Hans Niemann’s surprising run at the Las Vegas leg of Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour has taken him to the finals of the event after he beat fellow American Fabiano Caruana in a tense semifinal clash on Saturday morning. Niemann cited this achievement as one of the highlights of the career.
“On paper it’s probably the highlight so far. I could not have inscripted any better, to come in for the qualifier and then I was really on the ropes in this first game,” said Niemann to official broadcasters after the win. “I guess everything was just meant to be because in the second game I played brilliantly and I was in control and time pressure. I got my type of position and I was able to outplay him. But yeah, speechless.”
On facing Levon Aronian in the title clash, who is in supreme touch and beat Arjun Erigaisi in the semifinal, Niemann said, “He’s a great player. He’s had a great run. So I’m just happy with the rest day. Because the difference between semifinals is huge. Now, if I had lost, you have to play two more matches to get third. And you play both days.”
Hans was quite happy to see Aronian beat Magnus Carlsen in the earlier rounds and went on to say a lot of stuff about the match. On being asked about this, he said, “It was quite fun watching Levon win. But after that day, I understood that after talking so much trash, if I lost, it would be exponentially more embarrassing. So I understood that it was time to calm down and focus and let the chess speak for itself.”
While commentating with Tania Sachdev and David Howell on the official stream for the Freestyle Tour during the Aronian vs Carlsen match, Niemann got so animated at one point that the official broadcasters opted to focus their camera on him like he was some sort of human evaluation bar.
“There are very few pleasures in life that compare to this feeling,” Niemann had said after Aronian won the first game against Carlsen.
After Aronian defeated Carlsen, the Armenia-born American with a penchant for flamboyant shirts walked around in the playing hall like he was out for an evening walk. In the commentary booth, Niemann was celebrating. “You know what they say, karma is a …. I don’t want to finish the sentence. Levon, I’m taking you to dinner tonight.”
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Much-needed rest day
Niemann was also relieved after beating Caruana, which gave him a much-needed rest day.
“Now I can have a nice day sleeping…. Sleep, sleep, rest. To make it through yesterday, I had so much coffee that it kind of caught up to me when I was trying to get to bed. And I couldn’t sleep until 2:30. I woke up. I was waking up in the middle of the night. So hopefully, I have plenty of rest for the final,” said the American.
