Chess Candidates Tournament 2024 Highlights: Vidit, Humpy lose; Pragg, Vaishali, Gukesh draw

Open

Alireza Firouzja - Hikaru Nakamura

Gukesh D - Nijat Abasov

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi - Fabiano Caruana

Praggnanandhaa R - Ian Nepomniachtchi

Women’s

Lei Tingjie - Kateryna Lagno

Vaishali Rameshbabu - Anna Muzychuk

Humpy Koneru - Aleksandra Goryachkina

Tan Zhongyi - Nurgyul Salimova

So here are the results from Round 4:

Open

Hikaru Nakamura vs Praggnanandhaa R: DRAW

Ian Nepomniachtchi BEATS Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

Fabiano Caruana vs Gukesh D: DRAW

Nijat Abasov vs Alireza Firouzja: DRAW 

Women’s

Kateryna Lagno vs Tan Zhongyi: DRAW

Nurgyul Salimova BEATS Humpy Koneru

Aleksandra Goryachkina vs Vaishali Rameshbabu: DRAW

Anna Muzychuk vs Lei Tingjie: DRAW

After four rounds of frantic, desperate chess, today will be a rest day ahead of Round 5. 

While the local organsiers and FIDE have organised a Lake Ontario cruise to watch the solar eclipse, it is unlikely that any players will take up the invite. There is, after all, the matter of trying to win a shot at the World Championship crown that is at stake. 

This was yet another game where Vidit found himself in time trouble. He was 50 minutes behind Ian Nepomniachtchi at one point in their clash.

Nepo became the sole leader with a win against Vidit. Ian, playing with white, was pressing Vidit out of the opening, both on the board and on the clock. 

“I can’t recall any occasion when I get two Berlins in a row and manage to get a game,” said Nepomniachtchi at the press conference. “11. g4 is a very rare move. 11…Ne7 12. Nh2 was the idea of my team. Nh2 doesn’t look good, but my plan is simple: I push f4-f5 and create some forcing play.” 

Later in the game, Vidit failed to coordinate his defensive setup, which allowed Nepomniachtchi to use his central passed pawn and piece activity to seal the deal. With two wins and two draws, the tournament has thus far been a smooth sailing one for the two-time World Championship Challenger. 

After today's result, which is Vidit's second defeat on the trot after hsi heady victory over Hikaru Nakamura in Game 2, the Indian is among the bottom four players who all have 1.5 points.

Hikaru Nakamura looked unhappy as he called the arbiter over to claim a draw by three-fold repitition. The World No 3 has claimed that there is no pressure on him to win at the event because chess is just his side hustle, while his main job is streaming. But Nakamura was unhappy after yet another draw that sees him in bottom half of the standings with just 1.5 points after 4 games. He is yet to win a game.

Playing against Praggnanandhaa with white, Nakamura did not manage to get much out of the opening in the Ruy Lopez and agreed that a draw was the logical result. 

Pragg has 2 points which keeps him in 4th place in the standings after 4 games. 

India's D Gukesh, the second youngest player ever to compete at the Candidates, faced off agianst Fabiano Caruana, the top seed at the event who is playing in his fifth Candidates. 

He gave a full measure of his experience against the 17-year-old Gukesh, demonstrating creative defense in his game. But Gukesh was up to the task, battling with black pieces. 

It seemed that Caruana was trying to apply pressure, but Gukesh kept hanging on with two brilliant intermediate moves. One of the moves was 23…cxb4 instead of capturing the knight en prise. White correctly realized that he couldn’t keep the extra piece because the black pawns on the queenside are too strong. For example, Black would be winning had the continuation been 24. Be3 b3 25. Qb2 Nd5. Caruana confessed in the post-game interview that he also missed Gukesh’s follow up, 24…Qd4. After this, the evaluation of the position was completely equal. Caruana continued to try to squeeze water from stone, but Gukesh remained precise till the end, and the players agreed to a draw on move 72.

Gukesh and Caruana are joint second with 2.5 points, behind Nepo, who has 3 points.

In the game against rank underdog Nijat Abasov, Alireza Firouzja was up a pawn. But could not make much of a difference. Firouzja’s extra pawn was a doubled pawn on the kingside, and Abasov had enough defensive resources to make this an easy draw. Nevertheless, though Firouzja attempted to exploit every opportunity, the game finished in a draw on move 64.

Abasov is the lowest rated player in the open category at 2632. He's ranked 11th in the world. Yet, he has now managed to hold opponents 
The draw means that Abasov has managed to stay unbeaten in four games. The Azerbaijani chess grandmaster has been sick at the event and is also wearing a cast on his foot, after injuring himself badly while playing football. He had started to walk only last week. 

He got a chance to compete at the Candidates only after Magnus Carlsen declined his spot. But during his 4th place finish at the FIDE World Cup, he had defeated the likes of Anish Giri, Peter Svidler, and Vidit Gujrathi. In September 2023, he achieved his career-high rating of 2677.

This was a battle between generations: Humpy is the oldest player in the eight-women field at the Candidates. At 20, Nurgyul Salimova is the youngest among the women. Salimova came into the contest after a defeat to Vaishali yesterday. Humpy had three draws in three games. 

Playing with white against Humpy, Salimova managed to secure victory. 

“I was out of my preparation very early on. She surprised me in the opening with 5…Ne4, but the position later turned into something that I have checked. So, it was not like I was completely unfamiliar. When she started pushing the pawns, it looked scary, but it felt like I was always in control,” Salimova said after the game. 

Aleksandra Goryachkina and Vaishali R played out a 40-move draw. The game had no surprises and seemed like it was destined for a draw from the start. After the fourth round, Goryachkina is second in the standings with 2.5 points while Vaishali is joint third with 2 points.

This game saw high drama with a livid Kateryna Lagno walking out of the playing hall after she was unable to force defeat upon China's Tan Zhongyi. Lagno was up a pawn and had a comfortable winning position against the tournament leader in the women's section. However, Tan escaped when Lagno blundered in time trouble. Tan stays on top of the standings with 3 points while Lagno has 2 points after four rounds.

Anna Muzychuk could not manage to convert her winning position into a full point. Thus, for the second game in a row, Muzychuk had to be content with half a point. The Ukrainian needed to find one precise move in her rook endgame against two passed pawns. But Muzychuk couldn't find it.

Anna Muzychuk's big 53.Rd5 miss against Lei Tingjie in the Women's FIDE Candidates tournament was an instructive moment, featuring the rook-behind-pawns theme: https://t.co/dfcQPyr2BY pic.twitter.com/4YGd72FlyS

— Olimpiu Di Luppi (@olimpiuurcan) April 8, 2024

Before the Candidates started, Magnus Carlsen had picked Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana as the co-favourites to win the event.

He also said that Indian players Pragg, Vidit and Gukesh had a slim chance of winning the Candidates. 

CLICK HERE to read Magnus' explanation

Like in every other sport, the chess players are also required to reflect on the game right afterwards at press conferences. But unlike any other sport, chess is a rare discipline where both players — the victor and the vanquished, the struggler and the strangler — turn up at the same time for the press conference to answer questions and offer a peek into their thought processes.

While this is not the norm at every chess event, at high-stakes ones like World Championships and Candidates, players are asked to attend the press conference after games to conduct a conversational post-mortem of the game. At some events like the World Championships, not attending press conferences can lead to massive fines: Magnus Carlsen was fined 10 percent of his prize money for storming out of the post-game press conference without answering any questions after a defeat in Game 8 to Sergey Karjakin in the 2016 World Chess Championship.

It’s an odd, yet fascinating, dynamic. Two players who rarely even make eye contact across the board, let alone saying a line to each other while the game is on, sit next to each other prodding and poking at the cadaver of the recently-deceased game.

READ MORE

Many grandmasters have allowed their minds to take a stroll in the middle of a classical game, because it is simply impossible to concentrate on a chess game for five or six straight hours. Some games can stretch even longer: for example, game 6 of the 2021 world chess championship battle between Magnus Carslen and Ian Nepomniachtchi lasted for seven hours and 47 minutes.

At the ongoing Candidates chess tournament, too, it's likely that no matter how high the stakes are, players will allow the ocassional distracting thought into their minds.

Here are the oddest thoughts chess players like Tal, Anand, Gukesh, Vachier-Lagrave and Grischuk entertained in the middle of games.

READ MORE

At the ongoing Candidates tournament, Praggnanadhaa and Vaishali made history by becoming the first brother-sister duo EVER to feature at the event.

Grandmaster RB Ramesh, who is the childhood coach of both players, knows a thing or two about what it takes to be succesful. 

When Praggnanadhaa was on the verge of qualifying for the Candidates, his coach RB Ramesh had told The Indian Express what it takes to "Be Like Pragg".

READ MORE

So here are the results from Round 4:

Open

Hikaru Nakamura vs Praggnanandhaa R: DRAW

Ian Nepomniachtchi BEATS Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

Fabiano Caruana vs Gukesh D: DRAW

Nijat Abasov vs Alireza Firouzja: DRAW 

Women’s

Kateryna Lagno vs Tan Zhongyi: DRAW

Nurgyul Salimova BEATS Humpy Koneru

Aleksandra Goryachkina vs Vaishali Rameshbabu: DRAW

Anna Muzychuk vs Lei Tingjie: DRAW

The veteran Humpy has also suffered a defeat against the 20-year-old Nurgyul Salimova. The duo battled for 62 moves before the Indian conceded defeat. 

A crucial moment in Ian Nepomniachtchi vs ?? Vidit Gujrathi. The last white move was 37. Ke4! making good use of his King in the endgame. Vidit played 37... Be8? and white has a winning position if Ian continues with 38.Rxd5 Bxh5 39. Bc1!
Do you think Vidit missed 39.Bc1!... ?… pic.twitter.com/dLkcYTjrug

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 7, 2024

The final Indian in the open category, Gukesh, has also finished his game. Gukesh manages to hold World No 2 Fabiano Caruana to a draw.

Ian Nepomniachtchi hands Vidit Santosh Gujrathi his second consecutive defeat. There was a Berlin endgame on the board. The win gives Nepo a score of 3/4, which makes him the sole leader currently. Remember, the Russian won the last two Candidates events.

For Vidit, following a win over World no 3 Hikaru Nakamura in a game the Indian accepted was among his best games ever, the Indian has lost twice in two days. 

For the second consecutive game, Vidit Gujrathi tastes defeat at the Candidates. 

He lost to Pragg in Round 3 and has now been handed a defeat by two-time World Championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Vidit managed to scramble to the first time control, but he's still courting massive trouble on the board. He's staring at defeat at the moment, and his body language is certainly starting to sag. He actually looks distraught. And who wouldn't be in his place? 

He was on top of the world just two days ago when he defeated World no 3 Hikaru Nakamura. But then he was handed a defeat by Pragg, and is now on verge of defeat to Nepo. 

Right after Pragg, Vaishali also gets a draw! 

The Aleksandra Goryachkina vs Vaishali Rameshbabu game ends after 40 moves!!

Vaishali now has 2 points from four games. 

In fact, humpy and Salimova both have about two mintues left on the clock! 

Race against time here. 

Nakamura somewhat reluctantly calls over the arbiter to make a draw by 3-fold repetition against Praggnanandhaa! #FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/YXIJckYBr9

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 7, 2024

After 24 moves, Pragg and Hikaru play out a three-fold repitition as their game ends in a draw. 

Hikaru now has his thrid draw, with one game ending in defeat. He is winless after four games. 

Meanwhile, Pragg has now two draws besides one win and a defeat each. 

Nepo (black) vs Vidit

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bb5 Nf6
4 O-O Nxe4
5 d4 Nd6
6 Bxc6 dxc6
7 dxe5 Nf5
8 Qxd8+ Kxd8
9 Nc3 Bd7
10 h3 h6
11 g4 Ne7
12 Nh2 g5
13 f4 gxf4
14 Bxf4 Be6
15 Ne4 b6
16 Nf3 c5
17 Nf6 Kc8
18 Kg2 Kb7
19 Kg3 a5
20 a3 a4
21 Rad1 Nc6
22 c3 Be7
23 Nh4 h5
24 g5 Ra5
25 Rde1 Rb5

Last year, at the FIDE World Cup, where Praggnanadhaa secured his spot at the Candidates, even former world champion Magnus Carlsen had told Praggnanadhaa that he wanted to “be like Pragg”, one of the biggest compliments the Indian grandmaster has been paid.

So how does one go about being like Pragg? We asked RB Ramesh, who has been the coach of Praggnanadhaa and Vaishali since childhood.

READ MORE

For the second day running, Vidit is courting time trouble. 

He's down to 50 minutes on the clock with 18 moves in the book. His opponent, Nepo, has 1 hour, 33 minutes.

Remember, yesterday too Vidit had found himself in time trouble against Pragg. 

As we wait for the 20th mvoe, here are the mvoes made so far: 

Nepo (black) vs Vidit

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bb5 Nf6
4 O-O Nxe4
5 d4 Nd6
6 Bxc6 dxc6
7 dxe5 Nf5
8 Qxd8+ Kxd8
9 Nc3 Bd7
10 h3 h6
11 g4 Ne7
12 Nh2 g5
13 f4 gxf4
14 Bxf4 Be6
15 Ne4 b6
16 Nf3 c5
17 Nf6 Kc8
18 Kg2 Kb7
19 Kg3 a5

Only a bishop and a pawn from both camps have lost their lives so far. The wheels are starting to turn, but very slowly in this game. Here are the first 15 moves: 

Nakamura (white) vs Pragg

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bb5 a6
4 Ba4 Nf6
5 d3 Bc5
6 O-O b5
7 Bb3 h6
8 a4 Rb8
9 Be3 Bxe3
10 fxe3 d6
11 axb5 axb5
12 Qe1 O-O
13 h3 Ne7
14 Nc3 Be6
15 Nd2 Qd7

By the 8th move in the Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Vidit Santosh Gujrathi game, both queens are off after Nepo sends crashes his queen into Vidit's queen like a runway freight train with busted brakes. Vidit responds by claiming Nepo's queen with his king. 

Vidit is about half an hour behind on the clock after just 11 moves on the board against Nepomniachtchi, who spent just three minutes for his opening moves so far. While Nepo has an additional knight, Vidit has an extra bishop on board. 
 

Nakamura (white) vs Pragg

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bb5 a6
4 Ba4 Nf6
5 d3 Bc5
6 O-O b5
7 Bb3 h6
8 a4 Rb8
9 Be3 Bxe3
10 fxe3 d6
11 axb5 axb5

The latest theory is that I am working for Pragg, but was sent undercover by Vidit. I convinced Pragg to go for the terrible a6 Jaenisch, but despite my best efforts our mission still failed. https://t.co/SncO0EmAOu

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) April 7, 2024

So we have a typical Italian position in Caruana vs Gukesh. 

We have a Berlin endgame in the Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Vidit Santosh Gujrathi game.

10 moves already on the board in Nepo (white) vs Vidit

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bb5 Nf6
4 O-O Nxe4
5 d4 Nd6
6 Bxc6 dxc6
7 dxe5 Nf5
8 Qxd8+ Kxd8
9 Nc3 Bd7
10 h3 h6

The 17-year-old from India has only played the World no 2 thrice in classical games. And they have won a game each with the third ending in a draw. 

Gukesh famously defeated Caruana with black in the Chennai Olympiad. Remembering that game, Vishy Anand says: "I've never seen anyone do *that* to Fabiano."

All three Indians in the Open section are playing with black. And all three of their opponents choose to start with e4. 

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

Qualified for Candidates by: Finishing 1st at 2023 Grand Swiss

Rating: 2727

Ranking: World No 25

One fact you need to know: The 29-year-old Vidit, who is competing in his first Candidates event, worked with grandmaster Anish Giri at a training camp in the past as the Dutch player prepared for the Candidates tournament himself.

D Gukesh

Qualified for Candidates as: 2023 FIDE Circuit Winner

Rating: 2743

Ranking: World No.16

One fact you need to know: The 17-year-old Gukesh is the second youngest participant in the Candidates in history, after Bobby Fischer. He became a Grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days in January 2019, thus becoming the second youngest GM ever. Over the years, Gukesh has strung together many firsts. He became the youngest player to surpass a rating of 2750+, and became the first Indian to overhaul the five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand as India’s top-ranked player in the FIDE’s published rankings after 36 years.

Praggnanandhaa

Qualified for Candidates by: Finishing 2nd at 2023 World Cup

Rating: 2747

Ranking: World No.14

One fact you need to know: The 18-year-old Pragg became the world’s youngest player to reach the Chess World Cup final, where he qualified for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. On his way, he defeated the likes of Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, both of whom are at the Candidates, besides defeating good friend and current India No.1, Arjun Erigaisi.

Before the Candidates event started, Magnus Carlsen broke down his analysis of the open Candidates field. Carlsen said Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana were the co-favourites to win the Candidates and said it would be shock if any of the three Indians won.

READ MORE

At high-stakes events like World Championships and Candidates, players are asked to attend the press conference after games to conduct a conversational post-mortem of the game. At some events like the World Championships, not attending press conferences can lead to massive fines: Magnus Carlsen was fined 10 percent of his prize money for storming out of the post-game press conference without answering any questions after a defeat in Game 8 to Sergey Karjakin in the 2016 World Chess Championship.

It’s an odd, yet fascinating, dynamic. Two players who rarely even make eye contact across the board, let alone saying a line to each other while the game is on, sit next to each other prodding and poking at the cadaver of the recently-deceased game.

READ MORE

Open

Hikaru Nakamura - Praggnanandhaa R

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

Fabiano Caruana - Gukesh D

Nijat Abasov - Alireza Firouzja

Women’s

Kateryna Lagno - Tan Zhongyi

Nurgyul Salimova - Humpy Koneru

Aleksandra Goryachkina - Vaishali Rameshbabu

Anna Muzychuk - Lei Tingjie

Hello and welcome to our liveblog of the fourth round of the Candidates chess tournament.