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Indian Express
12 hours ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
‘Good thing with Nepo is one doesn't even need to beat him': Anish Giri takes fresh shots at Ian Nepomniachtchi
The controversy which began at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team event last week with WR Chess being allowed to replay a game seems to have spawned a new chess feud. Anish Giri has taken potshots at Ian Nepomniachtchi via X after he had remonstrated with the WR Chess team and exchanged words with these Russian in particular at the London event. The issue had started when WR Chess had lost the first match of the two-match quarter-finals to the Germany and Friends team. But WR Chess had then protested, claiming they were not informed officially of their start times for the round, which had led players to arrive late at the board. Alireza Firouzja had arrived for his game 15 seconds late for a three-minute game. Meanwhile, Nepo arrived with just 1 minute, 4 seconds left on his clock for his game against Vincent Keymer. Hikaru Nakamura arrived with just 38 seconds left on his clock for his clash with Matthias Bluebaum. Consequently, all three lost their games. The organisers had allowed the teams to replay the first match of the quarter-finals after lengthy deliberation. But not everyone was happy with the decision. A video from ChessBase India had shown Anish walking up to the WR Chess team and exchanging words with Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura. Anish was repeatedly asking the players if they would have replayed the game if they had won. Nepo, in response, had thrown comments like: 'Big expert in law, Anish. Since when?' and 'Next FIDE president' at the Dutch GM. 'Anish seems to smart, but whenever he opens his mouth… it's already questionable,' said Nepo. 'Why does he care so much,' Nakamura had asked. The tournament had ended with WR Chess winning the blitz title. Reacting to the incident, American GM Hans Niemann posted on X: 'I think Anish and Nepo should settle things on the chess board. Happy to sponsor a match on Endgame!' To this, Anish replied, while tagging Nepomniachtchi: 'The good thing with Ian is, one doesn't even need to beat him. Just hang in there long enough and he will probably accept to share the title. What do you think, Ian?' Anish's dig about 'sharing the title' was a reference to Nepo and Magnus Carlsen agreeing to share the FIDE World Blitz title late last year after playing out multiple draws. Niemann then posted: 'Perhaps if the winner becomes FIDE president, you can be CO FIDE Presidents.' In another tweet, Anish had responded to the comment about becoming FIDE president. 'My FIDE presidency will have to wait for a long-long while, but the first seed has evidently been planted today,' she posted.
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First Post
a day ago
- Sport
- First Post
Hikaru Nakamura's WR Chess wins World Blitz Team Championship in controversial fashion: 'This whole appeal thing was a mess'
Hikaru Nakamura's WR Chess won the World Blitz Team Championship for second time in the row but their victory came after an appeal drama which saw one of the ties in the quarter-finals being replayed. read more World No.2 Hikaru Nakamura's WR Chess won the FIDE World Blitz Team Championship on Sunday for a second time in a row. However, their victory didn't come without a controversy as Vincent Keymer's Germany and Friends defeated WR Chess 4-2 in the quarter-finals, with Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja and Nakamura all losing, but the result was later annulled after an appeal. WR Chess's appeal was regarding some of their players coming late to the matches, as the organisers forgot to announce the start time. In fact, some of the players from the WR Chess team were almost two minutes late for the three-minute blitz games. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'They always put the start time in this captains' admin group that we have, and this time the last communication was that 15:17 is when the line-ups are due, which was written at 15:15, and after that nothing, so we were waiting for the start time to be in the group. Nothing happened, we went, but you can't put the last communication 15:17, line-ups are due, and then start 15:22 without informing us. It's a fairly obvious case, in my opinion,' said WR Chess team captain Jan Gustafsson, while explaining the whole situation. WR Chess' victory leads to controversy Russian Grandmaster Nepomniachtchi, who represented WR Chess, was relieved that the match was replayed, but he wasn't impressed with how the decision was made. 'This whole appeal thing was a mess, to be honest, and I wasn't sure if the appeal would be successful or not. Eventually they allowed us to replay the match, but I don't think there was a good decision.' Germany and Friends' player Bohdan Lobkin believed the decision would have been different if his team had been the one making the appeal. After Germany and Friends accepted the annulment, WR Chess won 4.5-1.5 and 4-2. They then defeated Hexamind Chess Team in the semi-finals and KazChess in the final to win the FIDE World Blitz Team Championship 2025. Arjun Erigaisi's Team MGD1, who won the World Rapid Team Championship, lost to Hexamind in the quarter-finals. After a 3-3 draw, Hexamind clinched a 4-2 victory in the next round.
