MOSCOW, September 15 – Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi failed to reach the semifinals of the online rapid chess tournament Speed ​​Chess Championship.

In the quarterfinal match, he lost to Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen with a score of 20.5:9.5.

Initially, 33-year-old Nepomniachtchi was not included in the online tournament, reacting to his non-inclusion on his page on the social network X (formerly the social network Twitter) with the message “I’m just not good enough.” However, it later became known that the Russian replaced the 17th world champion, Chinese Ding Liren, at the Speed ​​Chess Championship.

In the semifinals of the tournament, Karslen will play against American grandmaster Wesley So.

The current champion of the competition is American Hikaru Nakamura. At last year’s tournament, Nepomniachtchi reached the 1/8 finals, where he lost to the Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Previously, FIDE, due to the situation in Ukraine, decided that Russians could only compete in individual competitions under a neutral flag. Russian national teams are temporarily suspended from participating in team competitions.