Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi (Russian: Ян Алекса́ндрович Непо́мнящий, romanized: Yan Aleksandrovich Nepomnyashchiy; born 14 July 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Nepomniachtchi won the 2010 Russian Superfinal and European Individual titles. He also won the 2016 Tal Memorial and 2008 and 2015 Aeroflot Open. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian teams at the 2013 World Team Chess Championship in Antalya and at the 2015 European Team Chess Championship in Reykjavík. In October 2016, Nepomniachtchi was ranked fourth in the world in both rapid chess and blitz chess. He has won two silver medals in the World Rapid Championship and a silver medal at the World Blitz Championship as well as winning the 2008 Ordix Open.In December 2019, Nepomniachtchi qualified for the 2020 Candidates Tournament after winning FIDE Grand Prix 2019 in Moscow (May, 2019) and Jerusalem (December, 2019).
Norway’s world champion is odds on to defeat his Russian challenger, but the fast rising 18-year-old Alireza Firouzja is poised to reach world No 2 this weekend