WR Chess Masters

World no. 2 Ian Nepomniachtchi will get a chance to warm-up for the World Championship match as a new classical supertournament, the WR Chess Masters, starts in Dusseldorf, Germany today. He’ll face Tata Steel Masters winner Anish Giri, runner-up Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and the same army of kids that didn’t quite dominate in Wijk aan Zee.

The tournament is tailor-made for Ian Nepomniachtchi to get some practice at classical chess before he starts his World Championship match against Ding Liren on April 9th. It’s the first time Ian has played classical chess since the Sinquefield Cup in December, and the long time control is exactly the one that will be used in Kazakhstan, including the absence of an increment before move 61.

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