Just days after Ian Nepomniachtchi left India in a huff after losing in the second round to Indian grandmaster Diptayan Ghosh, Ukrainian chess legend Vassily Ivanchuk has praised the conditions on offer for players. Just like Nepo, Ivanchuk was also knocked out in the second round from the ongoing FIDE World Cup in Goa. Ivanchuk lost to Sam Shankland, which ended his campaign at what is his ninth FIDE World Cup.
Asked at a press conference on Friday how he found the working conditions and the atmosphere in Goa, Ivanchuk said: “Excellent, excellent, excellent. I just want to say thank you to the organisers for the correct atmosphere, and to the arbiters of course. I have no complaints. I can only say thank you to everybody, especially those who supported me.”
Ivanchuk went on to add: “My play, it’s my choice, my problem probably. But it has no relation to atmosphere, to organisers.”
The 56-year-old grandmaster then said that he had lost not due to opening preparation or such things, but due to psychological issues.
“I prepared lines, but my preparation wasn’t so good, unfortunately, probably, especially from the psychological side. From the opening aspect I was more or less prepared, but psychologically it’s more difficult.”
Ivanchuk’s comments come after Nepomniachtchi left the FIDE World Cup’s official player hotel in less than an hour after losing in the second round. Nepo, a man who has competed and lost in two World Chess Championship battles (against Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren) had made some disparaging comments on his Telegram handle.
“I’d played in India before (in 2019 in Kolkata), so I had a good idea of what the conditions would be like. But FIDE, to its credit, managed to surprise me. There’s nothing to say about the chess aspect. One of those places that you won’t be sad to leave,” a disgruntled Nepomniachtchi had posted on his Telegram account on Wednesday.
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Nepo had neither filed an official complaint nor spoken to the media about what had irked him.
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