Nepo: “This whole situation is really sad for me”
The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 reached the semifinals with 3 Russians and Magnus Carlsen putting more flag colors on the leaderboard.
Ian Nepomniachtchi scored a decisive third-game point against Vincent Keymer and won the match to advance to the Tour’s semifinals. Later the Russian GM admitted that the Russia/Ukraine crisis has affected him.
After the war announcement, Nepomniachtchi tweeted: “History has seen no lack of black Thursdays, but today is blacker than the others”
Andrey Esipenko also dominated against the tour’s underdog, Eric Hansen with a 3-1 score to face Nepomniachtchi in the semifinals. The Russian GM also commented on the war: “I really hoped for a peaceful solution to the situation... It’s terrible to realize that all this is happening...”
The third Russian to move to the semifinals was Vladislav Artemiev. The 23-year-old GM beat Ding Liren with a 2.5-1.5 score, leaving the chess world speechless. The Chinese GM has missed several knockout blows but eventually the pressure – and maybe tiredness – took him down.
The one to break the Russian dominance in the semifinals was the World Champion Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian GM managed to win the first knockout game against Liem Quang Le and achieve a 2.5-1.5 final score. In the semifinals, Carlsen will face Artemiev for his chance to move to the tour’s finals.
Watch it at 6PM CET on the World Chess broadcasting page.
