"The favorite aside from Magnus? Me, of course!" — Ian Nepomniachtchi on Total Chess Pilot

Ian Nepomniachtchi

Russia's No. 1

“[Question: Leaving aside Magnus out of consideration, among the other players, is there a favorite of yours who you think is the favorite to win this tournament?]

Me, of course. I’m not sure, I have never seen Pragg playing Fast Classical. Since we are speaking for ChessBase India here, I think it’s three players. I think Pragg, Vaishali, and Arjun.

Vaishali has to show her best in the match a bit later. So, it would be surely nice training for her. And maybe she would pull one or two upsets easily. I could easily predict this.

And I think that probably, Arjun is like more chaotic and Pragg is more controlled. But it’s hard to predict how it’s going to happen inside 45 minutes chess. So, it will be a bit interesting for me.

I think maybe Arjun is very, very adaptive for all sorts of chess. And perhaps it would help him to play a lot of dubious ideas and be sort of unpredictable in the opening.

Which is I think would be very important in this tournament. Because you have only 45 minutes and you can’t really try to refute every incorrect line you see.

So, the favorite is me, and then maybe someone, Arjun or Pragg.”