© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
China’s Wei Yi secured a spot at the FIDE Candidates tournament at the ongoing FIDE World Cup after his win over Andrey Esipenko in the semi-final via the tiebreaks on Sunday. Javokhir Sindarov, who defeated compatriot Nodirbek Yakubboev in the other semi-final, also secured his spot in the Candidates. Wei Yi and Sindarov will fight in the final starting tomorrow.
The Chinese grandmaster spoke about the semi-final being the toughest battle he’s faced at the month-long event in Goa. The battle was decided by a blunder from his opponent from Russia in the second tiebreak game on Sunday. After two classical games on Friday and Saturday had ended in draws, and the first tiebreak game on Sunday too culminated in a stalemate, Esipenko hung his rook on the 57th move of the second tiebreak game and resigned immediately.
“In the final position, my opponent just blundered a rook.Otherwise, I can only fight for a draw. Maybe because it’s a long tournament and he was tired, that’s why he blundered,” Wei Yi told the media in Goa after his victory.
The usually inscrutable Wei Yi has looked like one of the calmest proponents of chess through a volatile event that has seen many favourites like D Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Hans Niemann, Vincent Keymer, Anish Giri crash out early. But Wei Yi said that he had also experienced nerves throughout the tournament. When asked how he had maintained his calm despite the nerve-wracking pressure of the tournament, Wei Yi said: “Because when I was very young, in many games I was in a time scramble, so I was very calm. I was also nervous in many games when I was a child. But then when you look back, I didn’t budge. My heart went boom boom,” Wei Yi said before adding that his heart had gone ‘boom boom’ on many occasions at the World Cup as well.
He added that securing a spot in the Candidates was one of the biggest goals of his career.
“It’s one of the biggest goals in my chess career. I didn’t expect I could do this. I’m so lucky to be in front of them.
I’m so happy. Even when I was very young and already rated 2700, it was not very easy to qualify for the Candidates. But I think now it’s even more difficult because there are many young and strong players.”
Asked how he will celebrate tonight, Wei Yi quipped: “I have no time to celebrate. There is a final tomorrow.”
