Chess Metamorphosis

Grandmaster Nikita Vitiugov narrates his journey through chess and life, with special focus on the 2020-2024 period, when he seconded his long-time friend Ian Nepomniachtchi. ‘Team Nepo’ dominated the 2020/21 and 2022 Candidates Tournaments, qualifying for the World Championship matches of 2021 and 2023, and finished second in the 2024 Candidates Tournament.

With memoirs of chess training camps, preparation, Candidates Tournaments and World Championship matches, punctuated by 58 annotated games spanning the 2001-2024 period, Chess Metamorphosis offers a unique backstage pass to chess at the highest level. Most importantly, the author shares his perspective of the raw human interactions, emotional highs and lows, and subsequent reflections after these tension-filled events.

Nikita Vitiugov is a world-class grandmaster with a peak rating of 2751. He won the 2021 Russian Championship, 2019 Prague Chess Festival Masters, 2017 Grenke Open and 2013 Gibraltar Masters. His performances for the Russian national team have yielded multiple team and individual medals, including team gold medals at the World Team Championship (2010 and 2013) and European Team Championship (2019). He now lives in London and has represented England since 2023.