TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE Candidates 2024 (11)
Nepomniachtchi beats Vidit in a tense struggle to lead the Candidates alone again on 7/11
Mark Crowther - Thursday 18th April 2024
Santosh Vidit lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi in Round 11 in a vital result for both of them. Photo © | https://candidates.fide.com
Ian Nepomniachtchi won a really fascinating struggle against Santosh Vidit in the eleventh round of the FIDE Candidates tournament in Toronto, Canada. Not only did Nepomniachtchi win, he won with the black pieces, but it was Vidit who first had winning chances. Vidit chose a side-line in a fairly topical Petroff line, even with Queen's off the play remained complicated and 33...Rb3? (33...Kg7!) was losing according to engines after 34.h5! Then 35...a5? 36.Bxa3 d5 was also deemed losing for black but only after giving up a piece. The position was back level and 58.Bb3?! and 60.Nb2+? suddenly Nepomniachtchi was winning and his conversion was a lot easier. Earlier Hikaru Nakamura was extremely impressive in beating Praggnanandhaa with black in a game starting 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c5! Gukesh was the one slightly pushing in his draw against Fabiano Caruana. All this leaves Nepomniachtchi leading on 7/11, Gukesh and Nakamura on 6.5/11 and Caruana in an almost must win situation on 6/11 with three rounds to go.
Round 11 Standings: 1st Nepomniachtchi 7pts, 2nd= Gukesh, Nakamura 6.5pts, 4th Caruana 6pts, 5th Praggnanandhaa 5.5pts, 6th Vidit 5pts, 7th Firouzja 4.5pts, 8th Abasov 3pts,
Round 12 18th April at 19:30BST: Nakamura-Firouzja, Abasov-Gukesh, Caruana-Vidit, Nepomniachtchi-Praggnanandhaa.
Round 3 Summary
Ian Nepomniachtchi emerged as the winner of an extraordinarily tense game against Santosh Vidit. Nepomniachtchi played the very solid Petroff Defence and Vidit replied with something slightly offbeat 6.Nc3. Nepomniachtchi's 7...Bg4 turned out to be pretty smart and by move 10 the position was unbalanced but equal. 15.c3?! c5! gave black a small edge according to the engines but Vidit played well over the next moves and was the one with the initiative. The first decisive moments of the game came after 33...Rb3? which is given as winning for white after 34.h5! 34.Kd3= a3 35.Bc1 a5? 36.Bxa3! and now Vidit with about 6 minutes left to make move 40 spent about a minute on 37.Kc2? rather than 37.Nxd5! falling in with black's idea of winning a piece but with too many pawns. Most likely there just wasn't enough time to make sure this idea worked. The position was then equal and 49.Rb1 was likely an efficient draw, black activated his king white had to be precise. 58.Bb3 (58...Ne5!=) was the start of real trouble and 60.Nb2+ was the decisive error in an already difficult position (60.Ne5! again was strictly the only way) and Nepomniachtchi didn't even have to be particularly precise after that. A big result all around. Alireza Firouzja beat Nijat Abasov in just 24 moves of a flank opening, 15...e5? was the first serious, and almost immediately decisive error. Vidit will be very frustrated, a win would have put in right in contention to win the tournament, as it is he's out of it completely.
Hikaru Nakamura had a direct hit with his choice of 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c5! against Praggnanandhaa. White should have at least a little something but in practice, event though Praggnanandhaa clearly knew something the surprise value meant it was advantage black. The players followed what seems to be the modern main line until 9.Nb3. Here 9...Bd7 seems to be preferred slightly over 9...Nc6, which was Nakamura's choice. 11.Nb5 (11.Bg5 or 11.Na4 should probably be preferred) allowed black at least equality and this must have been uncomfortable for Praggnanandhaa. 25.Rb1?! was a waste of time and black had a nasty edge. 27.g4?! (at least try and prepare this with 27.h3 perhaps) placed white on the precipice and soon a fatal mistake followed 29.Ke3? (29.Ke1 strictly) was followed by the final error 32.Rf4? which led to a decisive loss of loss of material and a win for Nakamura in 54 moves although resignation could have come much sooner.
Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh drew a rather unbalanced Queen's Gambit. Gukesh was certainly the one that was pushing but the game finished with a draw by repetition after 40 moves. Caruana will certainly have to go all out for a win in Round 12 now.
In the basement battle Alireza Firouzja demolished Nijat Abasov in just 24 moves. Abasov has been targeted and under pressure in almost every round and he must be getting really tired by now. Firouzja chose an offbeat Flank opening with 1.Nf3 and 2.b3 leaving both players on their own fairly quickly. 15.Rc5 e5? (15...Qe6) was bad and black's position disintegrated almost immediately.
| FIDE Candidates 2024 Toronto CAN (CAN), 3-26 iv 2024 | cat. XX (2745) | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||||||||||
| 1. | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | g | RUS | 2758 | * | * | ½ | ½ | ½ | . | ½ | . | ½ | . | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 7 | 2835 |
| 2. | Gukesh, D | g | IND | 2743 | ½ | ½ | * | * | ½ | . | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | . | 1 | . | 6½ | 2815 |
| 3. | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2789 | ½ | . | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | . | ½ | 1 | 6½ | 2799 |
| 4. | Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2803 | ½ | . | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | * | * | ½ | . | ½ | . | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 6 | 2770 |
| 5. | Praggnanandhaa, R | g | IND | 2747 | ½ | . | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | . | * | * | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | . | 5½ | 2748 |
| 6. | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | g | IND | 2727 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | . | 0 | ½ | * | * | 1 | . | ½ | . | 5 | 2715 |
| 7. | Firouzja, Alireza | g | FRA | 2760 | 0 | ½ | 1 | . | 0 | . | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | . | * | * | ½ | 1 | 4½ | 2674 |
| 8. | Abasov, Nijat | g | AZE | 2632 | ½ | ½ | 0 | . | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | . | ½ | . | ½ | 0 | * | * | 3 | 2592 |
| Round 11 (April 17, 2024) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gukesh, D | - Caruana, Fabiano | ½-½ | 40 | D37 | QGD 5.Bf4 | |
| Praggnanandhaa, R | - Nakamura, Hikaru | 0-1 | 54 | D02 | Queen's Pawn Game | |
| Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | - Nepomniachtchi, Ian | 0-1 | 67 | C42 | Petroff's Defence | |
| Firouzja, Alireza | - Abasov, Nijat | 1-0 | 24 | A05 | Various | |
FIDE World Championship Candidates Round 11 Commentary
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