Ian Nepomniachtchi is one of the strongest chess players in the world and a candidate for the world chess crown. FM Viktor Neustroev will help you improve your chess skills by analyzing the most illustrative games of GM Nepomniachtchi.

Chess is a versatile game. To be a good player is not enough just to know the openings and endgames. It is necessary to develop your thinking, and this can be learned only by analyzing the games of chess masters.

The course "Play Chess Like Nepo" is a comprehensive work on chess. I designed this course for any chess player who wants to improve all aspects of his chess games and, of course, for fans of GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. By the end of the course, you will be able to attack and defend better, calculate deeper, find more tactical and strategic options and understand how to play the endgames!

7 sections to improve your chess skills:

• Opening Disaster

A quick win may be a result of a blunder, but usually, it happens when one of the players chooses and prepares a complex and sharp opening and his opponent doesn't know how to react to these moves. It's not obligatory to choose the best moves in the opening you prepared, you just have to choose the most principled moves that are hard to refute when playing over the board. If you play like that your opponent will be under the pressure. Even top players make mistakes. This is the way Ian Nepomniachtchi does in his games and it often works!

• Attack

Ian often initiated a breakthrough with his pawns on the enemy king, even it doesn’t reflect the logic of the position and by the first glance, the game could continue in a positional way. But finally, he was absolutely right starting such an attack. This is his special ability to understand the position properly. And this is what you guys may learn from the course.

• Tactical Vision

Many legendary chess players, especially world champions have tried to give an exact definition of the combination. But the general signs of the combination - complex tactics, check, captures, attacks, exchanges - are all present in the games of Nepomniachtchi. To win in a tactical battle, you need to develop a combination vision, solve problems, study sharp openings, analyze the games of famous masters of tactics. And Ian Nepomniachtchi is one of them.

• Calculation

When 2 top grandmasters play a game and start calculating the lines, the player who can calculate deeper and evaluate the position properly by the end of the line has some advantage. Usually, all top GMs can calculate the line deep enough, that’s why the second factor – the ability to evaluate the position properly becomes decisive. And this is where Ian Nepomniachtchi gets some edge and demonstrates how to find hidden perspectives of the position to get a clear understanding of how to continue when the line ends.

• Strategic Play

Strategic play involves improving the position of your pieces, the king, maintaining a balanced pawn structure, removing weaknesses in your camp, and hindering the opponent for the same purposes. Strategic play is often combined with tactics as a way of solving positional problems. However, I want you to understand when it’s time to look for tactical solutions and when you’d better play positionally. There are many excellent examples of a strategic play in the games of Ian Nepomniachtchi.

• Defense

When playing complicated positions, there is often a need to defend the king. For example, when you have extra material, but your opponent keeps the initiative, and let's say initiate a kingside attack. In such a case you have to come with a plan and decide how exactly to defend your position.

I realized that many club players are unable to defend their position properly. Some of them just ignore the attack and others go to the passive defense. That’s why before we start the analysis of Ian Nepomniatchi's games, let me share some insights about possible plans if you are under attack. The art of Defense is an important topic that is almost uncovered in chess books & videos on the Internet.

• Endgame Technique

When teaching my students, I faced that many of them don't understand the principles of playing endgames and that's why they choose wrong directions for their future actions. For example, they start a kingside attack instead of attacking weaknesses or activation of their pieces.

A proper plan, coordination of all pieces, king centralization and creation of weaknesses into the enemy camp. This is what is required when you play the endgame.

Pure technique and positional manoeuvres are the art that a grandmaster must master, especially at the top level. And Ian Nepomniatchi successfully demonstrates it in his games.

In each section I illustrate the games that Ian Nepomniachtchi played, explain the logic behind his moves and emphasize the moments where you can learn something to become a stronger chess player.