' tournament in
Kirishi. Nepomniachtchi won the latter event, edging out
Rauf Mamedov,
Parimarjan Negi and
Zaven Andriasian on tiebreak score. By winning the
Aeroflot Open in
Moscow in February 2008, he qualified for the 2008
Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting. In this tournament, he shared second place after an undefeated run. In the same year, he also won the Ordix Open, a
rapid chess tournament in
Mainz. He won the gold medal in chess at the
2009 Maccabiah Games.
2010–2011 In 2010, in
Rijeka, Nepomniachtchi won the
European Individual Championship with a score of 9/11. Later the same year, in Moscow, he won the
Russian Chess Championship, after defeating
Sergey Karjakin in a playoff. At the
Chess World Cup 2011, Nepomniachtchi defeated
Isan Reynaldo Ortiz Suárez in the first round and
Alexander Riazantsev in the second round in tiebreaks, but he lost to
Gata Kamsky in the third round in tiebreaks. In November 2011, Nepomniachtchi tied for 3rd–5th with
Vasily Ivanchuk and
Sergey Karjakin in the category 22
Tal Memorial in Moscow. Nepomniachtchi's coach in 2011 was
Vladimir Potkin.
2013–2015 In May 2013, Nepomniachtchi tied for 1st–8th with
Alexander Moiseenko,
Evgeny Romanov,
Alexander Beliavsky,
Constantin Lupulescu,
Francisco Vallejo Pons,
Sergei Movsesian,
Hrant Melkumyan,
Alexey Dreev, and
Evgeny Alekseev in the European Individual Championship. The following month, Nepomniachtchi finished second to
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the
World Rapid Chess Championship, held in
Khanty-Mansiysk. In August 2013, Nepomniachtchi participated in the
Chess World Cup 2013. He was defeated by
Wei Yi in the first round. In October 2013, he tied for first with
Peter Svidler in the Russian Championship Superfinal, finishing second on tiebreak. Over the course of 2013, Nepomniachtchi's blitz rating surged from 2689 in January to 2830 in December. Nepomniachtchi won the silver medal at the
World Blitz Chess Championship of 2014 held in
Dubai. In August, at the 5th International Chess Festival "
Yaroslav the Wise" in
Yaroslavl, he won the Tournament of Champions, a rapid chess event held with the double
round-robin format featuring the six European champions of 2009–2014. At the
SportAccord World Mind Games, held in December 2014 in
Beijing, he won the gold medal in the men's
Basque chess tournament. In April 2015, he won the Aeroflot Open for the second time in his career, edging out
Daniil Dubov on tiebreak, having played more games with the black pieces, and earned a spot in the 2015 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting. Right after the end of the tournament he also won the Aeroflot blitz tournament. Later that year, in September, he won the Moscow Blitz Championship and one month later, he took the silver medal at the
World Rapid Chess Championship in
Berlin. At the
Chess World Cup 2015, Nepomniachtchi defeated
Zhao Jun and
Laurent Fressinet in the first and second rounds, but lost to
Hikaru Nakamura in the third round in tiebreaks.
2016–2020 Nepomniachtchi won the 7th
Hainan Danzhou tournament in July and the
Tal Memorial in October. At the
42nd Chess Olympiad, held in 2016, he won the team bronze medal and an individual silver playing board 4 for Russia. At the
Chess World Cup 2017, Nepomniachtchi defeated
Mladen Palac and
Baskaran Adhiban in the first and second rounds, but lost to
Baadur Jobava in tiebreaks. On 10 December 2017, Ian won a chess game against world champion Magnus Carlsen at the super tournament in London. In the tournament, Nepomniachtchi, the leader after eight rounds (+3−0=5), lost in a tie-break to
Fabiano Caruana, who managed to catch up with the leader in the ninth round, and took 2nd place. On 27 December 2017, he took third in the World Rapid Chess Championship, which ended in
Riyadh. In July 2018, he won the
46th Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, scoring 5/7 (+3–0=4) to finish a point ahead of his nearest competitors. In January 2019, Nepomniachtchi competed in the
81st Tata Steel Masters, placing third with 7½/13 (+4–2=7). In March 2019, Nepomniachtchi contributed to
Russia's
World Team Chess Championship. At the
Chess World Cup 2019, Nepomniachtchi advanced past the third round for the first time. He was defeated by
Yu Yangyi in the fourth round. Over the course of 2019, he participated in the
FIDE Grand Prix series, which was part of the qualification cycle for the
2020 World Chess Championship. In the series, Nepomniachtchi won two out of three tournaments in which he played. He finished second in the overall standings of the series, qualifying him for the
2020 Candidates Tournament. In December 2020, he won the Russian championship with 7½ points out of 11 matches, edging out GM
Sergey Karjakin by half a point.
2021 In April 2021, Nepomniachtchi won the
2020/2021 Candidates tournament with 8½/14 points (+5-2=7) half a point above second place
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Candidates win qualified Nepomniachtchi to challenge
Magnus Carlsen in a match for the
World Chess Championship in November–December 2021. Carlsen retained his title, winning 7½–3½. In August 2021 Nepomniachtchi was Russia's highest-ranked chess player, with a rating of 2792. This placed him fourth in the world and second in Europe (after
Magnus Carlsen). From 26 to 28 December 2021, Nepomniachtchi participated in the 2021 FIDE World Rapid Championship, where he ended as one of the joint leaders with 9½/13 points, and scored second place after tiebreaks. As a result, he qualified for a playoff against
Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who also had 9½/13 points and scored first place after tiebreaks. Nepomniachtchi held Abdusattorov to a draw in their first playoff game, but lost in the second. As a result, he ended in second place. In December 2021, Nepomniachtchi played a friendly game with
Nornickel president
Vladimir Potanin, which ended with victory for the grandmaster in the 38th move.
2022 Nepomniachtchi qualified for the
2022 Candidates tournament as the World Championship runner-up, and took an early lead in the tournament. He competed under the
FIDE flag, following FIDE's suspension of the Russian and Belarusian teams from international competition. In round 13, Nepomniachtchi clinched a victory in the Candidates after securing a draw against
Richárd Rapport, going into the 14th and final round with a lead of 1½ points. This guaranteed him qualification for the
World Chess Championship 2023. He is the first player to win the Candidates tournament undefeated since Viswanathan Anand in 2014; additionally, he got the highest score of 9½/14 in any Candidates tournament since the modern format was introduced in 2013. In May 2023, Nepomniachtchi participated in the Superbet Chess Classic 2023, finishing in 9th place, after losing to Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. At the
Chess World Cup 2023, Nepomniachtchi advanced to the fifth round, where he was defeated by
Vidit Gujrathi in tiebreaks. He won the 2nd Levitov Chess Week, in September with a score of 12.5 points. During round 11 of the
World Blitz Chess Championship 2023, controversy arose after Nepomniachtchi faced off against fellow compatriot
Daniil Dubov, with both players agreeing to a 13-move draw after playing a series of knight moves. After an investigation by FIDE, the chief arbiter penalized both Nepomniachtchi and Dubov on the basis that they had prearranged the draw, ruling the game with a 0–0 result. Both players appealed the verdict, but it was rejected by FIDE. Nepomniachtchi later apologized for the incident in a video uploaded to his
YouTube channel. Nepomniachtchi also participated in the
World Rapid Chess Championship 2023, but did not finish in one of the top 3 spots in the tournament.
2024 In January, he played in the 86th edition of
Tata Steel Chess Tournament. He placed 8th out of 14 players, with a score of 6.5 points. As the losing finalist of the World Chess Championship 2023, Nepomniachtchi was awarded direct entry into the
2024 Candidates Tournament. He led or tied for the lead for most of the tournament, but was overtaken by eventual winner
Gukesh D in round 13. Nepomniachtchi was the only player not to lose a game in the tournament. Nepomniachtchi participated in the Superbet Romania Chess Classic 2024 in June, finishing on a score of 50%. In August, he played in the annual
Sinquefield Cup 2024. He played poorly, finishing in 9th position. In September, Nepomniachtchi won the 10th edition of the Gashimov Memorial. In December, he played in the
Champions Chess tour, finishing in second place after losing in the finals to
Magnus Carlsen. In December he won a bronze medal at the
World Rapid Championship held in New York. Later that month, Nepomniachtchi was crowned the joint winner of the
World Blitz Championship alongside
Magnus Carlsen when the pair controversially agreed to share the title after three tiebreak matches in the final ended in draws. == Rapid and blitz rankings ==