With the 12 rounds now over and the final two rounds coming up on Saturday and Sunday, it’s hard to get any closer for the Candidates in Toronto. Three players are tied for the lead, with one player just half a point behind. The €500,000 tournament will determine which of the eight players will challenge China’s Ding Liren for the world crown later this year.
The leaders after 12 rounds (14 in total) are: Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia), Hikaru Nakanmura (USA) and Gukesh Dommaraju (India), all with 7.5; Fabiano Caruana (USA) 7; Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (India) 6. Next are three more. The next key matches are: Saturday’s 13th round, Nepomniachtchi versus Nakamura; Sunday’s 14th round, Nakamura versus Gukesh, Caruana versus Nepomniachtchi.
Nepomniachtchi won the 2020-21 season and the 2022 Candidates Tournament, holding the unique record of leading individually or jointly in all 40 rounds of the three events. It would be a remarkable achievement if the 33-year-old can complete the task and qualify for a third world championship.
His advantage is smaller this time than it was two years ago, but he’s still the only undefeated player. In a marathon of 67 moves, Vidit Gujrathi missed the win on moves 34 and 37 but still held on to the lead. One feature of Nepomniachtchi’s success was his reliance on Black’s trusty Petroff Defense 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6, which all his opponents failed to defeat or avoided.
World No. 3 Nakamura, a popular streamer, surged into the lead with a three-match win streak. This fast-talking American has incredible energy. This week, he took advantage of a rest day between wins to score his 69th first-place finish in Titled Tuesday, a major weekly event hosted by chess.com that is open to all title holders and regularly attracts 500 people or more contestants.
With two heavy losses to Vidit, Nakamura trails Nepomniach and Gukesh among most candidates. He then hit the purple patch and won over tailback Nijat Abasov, 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa and French prodigy But The inconsistent Alireza Firouzja.
At just 17 years old, Gukesh has become a bright spot among the candidates and is now in the running to become the youngest world champion in chess history, a record held by Garry Kasparov at the age of 22. The best victory is when his queen and rook penetrate one side of White’s queen, and then launch a mating attack on White’s king on the other side.
The teenager was considered an outsider due to his youth and inconsistent performances in the early months of the tournament. At the London Classic in December, he finished third behind England’s Michael Adams.His only loss in Toronto came against Firouzja, and his subsequent desperation was captured on video.
The 31-year-old Caruana, ranked No. 2 in the world, was the favorite before the match, but lacked sharpness at critical moments in the early rounds and lost to Nakamura in the eighth round. The American champion won the 2017 Candidates Tournament and tied all 12 matches with Norwegian star Magnus Carlsen for the world title that the Norwegian star relinquished last year. It remains a tall order for Caruana to outscore or overtake all three of his rivals ahead of him.
The game is extremely stalemate and is likely to enter the 14th and final round on Sunday, or even accelerate to a tiebreaker on Monday. Nepomniachtchi had the toughest pairing, meeting Nakamura and Caruana in the final two rounds. The tournament kicks off at 7.30pm BST throughout the day, with free live coverage including grandmasters and computer commentary available on major chess websites and official channels.
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The Women’s World Championship has been a Chinese monopoly since 2017 and will likely continue to be so. With two rounds left in the Toronto Women’s Candidates, the Chinese pair will compete to become challengers to world champion Ju Wenjun. Tan Zhongyi leads the way with 8/12, 7.5 ahead of Lei Tingjie, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno (both Russia) and Koneru Humpy (India) 6.
Tan registered the quickest victory in the ninth round while Vaishali Ramesh Babu (India) failed miserably in just 21 moves. The opening was well worth watching as Tan easily equalized with an unusual play against 2 c3 Sicilian chess, which is popular in British club chess and online games.
3916: 1 b4+! Kc4 (if Kd6/d5 2 Nb5+) 2 Qe2+! Kc3 (if Kd5 3 Qe6+ Kd4 4 Qe3+ and 5 Qxa7) 3 Qe3+ Kc4 (if Kb2 4 Qb3+ Ka1 5 Nc2 paired) 4 Qb3+ Kxd4 5 Qe3+ and 6 Qxa7.
