Toronto, April 18
Grandmaster D Gukesh played out a creditable draw against top seed Fabiano Caruana but slipped a rung to the joint second position on a day when his compatriots endured frustrating losses in the Candidates chess tournament’s 11th round here.
Nerves finally came into play as R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi lost their way against American Hikaru Nakamura and Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, respectively.
But the 17-year-old Gukesh held his own against Caruana. In the other encounter, Frenchman Firouzja Alireza proved superior to Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan.
With just three rounds remaining, the scales are tilting in favour of Nepomniachtchi, who is gunning for his third straight Candidates title. The Russian, who is competing under the FIDE flag owing to his country’s international suspension, shot back to sole lead on seven points out of a possible 11.
Caruana, Nakamura and Gukesh are in pursuit of the leader, half-a-point behind in the standings. Praggnanandhaa and Gujrathi have fallen apart with 5.5 and five points, respectively. Coming back from behind is Alireza, who probably has no contest from Abasov in the bottom half.
In the women’s competition, the Chinese continued to dominate as Zhongyi Tan scored a win over Kateryna Lagno of Russia to regain sole lead ahead of compatriot Tingjie Lei, who played out a draw with Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.
R Vaishali came back roaring, albeit a bit late, to beat top-seeded Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina while Koneru Humpy proved too good to avenge her early loss at the hands of Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria.
Tan continued to reign supreme with seven points. Lei stood half-a-point behind and the Russian duo of Lagno and Goryachkina were virtually out of the race along with a resurgent Humpy, who has warmed up towards the close, with 5.5 points.
Tough day
Praggnanandhaa, who has been quite popular among the fans, played with white and faced an irregular queen pawn opening. For once, the Indian did not seem to know much about the subtleties.
Nakamura took command and it was one of those days for Praggnanandhaa when nothing went right. The Indian lost a piece trapped in the corner of the board and Nakamura was never going to let him get away with any lapses. Gujrathi lost to Nepomniachtchi out of a Petroff defence. The opening has been serving well for the Russian since 2018, when he won his first Candidates, and it did not disappoint him.
The middle game saw Gujrathi on top more than once but Nepomniachtchi hung in there to his credit.
Gujrathi had more than a few chances to come up victorious but one spoiler took over another till Nepomniachtchi had the game firmly in his grasp.
Gukesh was the only one to keep his nerves intact despite his tender age. The queen’s gambit landed in a worse position for the talented youngster but he fought on to equalise against Caruana in the ensuing queen and pawns endgame.