Ian Nepomniachtchi has spent more than a decade producing fighting, uncompromising chess at the very top of the game. Below are four genuinely famous games and career-defining performances, described honestly. We’ve kept the focus on what makes each one matter rather than dumping raw move lists — every result here is verified against reliable sources.
A quick note on how we do this: because a single wrong move can misrepresent a great game, we describe these in prose and point you to authoritative sources (Wikipedia, Chess.com, and the official championship records) to replay them move-by-move. What follows is the story of each — why it happened, what made it special, and where it fits in Nepo’s career.
1. The player who had Carlsen’s number
Here’s a fact that stunned casual fans in the run-up to the 2021 World Championship: Nepomniachtchi held a winning classical record against Magnus Carlsen. Across their classical games before the match, Nepo led 4 wins to 1, with 8 draws — a plus score against a man who had spent a decade beating almost everyone else in sight. Several of those wins came in their junior years (Nepo also famously edged a teenage Carlsen for the 2002 World Youth U12 title), and in the five years just before the match their head-to-head was level. But the psychological point stood: Nepo was one of the few elite players who genuinely did not fear Carlsen, and could beat him with either color when the initiative was his. It’s the perfect illustration of why he was considered such a dangerous challenger.
2. Breakthrough — winning the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament is the eight-player gauntlet that decides who challenges for the World Championship, and it may be the hardest event in chess to win. Nepo’s victory in the 2020–21 Candidates in Yekaterinburg was his career breakthrough. The tournament was famously split in two — halted midway in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and resumed a full year later — a brutal test of nerve and preparation. Nepo handled the chaos better than anyone, leading at the halt and closing out the win to earn his first shot at the world title. It confirmed what insiders had long suspected: on his day, his fast, aggressive, initiative-hunting chess could carry him past the strongest field on the planet.
3. The longest game in World Championship history — Carlsen vs Nepomniachtchi, 2021 (Game 6)
No account of Nepo’s career skips Game 6 of the 2021 World Championship in Dubai — the most famous game he’s ever been part of, even though it went against him. After five draws, this sixth game exploded into a 136-move marathon, the longest game in the history of World Championship matches. Carlsen, with White, squeezed and squeezed a roughly balanced endgame — a queen against rook, knight and pawns — for hour after hour until, deep into the night, Nepo finally cracked. Carlsen won.
Why include a loss on a “best games” page? Because it’s honest, and because it’s genuinely one of the most remarkable games ever played at that level — a test of endurance and defensive resourcefulness that most players never face. It was also the turning point of the match: the psychological blow of losing such an epic seemed to unsettle Nepo, who then lost further games as the match slipped away to a final score of 7½–3½. Studying it is a masterclass in both grinding pressure and how hard it is to defend for six straight hours.
4. Back-to-back — winning the 2022 Candidates Tournament
Bouncing back from a lost World Championship match is hard; winning the next Candidates to earn another shot is almost unheard of. But that’s exactly what Nepo did. In the 2022 Candidates in Madrid, he was the class of the field from start to finish, controlling the tournament and clinching first place with a round to spare on a dominant 9½/14. It made him one of only a handful of players in history to win two consecutive Candidates Tournaments. With Carlsen declining to defend the title, that victory sent Nepo into the 2023 World Championship against Ding Liren — where, after 14 classical games ended level at 7–7, the crown was decided only in a rapid tiebreak. He came agonizingly close a second time.
Why these games matter
Put together, these four moments capture the full Nepomniachtchi story:
- The fearless competitor who beat Carlsen when almost no one else could.
- The big-event performer who won the sport’s toughest qualifier — twice.
- The resilient fighter who endured the longest World Championship game ever played and came back to challenge again.
For more on how he creates these moments — the speed, the aggression, the intuition — see Nepomniachtchi’s playing style and his opening repertoire.
How to get the most out of these games
If you’re an improving player, Nepo’s games are a great study — but only if you approach them the right way:
- Watch how he uses the clock as a weapon. Nepo moves fast on purpose. Notice how his speed transfers pressure onto opponents who are forced to burn time solving problems he sets instantly.
- Feel the marathon in Game 6. Play through the long endgame slowly and appreciate how thin the margins are — a single inaccuracy after five hours decided a World Championship.
- Study the Candidates runs as tournaments, not single games. Winning the Candidates is about consistency and nerve across two weeks. See how Nepo balanced aggression with knowing when to take a safe draw.
- Try his openings yourself. Set up the Grünfeld or the Petrov on a real board and get a feel for the structures before you look at what the pros played.
Keep exploring
Back to the Ian Nepomniachtchi profile · learn his playing style · study his openings · or browse all chess players.
Written and fact-checked by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team · Facts verified against Wikipedia, the 2021 World Championship and Game 6 records, and Chess.com, as of July 2026 · Last verified 2026-07-10 · How we verify content.