Five minutes to five: Nepomniachtchi came close to victory at the Aeroflot Open

Yan Nepomnyashchy scored seven out of eight points and almost secured victory at the Aeroflot Open International Chess Festival. The world blitz champion, a two—time winner of the candidates tournament, won six victories and drew twice - with Andrey Esipenko and Arseniy Nesterov. In the last round, a draw is enough for him to win the tournament for the fifth time, and for the fourth time in the classic control. At least six people are competing for a place in the top 3. Faustino Oro, a 12-year-old Argentine, can also fulfill his main task and become the youngest grandmaster in the history of chess.

Stability of the Non-memorable

A year ago, Jan won three games in a row. This time it was four, beating Artur Gabrielyan, Yaroslav Remizov, Mohammed Muradli and Reza Mahdavi at the start. In the fifth round, Nepomnyashchy faced the second-seeded Andrei Esipenko, who went with a score of "+3". The favorites quickly fixed the draw and went to rest.

Following the results of the fifth round, Yang was overtaken by international master Lev Zverev, who defeated two strong grandmasters on the third game day: Hayk Martirosyan (7th starting number) and Bardia Daneshvar (17th). 12 players, including Alexander Grischuk, were half a point behind the leaders.

In the sixth round, Nepomnyashchy was able to regain sole leadership by stopping Zverev's breakthrough. Their game proceeded smoothly enough, but Jan gradually managed to win a pawn, and Zverev took the risky step of parting with the bishop in order to reduce the amount of material and get closer to a draw. The decision eventually turned out to be wrong, and soon the junior admitted defeat. The closest pursuers of Yan were David Paravyan (who was Esipenko's second at the 2025 World Cup) and the current Russian champion Arseniy Nesterov. 13 participants scored 4.5 points each.

No less important events occurred a few boards below — Faustino Oro, claiming to be the youngest grandmaster in history, attacked Ivan Rozum too recklessly and eventually lost. After that, Oro kept his chances at the grandmaster's standard (it is necessary to fix all the standards before March 11), but he had almost no room for error — in the three remaining rounds Faustino had to win at least twice. And the Argentine is still coping with the task. On Thursday, March 5, he was stronger than Lada Mandar Pradeep from India and Siroglan Talibov from Azerbaijan. Now everything will depend on Faustino's result in the last round.

The favorites ended most of the face-to-face games in a draw. The only victory in the group of leaders in the seventh round was won by 16-year-old Maxim Chertkov, who beat the experienced Pavel Ponkratov. Thanks to this, Chertkov joined the party with Nepomnyashchy. Maxim resisted the rating favorite for a long time, but in the end, Yang was still able to put the squeeze on the young opponent. After that, the favorite rating became almost inaccessible to the pursuers. Six chess players are one point behind Nepomniachy, which means that a draw with Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov will be enough for him.

Two records

The tournament in Moscow is being held under the progressive control of the "new classics" — the idea of philanthropist Oleg Skvortsov, now "legitimized" by FIDE (60 minutes + 30 seconds). This control is perfect for our award-winning chess player, Alexander Tkachev, Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, told Izvestia.

— Ian has a lot of personal fans and, for sure, many of them wondered what form their idol was in. And Nepomnyashchy showed that he is in great order," emphasized Alexander Tkachev. — He hasn't played offline tournaments for a long time, but online chess is another story. I would like to note that this is one of the largest tournaments that takes place with accelerated control. I try to ask everyone if they like the "new classics". I didn't ask Ian, but it's obvious that this control suits him. After all, he was a world champion in blitz, always fighting for Rapid World Cup medals. It's great that our young guys played with Nepomnyashchy at the first board. Last year we discussed the successes of Ivan Zemlyansky, Savva Vetokhin, and Artyom Uskov, but this year Lev Zverev and Maxim Chertkov shone. That's why I'm happy. Firstly, the tournament continues its development. Secondly, it's a great look. Both experienced guys and very young guys who don't shy away from the background of honored masters.

Also, after the eighth round, it became obvious that Andrei Esipenko, who is very close to playing the main start of the two years in world chess, would not be able to claim a place in the top 3.

"Everything is going according to plan for Andrey," Alexander Tkachev continued. — He had three training camps planned. Two of them passed. After the Aeroflot Open, he will go to the third training camp and from there he will fly to Cyprus. The tournament in Moscow was one of the stages of preparation, and he handled it well. He won several exciting games, and probably created the biggest problems for anyone who doesn't remember.

Another important story that deserves attention is that Vadim Zvyagintsev continues his win—win marathon in classical control: the Russian grandmaster has not lost 122 games already. At the elite level, a similar record is held by Magnus Carlsen, who has not lost in 125 meetings. The absolute record was recently updated by 37-year-old Zhou Jianchao, who did not lose 158 games in a row until the beginning of 2026.

— I sincerely wish Vadim that his series would last as long as possible, — said Alexander Tkachev. — So that he could beat both Magnus and Zhou Jianchao, becoming the record holder in the end. Here we can draw a parallel with Alexander Ovechkin's recent record for goals in the NHL regular season, which was watched by the whole country. Everyone in the chess community was watching when Carlsen broke Ding Liren's record of not losing exactly 100 games. That's where the interest in this record started. And the fact that evil tongues say that Vadim has the wrong level of rivals, then these conversations have no basis in themselves.

The Aeroflot Open 2026 International Chess Tournament is organized by the Russian Chess Federation and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation with the support of the event's titular partner, Aeroflot PJSC.