“Nepo” wins “Meeting of Generations” handicap

Ian Nepomniachtchi has won a handicap tournament held in Dvorkovich’s Chess Club in Moscow, with Valentina Gunina the highest-ranked woman. The players also locked swords in Bughouse chess, as captured in videos by Evgeny Potemkin.

Nepomniachtchi collects the spoils of victory | photo: Vladimir Barsky

The handicap system aims to allow players of different ages and chess abilities to compete on a level-playing field by varying the time each player has for their moves. 20 minutes is allocated for a game. If players are of equal ability they each have 10 minutes, but if the highest category (1) meets the lowest (10), the stronger player has 2 minutes to his opponent’s 18.

Although Ian Nepomniachtchi managed to sail to victory with 8/9 the only other “top-category” player Alexander Morozevich could only manage 5/9 and 15th place. The Top 20 were as follows:

Reigning Russian Women's Champion Valentina Gunina was the top woman | photo: Vladimir Barsky

The players also indulged in some Bughouse (or Tandem) chess – where pieces you capture on one board are passed to your partner on the next, who can place a piece on the board rather than making a move. Evgeny Potemkin captured Maria Fominykh and Alexander Morozevich taking on Ian Nepomniachtchi and (eventually) Tatiana Bogumil:

Bughouse chess has some strong advocates among the chess elite, but none more so than world no. 2 Levon Aronian. As he explained at Crestbook:

For me, bughouse chess is an opportunity to have fun. As it’s very important to monitor your time in the game you have to sacrifice good moves for quick moves. For that reason, play on the internet often resembles one-minute games. At the board it’s much more interesting, and during the Amber tournament we’d often arrange battles with me, Magnus, Sergey Karjakin and other players. As for the game’s prospects, I don’t have any settled opinion, but I hope other players will love it as much as I do.