AN ENGAGING BACKSTAGE JOURNEY THROUGH ELITE CHESS, RIVALRY, EMOTION AND REFLECTION

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 training camps, preparation, Candidates Tournaments and World Championship matches, punctuated by 58 annotated games covering the period of 2001-2024, 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.