Tournament of applicants: Teimur Rajabov against leading Russian Jan Nepomnya

In Madrid, the 10th tournament of applicants for the chess crown is held in Madrid. Azerbaijani grandmaster Teimur Rajabov plays black figures with the obvious leader of the competition – Russian Yan Nepomnya.

In the last round, Teimur won his first victory not only in this tournament, but also since 2019, when he won the World Cup. Our chess player in a brilliant style beat the American Hikar Nakamura.

Tamur after 9 rounds 4 points, and he shares the 5-7th positions with the representative of France Alireza Firuja and Hungarian Richard Rapport.

In general, Rajabov has one victory, two defeats and six draws. In the first circle, Teimur lost all the same Nakamur, as well as another American – Fabiano Karuan. A draw was recorded with the Nepomnya in the first batch. Teimur also concluded peace with Firuja twice, once with a Poles Yang -Kseshtof Duda, Chinese Dean Liezhenem and Rapport.

Tournament position after the 9th round:

1. Nonal – 6.5 points; 2. Caruana – 5.5 points; 3-4. Nakamura, Dean – 4.5 points each; 5-7. Radzhabov, Firuja, rapport – 4 points each; 8. Duda – 3 points.

The competition takes place in two circles. Time control – 2 hours for the first 40 moves, 1 hour for the next 20 moves, 15 minutes for the rest of the party with the addition of 30 seconds starting from the 61st move.

If the chess players fighting in the 1st place will gain the same number of points according to the results of 14 rounds, then they will find a tie-break-two batches in quick chess, and if necessary, then blitz until the strongest is determined.

The winner of the tournament will receive 48 thousand euros and the right to challenge the championship crown in a match with the current world champion Magnus Karlsen. True, the Norwegian himself has repeatedly stated that he was not very interested once again to play the championship match. If Carlsen refuses to protect the title, then chess players who took 1st and 2nd places in the applicants’ tournament will compete for the title of world champion.