Nail It Like Nepo!: Ian Nepomniachtchi’s 30 Best Wins

Format: Paperback Author(s): Zenon Franco Publisher: Elk and Ruby Published in: 2021 Pages: 236 Language: English Share: More Details Download sample Buy PB (US/UK only) Buy PB (RoW shipped from Europe)

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Ian Nepomniachtchi’s road from Grandmaster to becoming Magnus Carlsen’s world championship challenger in 2021 was a long one. GM in 2007 and Russian champion for the first time in 2010, Ian only hit the elite in recent years. His victory in Ekaterinburg occurred at his very first candidates tournament. In this book Grandmaster Zenon Franco analyzes Nepo’s chess through his 30 best wins and several fragments, considering his style, his strengths, as well as his weaknesses and how he has overcome them. Like Magnus, we see fighting, practical chess with a player not afraid to push his g and h pawns in front of his king, and a more aggressive than positional style. Above all, Franco compares Nepo to Lasker, Korchnoi and Magnus Carlsen himself. In instructional move by move format, we see Ian’s best wins against Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Giri, Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave, Svidler, Gelfand, Karjakin, and other elite players of the last decade.

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Editorial Reviews

"The games are carefully annotated in a move-by-move style with a mixture of explanatory prose and variations as well as plenty of questions and answers...and after each game Franco summarizes what we have learned from the game. As with Franco's other books, this one is very well-written. The games are well-chosen, the annotations are top-notch and instructive, providing the reader with a look behind the curtain analyzing the thinking and decision process, his opening choices, his strengths, and (relative) weaknesses. While the book is about his wins, it is not an uncritical coverage of Nepomniachtichi. If a mistake is made, it is explained for what it is and the thinking that leads the player to make it. Overall, this is a great book to get to know Ian Nepomniachtichi the player, the challenger." FIDE Master Carsten Hansen, American Chess Magazine.

"The annotations are very good and thankfully do not go down the route of too many lengthy variations. Indeed, numerous questions are asked of the reader as the games progress...Of particular use to improving club players is the post-game selection of 'Some lessons from this game', which serve to distill the salient moments from each encounter in succinct and fully accessible fashion. Franco has done a good job here. This is a serious attempt to get to grips with the unusual style of Nepomniachtchi and to keep challenging the reader with admirable regularity." - Sean Marsh, CHESS magazine, October 2021

About the author(s)

Zenon Franco

After living in Buenos Aires he moved to Spain, where he lived until his death in 2024. Zenon was the author of over 30 chess books published in many languages and was a regular chess columnist of the Paraguayan Hoy...