Ian Nepomniachtchi is a grandmaster born in Bryansk in 1990. He learned chess at the age of four, and his grandfather was a well-known chess teacher in the city. He won several European youth championships and the World Youth Under-12 Championship in 2002, and was awarded the grandmaster title in 2007.
Nepomniachtchi won the European Individual Championship and the Russian Championship in 2010, and won the Russian title again in 2020. He won the Candidates Tournament in 2021 and 2022, and played World Championship matches against Magnus Carlsen in 2021 and Ding Liren in 2023. He shared the World Blitz Championship title with Carlsen in 2024, and won World Team Championship gold with Russia in 2013 and 2019.
