ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024
It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi’s nickname, at least among Americans, is “Nepo.” For us, Nepo is easier to spell and say than Nepomniachtchi. While currently attention is focused on Nepo for being a co-leader, with Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, of the postponed 2020 Candidates, Nepo has a long history of excellent chess results.
His website prominently features three of his accomplishments, all of which are covered in ChessBase articles too: Winner of Dortmund 2018, 2010 Russian National Champion, and 2014 World Blitz Championship silver medalist. Nepo is part of the online 2020-2021 Champions Chess Tour, and played in its inaugural tournament, the Skilling Open.
Nepo sharing a laugh with world champion Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Pascal Simon
Even when Nepo loses, he is a gentleman with a sense of humor. For example, after losing as White to World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen during the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, Nepo put the kings on the white squares, signifying a win by White to the arbiter. Nepo and Carlsen exchanged smiles as they got up from the board. After losing and drawing games to players in the bottom half of the field at the 2019 Tata Steel tournament, Nepo tweeted that he was sharing points, like Robin Hood.
Besides Nepo and gent, another four-letter word describing Nepomniachtchi is DOTA. As Nepo’s Twitter bio states, “Chess grandmaster, Hearthstone & DOTA fan.” Nepo also plays DOTA under the name FrostNova. One Reddit thread states that Nepo has occasionally sponsored DOTA tournaments, websites, and teams on occasion. Nepo is described as a “very good guy actually, one of the pillar[s] of the Russian Dota community.” During the afore-mentioned 2014 World Rapid & Blitz, where Nepo took second, he wore a DOTA 2 shirt.
Nepo wearing his Dota 2 t-shirt at the 2014 World Blitz Championship in Dubai
Normally this section would be titled “recipe,” but “dish” fits the “four-letter words as headers” theme. The dish was inspired by an Instagram post that showed Nepo celebrating Maslenitsa by cooking Russian pancakes. Walder slightly modified this blini recipe, then created toppings. For his two roommates and himself, Walder served the dish and toppings with sides of yogurt berry parfait, 2 espressos, and an americano.
Blini
Topping
Alternate topping
Directions
Analysing Giri v Nepomniachtchi from the 2020 Candidates after 24.Qb1-d3 while enjoying the dish and toppings with sides of yogurt berry parfait | Photo: Elliott Winslow
Grandmaster Anish Giri versus Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi from Round 1 of the 2020 Candidates tournament ended in a 73-move win by Nepo. The game was annotated in a previous ChessBase article; National Master Mike Walder annotates it here with cooking allusions.
Master Class Vol.11: Vladimir Kramnik
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) how to successfully organise your games strategically, consequently how to keep y