The third round of the Candidates Tournament 2024 brought two decisive results! The most famous chess brother and sister duo – GM Praggnanandhaa R and IM Vaishali R scored victories yesterday, while all other games finishing in a draw.
Praggnanandhaa defeated his countryman Vidit Santosh Gujrathi after a very exciting game. Pragg surprised his opponent with an unusual opening choice. He went for a Spanish gambit and 4…f5!? Vidit was forced to spend lots of time to find the correct answer and later faced serious time trouble issues.
Praggnanandhaa took the initiative over and used all Vidit’s inaccuracies to score his first victory in the Candidates Tournament 2024.
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi – Praggnanandhaa 0-1
The first game to finish yesterday was played between Nijat Abasov and Hikaru Nakamura. Going for the exchanged Slav, Abasov traded most of the pieces by move 20, and the players quickly agreed to a draw.
Abasov left the venue with a short comment that he doesn’t feel well. In the post-game interview, Nakamura revealed that he would have probably gone for another position: “If I’d known that my opponent wasn’t feeling well, I probably would have just done something random. On the other hand, if I had gone crazy and lost today, there is a very good chance the tournament would just be over for me, objectively speaking.”
Nijat Abasov – Hikaru Nakamura 1/2-1/2
Gukesh D chose a very solid Catalan line against Ian Nepomniachtchi with the white pieces, and the game never went too far from equality. After the transposition to the middlegame, it looked like Gukesh has a clear advantage, but it wasn’t truly enough for a better result.
After the trade of both Rooks, Nepomniachtchi easily held an endgame despite his opponents’ Bishop pair on the board.
Gukesh D – Ian Nepomniachtchi 1/2-1/2
It was an interesting game between Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja which eventually finished with a peaceful result. Firouzja had serious issues in the opening, and spent almost half of the time for the first 11 moves. Fabiano was obviously prepared, having 1h30min on the clock.
The young French faced tremendous pressure, but came out of the opening with a pawn up. To be fair, Caruana had a clear compensation with initiative. After some trades, the players went for a threefold repetition and signed a draw.
Alireza Firouzja – Fabiano Caruana 1/2-1/2
Photos by FIDE/ Michal Walusza and Maria Emelianova
