Our American friend: How the Karpov Cup started

American grandmaster Hans Niemann unsuccessfully started his performance at the Karpov Cup — 50 Years Later, which will last in Moscow until May 23. On the first day of the game, Hans suffered defeats from Daniil Dubov and Vladislav Artemyev, and also drew with Vladimir Malakhov. The leaders are Yan Nepomnyashchy, Daniil Dubov, Alexander Grischuk and Artemyev, who scored 2 points out of three possible.

The Playing Champion

On April 3, 1975, the young Soviet grandmaster Anatoly Karpov was proclaimed the 12th World chess champion. On the way to this historic achievement, he shared 1-2 places in the interzonal tournament (Leningrad, 1973), won the candidates matches against Lev Polugaevsky, Boris Spassky and Viktor Korchnoi and won the right to a match with the 11th world champion, American grandmaster Robert Fischer.

Fischer has held the crown since 1972, after defeating Soviet champion Boris Spassky in Reykjavik. In the West, and especially in the United States, Fischer's victory was greeted as a triumph: after the undivided quarter-century rule of Soviet grandmasters (starting in 1948), the highest chess title was won by an American. But in the USSR, the loss of the chess crown was perceived as a major political defeat, and its return became one of the top priorities for Soviet sports.

The world championship match between Robert Fischer and Anatoly Karpov was scheduled to be held in the Philippines in the spring of 1975.

The prize pool was $5 million, an unprecedented amount not only in those years, but also in modern times. However, Fischer, who has not played a single tournament game since his victory in Reykjavik, has started a long-running lawsuit with FIDE, making more and more demands. The vast majority of them were accepted by FIDE, including a game with up to 10 wins without limiting the total number of games. However, Fischer's demand to retain the title with a score of 9:9 was rejected, after which the American grandmaster announced that he was "resigning the title of FIDE world champion."

Due to the breakdown of the match, a unique situation arose for world chess: the new champion Anatoly Karpov not only won the title without playing with his predecessor, but also never played a single game with Fischer, either before or after that, since the American champion never returned to official chess.

Karpov promised to be a "playing champion", actively participate in competitions, and kept his word: over the next ten years, he won almost all the tournaments in which he participated, and also won two matches for the crown. And after that, he remained one of the strongest chess players in the world for another two decades.

Now to rapid

At the time of receiving the crown, Karpov was the youngest holder of the highest title in the history of chess (23 years old). In honor of the anniversary of this event, the Association of Chess Federations is holding the Karpov Cup 50 Years Later tournament with the participation of Russia's strongest athletes, as well as World Cup winner Teymur Radjabov (Azerbaijan) and one of the most popular chess players of our time, Hans Niemann.

The participants will play nine rounds in a round-robin system with time control "15+10" (rapid).

It is very interesting to watch Niemann's next confrontation with the leading Russian grandmasters. Recall that after the Aeroflot Open 2025, Niemann and Dubov had an 18–game duel with short control (Niemann also challenged Nepomniachtchi to the match, but Yang refused). After the first day, Dubov led 5.5:3.5, but on the second day, the American managed to even the score. Before the final game, the score was equal — 8.5:8.5. Daniil played white and managed to create problems for his opponent, and when it already seemed that Hans was escaping, the Russian found an excellent resource and managed to win in the knight's endgame.

According to the agreement, the loser undertakes to undergo a lie detector test. "I'm interested in him passing the detector test and answering the question. It is clear to everyone which (a number of elite grandmasters, including Magnus Carlsen, publicly accused the American of cheating. — Ed.). We said that if I win, then that's how it will be," Dubov said before the match.

For a long time, Hans remained silent about this story, but in May he announced that he would undergo a polygraph.

— The initial inspection was canceled for logistical reasons, but now I will organize it again in the near future. I will take this polygraph test solely because it was a condition of the match, not because I need to prove anything. Every official chess organization has repeatedly confirmed that attempts to question my legitimacy as a player are malicious, baseless, and completely absurd. The only thing left for me to prove is that I can become a world chess champion," Niemann wrote on his social media.

Ironically, the draw in the first round brought Niemann together with Dubovoy. Hans got out of the opening without any problems, but lost time — leaving himself only two minutes against Daniel's eleven, the American made a decisive yawn.

In addition to Dubov, Alexander Grischuk won in the first round, beating Peter Svidler. There were no productive games in the second round, and in the third Nepomnyashchy defeated Vladimir Malakhov, and Vladislav Artemyev beat Niemann. During the first day, Hans complained about the problems with acclimatization, only yesterday he got to Moscow.

It will be very difficult to win back from -2. A fierce struggle is likely to unfold for victory.

— The composition of the tournament turned out to be very strong, but I have a little mixed feelings, — said two-time champion of Russia, senior coach of the Russian national youth team Evgeny Tomashevsky. — On the one hand, there is great interest and a great desire to play in such a representative company. It is a great honor to be a part of the tournament, which is timed to coincide with such a wonderful date. On the other hand, it came as a surprise to me. I didn't plan to play, I didn't prepare for my opponents in any way, considering that I've been completely focused on coaching lately. It will be all the more interesting to see how everything will turn out for me, what kind of game form I am in. It's a complete mystery to me.

Tomashevsky started with three draws, including with the rating favorite Nepomnyashchy. The tournament is being held at the Mikhail Botvinnik Central House of Chess.