Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi shared details about his match against Hans Moke Niemann in Belgrade. Nepo says the match was organized on the fly, and claims the prize fund was smaller than Hans had announced.

Ian Nepomniachtchi

Ian Nepomniachtchi

Russian GM

“In my opinion, 8 games in 4 days are still too much, so we didn’t even discuss tiebreak from the start.

The match was organized on the fly, based on a promise. Details like tiebreak, prize distribution, and so on need to be agreed in advance.

The guys from Hans Niemann’s team are proposing another match, since there’s still some prize money left to distribute. To me, it seems ridiculous, they’re offering to play a Blitz match online…

Maybe it’s possible, but I don’t like this kind of petty manipulation over a fairly insignificant sum. It seems, to put it mildly, disrespectful on their part…

By the way, I don’t know where the media sources got the $100,000 information… I’m ashamed to even say what the actual prize pool was. I can only say it was significantly smaller.”

Hans Niemann released his first video announcing the match on April 18 on X. Hans stated that his offer for the match was $100,000, with half going to Nepo and the other half to charity.

The exhibition match between American GM Hans Moke Niemann and Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi took place from May 29 to June 1 in Belgrade, Serbia. The match featured 60+30 Classical time control over 8 Classical games. The match ended with a score of 4-4, with 6 draws and 2 decisive games.

Credit: Maria Emelianova / FIDE