TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2022 (12)
Nepomniachtchi needs at most just one more draw to win the Candidates
Mark Crowther - Friday 1st July 2022
Ding lost badly to Radjabov in Round 12. Photo © | https://fide.com
Ian Nepomniachtchi edged ever closer to winning the Candidates tournament in Madrid and a World Chess Championship match early in 2023. Nepomniachtchi had the white pieces against Hikaru Nakamura and they played a well known sequence of moves to draw in only a few minutes. Nakamura said he didn't see any upside to going into a battle with black today where even if he won he was unlikely to overhaul Nepomniachtchi. After other results today Nepomniachtchi now only needs a draw to confirm tournament victory, I rather doubt it will turn out he needs any more points at all.
The only decisive result of the day was an almost complete catastrophe with the white pieces for Ding Liren against Teimour Radjabov. Ding played 1.d4 and a Nimzo-Indian followed. Every now and again a piece of preparation hits a bulls eye and Radjabov's innocuous looking 8...Na6 was such a move. Ding simply didn't know what to do and after 12.b4 should have been looking to just quickly draw the game, 15.a4 or 16.a4 might have accomplished that but 17.Rd1 was a "nervous" move according to Radjabov and 18.Rd2? (18.Ba1 giving up the a3 pawn would have given very good drawing chances) was just losing. 18...Qc8?! (18...Qb8!) gave one final chance to Ding to at least fight, after 19.f3 the die was cast with 21...Rxe3! being a crushing blow. This result means Ding drops to third on tie-break behind Nakamura although both are on the same points and meet in the final round.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Alireza Firouzja followed a crazy sharp game Dubov vs Shirov from 2013 for a long way. 22...g5 was the first new move and according to the computer a losing one with Duda's 23.f4! being correct. The game was very hard for me to understand, and the players too apparently. 27.Rf2? (27.Ba2 is still winning) Be5= but then 28...Nf6? (28...Nf4!=) was losing for black again but by 37...Ng3+ things were equal again and remained so. Richard Rapport ended up a pawn down against Fabiano Caruana in the endgame but it was still an easy draw all the same.
Round 12 Standings: 1 Nepomniachtchi 8.5 (TB1 47.25), 2 Nakamura 6.5pts (TB1 38), 3 Ding Liren 6.5pts (TB1 36.75), 4 Radjabov 6pts (TB1 36.75), 5 Caruana 6pts (TB1 36.25), 6 Rapport 5pts (TB1 28.5), 7 Duda 5pts (TB1 28.5), 8 Firouzja 4.5pts (TB1 25)
Saturday 2nd July Rest Day
Round 13 Sunday 3rd July 2pm BST: Nepomniachtchi-Rapport, Nakamura-Duda, Firouzja-Ding, Radjabov-Caruana.
FIDE World Chess Championship Candidates Round 12 Commentary
| FIDE Candidates 2022 Madrid ESP (ESP), 16 vi-5 vii 2022 | cat. XXI (2772) | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||||||||||||
| 1. | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | g | RUS | 2766 | * | * | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | . | 1 | . | 1 | 1 | 8½ | 2933 |
| 2. | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2760 | ½ | ½ | * | * | ½ | . | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | . | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 6½ | 2801 |
| 3. | Ding, Liren | g | CHN | 2806 | 0 | ½ | ½ | . | * | * | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | . | 6½ | 2794 |
| 4. | Radjabov, Teimour | g | AZE | 2753 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | * | * | 0 | . | ½ | ½ | ½ | . | ½ | ½ | 6 | 2774 |
| 5. | Caruana, Fabiano | g | USA | 2783 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | . | * | * | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | . | 6 | 2769 |
| 6. | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | g | POL | 2750 | 0 | . | ½ | . | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | * | * | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 5 | 2720 |
| 7. | Rapport, Richard | g | HUN | 2764 | 0 | . | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | . | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | * | * | ½ | 0 | 5 | 2718 |
| 8. | Firouzja, Alireza | g | FRA | 2793 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | . | ½ | ½ | 0 | . | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | * | * | 4½ | 2677 |
| Round 12 (July 1, 2022) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nepomniachtchi, Ian | - Nakamura, Hikaru | ½-½ | 14 | C67 | Ruy Lopez Berlin | |
| Ding, Liren | - Radjabov, Teimour | 0-1 | 26 | E48 | Nimzo Indian | |
| Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | - Firouzja, Alireza | ½-½ | 41 | D45 | Anti-Meran Variations | |
| Rapport, Richard | - Caruana, Fabiano | ½-½ | 52 | C65 | Ruy Lopez Berlin | |
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