The
Russian champion has usurped Ding Liren as world No 3 and, with four rounds to go, is in pole position in Ekaterinburg
Ian Nepomniachtchi is in sight of the result of his life, as the 30-year-old Russian champion leads the Candidates in Ekaterinburg, one full point ahead of a trio of Western rivals, with four rounds to go. The jackpot for the winner is a 14-game, €2m (£1.7m) challenge match for Magnus Carlsen’s world crown at Dubai in November.
After 10 rounds, Nepomniachtchi led with 6.5/10 followed by Fabiano Caruana (US), Anish Giri (Netherlands) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) 5.5, then the also-rans Wang Hao (China) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia) 4.5, Kirill Alekseenko (Russia) and Ding Liren (China) 4.