Chess: Hans Niemann rounds out world top 20 as US star impresses in London | Chess

Hans Niemann, the controversial 21-year-old American, is in London this week, where his “Niemann v the World” series against European grandmasters continues with a match against English No. 1 and former Russian Nikita Vitiugov.

Niemann won their first classical game on Wednesday morning in 48 moves, with an impressive strategic attack in Anatoly Karpov style. But in the second game, after creating a winning position, he missed two easy tactical tricks and had to settle for a drawn rook endgame. The third and fourth games on Thursday also ended in a draw after a draw.

The $20,000 tournament features six classic games on Wednesday through Friday (starting at 10am and 4pm), six rapid games on Saturday (starting at 6pm) and 12 blitz games on Sunday (starting at 6pm). The tournament at the Gem Fitzrovia Hotel, Bolsover Street is free to spectators and can also be watched live on lichess, where hundreds of people tune in daily.

Guardian reader Mike Gunn went to watch and was appointed Deputy Arbiter (he is a qualified Fide National Arbiter). He writes: “The playing room is an air-conditioned conference room in the basement of the hotel with 40 seats for spectators. There are no viewing screens or wall boards. Spectators had mainly a side view and you had to stand up to get a good view of the board.

The first game had to be scored on Dutch score sheets, but I bought some English ones at the nearby chess and bridge shop in time for game two. Most of the few spectators were young and did not play in competitions or tournaments, but followed Niemann on X.

Vitiugov arrived five or ten minutes before kick-off, Niemann only one minute. Both players were scanned before the match with a hand scanner and were escorted to the toilet by the Dutch head referee, Frans Peeters, who took the scanner with him.

Vitiugov sat in a quiet, symmetrical position and studied the board constantly. Niemann, on the other hand, was a real nervous wreck. He crossed and crossed his legs, ran his hands through his hair, stretched, shielded his eyes with his hand, and looked at his opponent and sometimes around the room. Some would find him annoying, but I don’t think Vitiugov noticed. In general, Niemann had a head start on the clock and Vitiugov lost the first game on time in a lost position.”

Niemann shot to fame after the 2022 Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, where he defeated then world champion Magnus Carlsen, sparking accusations of cheating, a $100 million lawsuit and an ongoing animosity between the two that remains unresolved. It is now widely accepted that there was no cheating, and certainly no anal beads.

Now Niemann, who dropped out of the top 40 a year or so ago and has now climbed to 21st in the world rankings, is trying to get into major invitational tournaments. He has had few chances to do so so far because of his relatively low ranking, his difficult personality and an incident in which he trashed his hotel room.

Earlier this month, Niemann defeated Anish Giri, the number 1 player in the Netherlands and one of the best players in Western Europe, in a $50,000 series in Utrecht. Niemann won 24-18 in a mixed series in which the score was 3 points for classical games, 2 for rapid and 1 for blitz. Niemann won on classical and blitz and drew on rapid. After his match with Vitiugov, he will go to Paris for a $30,000 series against the number 3 player in France, Étienne Bacrot. He could reach the top 15 in the world with further strong performances.

Niemann’s concept of individual matches to compensate for the lack of invitations to top-quality tournaments has a precedent dating back more than a century, when José Raúl Capablanca toured several cities, including London and Paris, and scored +19=5-2 in masterful play.

Capablanca’s tour was very successful and comparable to Paul Morphy’s legendary European tour in 1858. It definitively established the Cuban as the main challenger to the reigning world champion, Emanuel Lasker.

Realistically, Niemann should have more modest ambitions. Reaching the world’s top 15-20 by the end of his tour, and then depriving Carlsen of his No. 1 blitz rating, would be a maximalist outcome.

On September 6, Carlsen and Niemann will have a rematch in Paris, where the semifinals and final of the chess.com Speed ​​Championship will be played live. To reach the semifinals, Niemann defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So, while Carlsen knocked out world number 4 Arjun Erigaisi. Niemann gave an interview after his match with So in which he lashed out at “the chess world that conspired to ruin my career.”

The rematch will have an unusual format. Previous rounds of the speed championship have been played exclusively online, but Paris will be a hybrid event, with opponents sitting opposite each other but playing on separate computers. There will be 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3+1 blitz and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet. Carlsen said he would prefer a different opponent, but “if I have a good day I can probably win without too many problems.” The other semi-final will be Hikaru Nakamura v Alireza Firouzja.

It was the 2022 Sinquefield Cup that kicked off the Carlsen v Niemann row. The 2024 Sinquefield Cup, the pinnacle of the Grand Chess Tour in St. Louis, begins on Monday. The focus will be on Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju, the 14-game, $2.5m world title match starting on November 23 in Singapore, playing together. Ding will be hoping to continue his recent improved form.

The full list for Sinquefield 2024 is: Fabiano Caruana and So (USA), Firouzja and Vachier-Lagrave (France), Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Gukesh (India), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia/Fide), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) and Ding (China). The match starts at 19:30 BST on Monday 19 August and will be broadcast live on grandchesstour.org.

3933 1….Kf2+! 2 Qxb3 Ng5+! 3 hxg5 Qh8 mate.