In a thrilling sixth-round match at the Candidates Chess Tournament in Toronto, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi emerged victorious, while D Gukesh managed to maintain his joint top ranking with a draw for the Indian men’s team.
In a superb sixth-round performance for the Indian men’s team at the Candidates Chess Tournament in Toronto, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi won crushing victory, while D Gukesh remained joint top with a draw. Pragnanandhaa defeated Azerbaijan’s Nijat Abasov, and Gujrathi defeated Frenchman Alireza. Gukesh drew against Hikaru Nakamura, an American. With eight rounds remaining, Gukesh and Ian Nepomniachtchi, both 17 years old, continue to share the lead in the men’s section, both with four points.
The top-seeded American Fabiano Caruana and Russian Nepomniachtchi, who is competing under the FIDE flag, ended in a tie.
In the women’s competition, India was disappointed as R Vaishali lost to Russian competitor Kateryna Lagno. Praggnanandhaa’s elder sister Vaishali now has a lot of ground to make up if she is to return for the competition.
Additionally, Koneru Humpy was defeated by Tingjie Lei of China, and Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria met her matchup with Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia.
With 3.5 points, Praggnanandhaa and Caruana are tied for third place, and Gujrathi is not far behind in fifth place with Nakamura.
It was the end of the road for Alireza and Abasov, who both have only 1.5 points as they approach the halfway point of the year’s greatest tournament.
Zhongyi Tan of China advanced farther in the women’s division, defeating Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.
Tan appears to be sprinting away in this division, with 4.5 points from six games, with Goryachkina the only threat, trailing by a half point.
Lagno is third with 3.5 points, just half a point ahead of Lei. Vaishali and Salimova remained on 2.5 points, while Humpy and Muzychuk are at the bottom of the standings with two points each.
Praggnanandhaa began as a hot favourite against Abasov and did not disappoint his fans. The Tarrasch defense has found a few takers at the event, but Praggnanandhaa was at his technical peak on Thursday.
The queens were traded in the middle game, and the Indian needed to obtain some real resources with his Knights executing a tango.
Picking up the last surviving piece on the queen side, Praggnanandhaa guaranteed he was faster in the race to build a new queen, and Abasov went out after 45 moves.
Praggnanandhaa stated that given the game’s volatility, one must play well.
“Everyday I am hoping for a calmer game but I am not getting them, it is just that you need to play well whatever position we get,” he went on to say.
Gujrathi performed admirably as a Classical Sicilian. Alireza’s Sicilian Classical provided little challenge, as the Indian relied on the Sozin variation as a surprise early in the game.
“I used to play it myself, the Classical, I just thought this will have a mini-surprise effect,” he told me.
The strategy worked because Alireza made an early mistake, and Gujrathi took the lead from the start.
Gujrathi handled his tactics superbly in the subsequent position, winning an exchange and pawn to easily romp home.
Gukesh gained nothing as white against Nakamura, who used the Sicilian defensive.
The middle game was a semi-closed position in which pieces exchanged hands at regular intervals until the players were left with a rook and four pawns apiece in a theoretically drawn endgame.
Vaishali was facing the Marshall gambit, which she declined. Lagno is an expert at the position and has her pieces rolling about the center, giving nothing away.
The Indian was taken aback by a knight maneuver in the middle game and reacted poorly, and the game ended far too quickly.
Humpy lost against Lei, and this could be the end of her road unless she recovers swiftly. Lei’s King’s Indian defensive provided Humpy a slight lead, but this did not last long when the endgame arrived.
Lei was on auto-pilot in the minor pieces ending, grabbing a couple of pawns and marshaling her pieces effectively. The game has 48 moves.
