Indian grandmaster D Gukesh lost the top spot in the Candidates Chess 2024 tournament after suffering his first defeat to Frenchman Firouza Alireza, while R Praggnanandhaa held American Fabiano Caruana to a seventh-round draw in Toronto. Gukesh has now slipped to second place with Caruana and Praggnanandhaa. The three players have four points each
Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi regained his slim half-point lead by moving to 4.5 points from a possible seven at the halfway point after a draw against American Hikaru Nakamura. After a draw with Nijat Abasov, Vidit Gujrathi increased his tally to 3.5 points to share fifth place with Nakamura while Alireza recovered a little with 2.5 points to take seventh place. Abasov with two points is still in last place.
In the women’s section, R Vaishali seemed to be running out of steam as she suffered her third defeat in the event.
China’s Tingjie Lei proved too good for the Indian on a day where the other three matches ended in draws.
China’s Zhongyi Tan remained half a point ahead of the field after drawing with her closest rival, Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina.
Kateryna Lagno of Russia drew against Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria, and in the day’s other match Anna Muzychuk made peace with India’s Koneru Humpy.
India’s challenge in the women’s section was perhaps already over as Zhongyi was firmly in the lead with five points while Goryachkina had 4.5 points in her kitty.
Lagno and Lei shared third place with four points each and Salimova, with three points, occupied the sole fifth position.
Humpy, Vaishali and Muzychuk need a miracle in the second half of the event to make a comeback as the trio has only 2.5 points.
Alireza was somewhat lucky to beat Gukesh out of a London system.
It was one of those days for Gukesh where things didn’t go as planned and even though the Indian enjoyed a good position in the middle, opting for unwarranted complications proved costly.
Gukesh ended up losing a piece but his position would still have been tenable despite the material deficit.
However, as things unfolded, Alireza won this race with some timely checkmate threats.
Praggnanandhaa used the French defense and it was already a surprise for Caruana who opted for the advanced variant.
The 18-year-old Indian didn’t have much trouble maintaining balance in the middle match that followed, with the players reaching an even endgame with no chance of a breakthrough.
The draw was agreed after 41 moves. Vidit Gujrathi approached Abasov.
The Berlin defense was the Nasik-based player’s favored opening and this time too it gave him a good position after Abasov played poorly in the middle of the match.
However, it turned out that the Azerbaijanis defended quite well in the final part of the match and shared the point.
Ian Nepomniachtchi opted for a very complicated Petroff defense as black against Nakamura and the American looked in control after gobbling up material on the queen side.
With an exchange and a pawn plus, Nakamura put up a fierce defense against his vulnerable king, but Nepomniachtchi ultimately won the queen with three pieces to force a draw.
Tingjie won in style against Vaishali, who didn’t have many answers against a kingside attack in an Italian opening.
The Indian got a balanced midgame, but the position started to drift in favor of the Chinese in the middle of the game, eventually allowing a knight sacrifice.
The game lasted 36 moves.
Humpy faced Ruy Lopez in black against Muzychuk.
The exchange of queens and numerous pawns later, the players arrived at an endgame theoretically driven by rooks and pawns where peace was signed after 40 moves.
Players will have their second day off from the event on Friday.
There are seven rounds remaining in the double round-robin event that will determine the next challengers for the world championships.
Round 7 results (Indians unless otherwise noted):
Men: Firouza Alireza (Fra, 2.5) beat D Gukesh (4); Hikaru Nakamura (United States, 3.5) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Fid, 4.5); Nijat Abasov (Aze, 2) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (3.5) Fabiano Caruana (USA, 4) drew with R Praggnanandhaa (4).
Women: Tingjei Lei (Chn, 4) beat R Vaishali (2.5); Anna Muzychuk (UK, 2.5) tied with K Humpy (2.5); Aleksandra Goryachkina (Fid, 4.5) drew with Zhogyi Tan (Chn, 5); Kateryna Lagno (Fid, 4) drew with Nurgyul Salimova (Bul, 3).
