TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE Candidates 2024 (2)
Four Decisive games in Round 2 of the Candidates
Mark Crowther - Saturday 6th April 2024
Nepomniachtchi on his way to victory over Alireza Firouzja. Photo © | https://candidates.fide.com
The second round of the FIDE Candidates in Toronto, Canada was a bloodbath with all four games being decisive. Santosh Vidit was the first winner as his shock move 11...Bxh3! unbalanced Hikaru Nakamura completely, the game wasn't over and Nakamura had chances to hold but a final blunder 18.Be2? cost the American the game. Fabiano Caruana will have been frustrated with his draw in Round 1 and he needed a win as this was his second white in a row. He wasn't necessarily better against Nijat Abasov all the way through but his opponent started to weaken his King position and Caruana eventually won with a direct major piece attack. Praggnanandhaa against Gukesh was a real wild affair with Praggnanandhaa continually having to justify his aggressive intentions. In the end he missed a chance to equalise and very quickly was just lost. Ian Nepomniachtchi won the final game of the day to finish against Alireza Firouzja. Nepomniachtchi came armed with an idea that had been played once before, a very unbalanced position resulted and Firouzja had his chances but he miscalculated something and although Nepomniachtchi's king was driven into the middle of the board nothing bad happened to it and the game was over.
Round 2 Standings: 1-4 Gukesh, Vidit, Caruana, Nepomniachtchi 1.5pts, 5-8 Nakamura, Abasov, Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa 0.5pts.
Round 3 6th April at 19:30BST: Abasov-Nakamura, Firouzja-Caruana, Gukesh-Nepomniachtchi, Vidit-Praggnanandhaa.
Round 2 Summary
Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Alireza Firouzja in a 4...Bc5 Berlin Defence. Nepomniachtchi played an idea known from one game Durarbyi - Rodshtein from the 2022 Olympiad which led to a quick win for white. Nepomniachtchi allowed his kingside pawn structure to be broken in return for light square control and a fine queenside. Firouzja reacted well for a while but 23...Nf5 (23...f6 was more practical and also better) meant black had a lot of problems to solve after 24.Qd7! Firouzja still had counter play but he didn't take his best chances which were 28...Qh5 sacrificing a piece straight away or 29...g4 (Nepomniachtchi's 29.Be6 was not as good as 29.Ba2!) which was Firouzja's last chance. 29...Qg6? giving up a piece was not good enough, Nepomniachtchi's King wandered around in the middle of the board but it eventually turned out to be safe and Firouzja resigned on move 42.
Santosh Vidit beat Hikaru Nakamura with the black pieces in a Ruy Lopez Berlin. Vidit's 8...c6 Novelty led to an amazing idea 9.Bd3 Bb6! 10.dxe5 dxe5 11.Nxe5 Bxh3! with the idea that 12.gxh3 Qb8! leads to a satisfactory position for black, this nevertheless is what Nakamura should have played as 12.Nc4 put him in trouble. I don't know how deep Vidit's prep went but 14...Nd7 wasn't liked as much as 14...Nfd5 but it still led to huge problems for Nakamura. 15.Bxh7+ Kh8 16.Bd3? (16.Qe4 was almost equal and 16.f3 also seems OK) led to a bad position, 16...b5 (16...f5 was winning) was great for black and 18.Be2? (18.Nxg4 had to be tried) was the losing mistake and Vidit won in 29 moves.
Praggnanandhaa played extremely riskily against Gukesh and whilst he got equal chances at various points in a game which was just a huge mess he continued to be the one who had to justify his play. This was a Catalan where black had an extra pawn on the Queenside, this soon became two pawns. 15.e6 f5 (taking it was maybe good for white) was about balanced but then both players couldn't sort out the tactics as well as an engine. 25.Nh6+ seemed to be the last clean chance for equality for Praggnanandhaa and he was quickly just material down for no chances and resigned on move 33.
Fabiano Caruana got a small advantage against Nijat Abasov out of a Bb5 Sicilian. It wasn't much and almost certainly Abasov equalised at some point but the position remained tricky and suddenly he was lost as Caruana launched a winning attack with his major pieces.
| FIDE Candidates 2024 Toronto CAN (CAN), 3-26 iv 2024 | cat. XX (2745) | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||||||||||
| 1. | Gukesh, D | g | IND | 2743 | * | * | ½ | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | 1 | . | 1½ | 2930 |
| 2. | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | g | IND | 2727 | ½ | . | * | * | . | . | . | . | 1 | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | 1½ | 2959 |
| 3. | Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2803 | . | . | . | . | * | * | . | . | ½ | . | 1 | . | . | . | . | . | 1½ | 2903 |
| 4. | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | g | RUS | 2758 | . | . | . | . | . | . | * | * | . | . | ½ | . | 1 | . | . | . | 1½ | 2889 |
| 5. | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2789 | . | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | . | . | * | * | . | . | . | . | . | . | ½ | 2572 |
| 6. | Abasov, Nijat | g | AZE | 2632 | . | . | . | . | 0 | . | ½ | . | . | . | * | * | . | . | . | . | ½ | 2587 |
| 7. | Firouzja, Alireza | g | FRA | 2760 | . | . | . | . | . | . | 0 | . | . | . | . | . | * | * | ½ | . | ½ | 2559 |
| 8. | Praggnanandhaa, R | g | IND | 2747 | 0 | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | 2558 |
| Round 2 (April 5, 2024) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caruana, Fabiano | - Abasov, Nijat | 1-0 | 37 | B30 | Sicilian Rossolimo | |
| Nepomniachtchi, Ian | - Firouzja, Alireza | 1-0 | 45 | C65 | Ruy Lopez Berlin | |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | - Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 0-1 | 29 | C65 | Ruy Lopez Berlin | |
| Praggnanandhaa, R | - Gukesh, D | 0-1 | 33 | D30 | Queen's Gambit (without Nc3) | |
FIDE World Championship Candidates 2024
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