FIDE World Cup LIVE: While India's Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi are headed to the tiebreakers, Gukesh and Vidit were ousted. (PHOTOS: FIDE/Stev Bonhage)Chess World Cup 2023 quarter-finals Highlights: India’s D Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi were eliminated from the FIDE World Cup in the quarter-finals while R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi forced matters into a tiebreaker.
Needing a win in the second game after losing to Carlsen with white pieces on Tuesday, Gukesh piled on the pressure on the Norwegian, even forcing him into time trouble briefly. But in the end, the 17-year-old from India could not force a victory.
In the all-Indian quarter-final between two teenage prodigies, R Praggnanandhaa managed to force good friend Arjun Erigaisi to resign after 75 moves in the second game after losing the first game in 53 moves. The duo will contend in tiebreakers to find India’s lone semi-finalist.
The fourth Indian in the fray, Vidit, was eliminated after losing on Wednesday to home favourite Nijat Abasov. With the win, Abasov continues his giant-killing run in which he had already defeated Laurent Fressinet, Anish Giri, Peter Svidler, Salem A.R. Saleh.
INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the Gukesh vs Magnus Carlsen game below and also click on the notations at the right of the board to retrace the way the game developed
INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the Arjun Erigaisi vs R Praggnanandhaa game below and also click on the notations at the right of the board to retrace the way the game developed
INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the Vidit Gujrathi vs Nijat Abasov game below and also click on the notations at the right of the board to retrace the way the game developed
Scroll down to catch all the updates
As we bring this live blog to a close, here are some links for chess pieces you might be interested in:
Bull run on the chessboard: As number of GMs from India surges, casual fans from nation too rising
The bond between teenage prodigy Gukesh and India’s first GM Viswanathan Anand
Magnus Carlsen reveals what he told Praggnanandhaa after Indian teen upset Hikaru Nakamura
PROFILE: D Gukesh, The Boy Who Went Past Viswanathan Anand
‘The name of the game is intimidation’: Hungry Gukesh takes on resurgent Magnus Carlsen
Young Magnus Carlsen building large Lego sets made his father to teach him chess
Magnus Carlsen: ‘We’re at beginning of chess revolution in India which started with Vishy Anand’
GM Srinath Narayanan: There’s a consensus in world of chess that India is a superpower
Meals turn into mentoring sessions as Magnus Carlsen takes India’s teenaged trio under wings
"I was surprised that Praggnanandhaa managed to win on demand with Black. I didn't expect this to happen. I thought Arjun is playing so convincingly in this tournament that he will be able to hold the draw. It is very impressive; I would give myself maybe half a percent chance to win in this situation," says Fabiano Caruana.
"I wasn't confident of winning this match; I would be lying if I said I was confident of winning the World Cup, or even confident of winning my next match," says Fabiano Caruana.
If Magnus is skipping the Candidates, that means the winner of tomorrow's Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa will seal a spot in the tournament to pick a contender to take on the World Champion!
"Under the current format, there is absolutely no chance (that I will play the Candidates). Everybody should operate under the assumption that I will not play the Candidates and that everybody else who's in the semifinals is qualified for the Candidates," Carlsen tells Chess24.com.
So three semi-finalists are now known: Magnus Carlsen (who defeated Gukesh), Fabiano Caruana (who defeated Dominguez Perez Leinier) and Nijat Abasov (who beat Vidit).
The remaining spot will go to thw winner of tomorrow's tiebreaker between Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa.
"Even yesterday we went for a walk, but... we were discussing about chess but not our game in particular. So yeah it's definitely harder to play your friend," Pragg tells Chess24.com after beating good friend Arjun Erigaisi today.
The duo will play in a tiebreaker tomorrow.
"Now I know for sure that I will play two more matches, so I might as well try to win the tournament!" Magnus Carlsen tells Chess24.com
Goryachkina forces a draw with white pieces, and enters the final. Remember, she had won yesterday.
Heartbreaking for China's Tan Zhongyi!
But all is not lost for her. She still has a shot at securing a spot in the Candidates Tournament. She will need to win the third-place match.
There will be a tiebreaker between the two good friends after all!!!
Pragg forces Arjun to resign after 75 moves!
After 59 moves, Gukesh and Magnus Carlsen agree to draw. This means World No 1 Carlsen is through to the semis, because he had won the first game of the quarters with black yesterday.
Nurgyul Salimova and Anna Muzychuk's second game ends in a draw, leaving the match tied at 1-1. The players will be back tomorrowto decide the finalist via tiebreaks.
"I have never faced Magnus in an official tournament. It will be a wonderful feeling to play against the world no 1," says Nijat Abasov after defeating Vidit.
"Vidit has lost. Always a tragedy for a player when a great tournament comes to an end like this, but Abasov on the other hand continues his sensational run! Playing at home has inspired him!" tweets five-time world champion Anand.
The Indian has managed to make a fight of this contest after losing the first game yesterday.
"Honestly, I have no idea myself," says the home favourite, who has so far eliminated Laurent Fressinet, Anish Giri, Peter Svidler, Salem A.R. Saleh and now Vidit from the tournament.
"I didn't expect to come this far before the tournament obviously. My play was decent today. It was a nice queen-side attack. Vidit didn't expect that my pawns will be so quick. And I had nice advantage on time, that gave me extra chances."
The World No 1 manages to escape time violation.
Hungarian GM Péter Lékó, while doing commentary on Chess24.com says: "I wouldn't be ruling out a Gukesh comeback!"
WOW!!
Magnus now has 12 minutes to make his next 15 moves. Gukesh has managed to put him under pressure!
Nijat Abasov has already beaten Laurent Fressinet, Anish Giri, Peter Svidler and Salem A.R. Saleh. He's forced Vidit into deep time trouble now!
The Indian needs to make 11 moves in the next 11 minutes. Tense!
Yesterday, as Magnus and Gukesh were jockeying for control of the board, Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons tweeted: "While Magnus has seemed somewhat demotivated in classic chess tournaments lately, the world's best player is a motivated Magnus; the second best is a demotivated Magnus."
After 24 moves each, the Indian has 24 minuts on the clock, while the home favourite has just over 58 minutes!
Magnus now needs to figure out how to protect his bishop. Irina Krush says she thinks bishop to b5 was a bit of an inaccuracy on part of Magnus. She also points out that Magnus seems unhappy.
1 d4 Nf6
2 Nf3 d5
3 Bf4 c5
4 e3 Nc6
5 Nbd2 e6
6 c3 Be7
7 h3 Bd6
8 dxc5 Bxc5
9 Bd3 Bd6
10 Bxd6 Qxd6
11 Qc2 Ne5
12 Nxe5 Qxe5
13 O-O Bd7
14 e4 dxe4
15 Nxe4 Nd5
16 Rfe1 Bc6
17 Rad1 O-O-O
18 Bf1 Kb8
19 Qd2 Qc7
20 Nc5 h6
A long hard think for the 17-year-old Indian as he contemplates his 17th move. He's almost 17 minutes ahead of his opponent, but he's chasing a win today.
Vidit clearly does not want to play tomorrow as well. He's chosen to go for a queen-side castle with his 18th move right after making rook ad1 with his 17th. The eval bar HATES the move! But Vidit signalling his intent here, despite playing with black.
Irene Sukandar, in commentary, says Vidit is playing iwth fire.
1 d4 Nf6
2 Nf3 d5
3 Bf4 c5
4 e3 Nc6
5 Nbd2 e6
6 c3 Be7
7 h3 Bd6
8 dxc5 Bxc5
9 Bd3 Bd6
10 Bxd6 Qxd6
11 Qc2 Ne5
12 Nxe5 Qxe5
13 O-O Bd7
14 e4 dxe4
15 Nxe4 Nd5
As the Indian contemplates his 14th move, his time on the clock has trickled down to 1:08:30. His opponent, meanwhile, has 1:25:35. It's not a massive gap, but at the end it's the time margins that matter, especially if the position gets complicated.
Irina Krush does not think so. The American, who is doing commentary, believes that Magnus has just too much experience to allow the Indian teenager to win today and force a tiebreaker.
Krush also thinks that Arjun will not allow Pragg to mount an attack and steal a win today.
1 e4 c5
2 c3 d5
3 exd5 Qxd5
4 d4 Nf6
5 Nf3 e6
6 Be2 cxd4
7 cxd4 Nc6
8 O-O Be7
9 Nc3 Qd6
10 Nb5 Qd8
11 Bf4 Nd5
12 Bg3 O-O
Yesterday, in their first round quarter-final clash, India's Vidit Gujrathi and Nijat Abasov played for nearly 6 hours, and after 109 moves, the players eventually agreed to a draw.
It was Vidit who was trying hard to breach Abasov's defence to gain a victory. But it wasn't to be. It ended as a draw!!
1 e4 c5
2 c3 d5
3 exd5 Qxd5
4 d4 Nf6
5 Nf3 e6
Magnus starts with a e4 and Gueksh responds with a c5. It's a Sicilian Defence.
Arjun Erigaisi was asked about spending his rest day with his opponent, Praggnanandhaa.
Here's what he said: "We were talking about everything else but chess. We prepared individually, of course. We just wanted to relax."
After his win over Gukesh in the first game, world no 1 Magnus Carlsen spoke of him mindset going into the game.
"I felt really good before the game. I was in a fighting mood for sure. Thus, I was really happy with his choice of opening: going with bishop f4," the World No 1 says after his win over Gukesh.
Carlsen asked about how he got this endgame mastery: "For me, it's just talent and practice (smiles). Like many young players at the start, I was not good at endgames. Then with a lot of practice, I got better at practical endgames. Eventually, I got to be better at theoretical endgames."