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Ian Nepomniachtchi: Will be the opponent of Carlsen at the end of the year
Photo: Lennart Ootes / dpa
Chess world champion Magnus Carlsen has to defend his world title against Ian Nepomniachtchi at the end of the year.
The Russian won the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg with one round to go.
League leaders Nepomniachtchi played a draw against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the 13th round.
Because pursuers Anish Giri lost to Alexander Grischuk, Nepomniachtchi has 1.5 points ahead of the last round tomorrow, Tuesday.
For Nepomniachtchi, fourth in the world rankings, it is the greatest success of his career.
For the first time the Russian champions are playing for the world title.
The duel against Carlsen will take place between November 24th and December 16th in Dubai.
After the first seven rounds, Nepomniachtchi had led the tournament together with Vachier-Lagrave.
After the first half in spring 2020, the tournament was interrupted due to the corona crisis.
In the sequel, Nepomniachtchi has not lost a game so far.
In total, he has won five of his 13 games so far, including against the strong Giri.
Vice World Champion Fabiano Caruana missed his chance to catch up.
Carlsen has been world champion since 2013 and has so far defended his title three times: against Viswanathan Anand, Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana.
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