Only the enormous tension prevailing in the Toronto Candidates Tournament can explain so many strange results in the eleventh round. The Russian Ian Niepómniashi and the American Hikaru Nakamura each won positions with a probable tie against the Indians Gujrathi Vidit and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, respectively. The other two contenders for victory, Dommaraju Gukesh and Fabiano Caruana, drew because the 17-year-old Indian ran out of time when he had the advantage. With three days left, Niepómniashi is in charge, while the women’s tournament will be decided between the Chinese Zhongyi Tan and Tingjie Lei.
A few minutes after the kick-off by Yevgeny Bareiev (an elite player when he was Russian, today Canadian) there was a double surprise, very rare in world-class chess: Nakamura surprised Praggnanandhaa with his third throw, and Vidit surprised Niepómniashi in the 4th. His rivals were slow to react, but Vidit did not gain any advantage; On the contrary, Nakamura emerged from the opening in a comfortable position.
While Caruana made it clear that he was willing to take the risk despite leading the black team against the prodigious Gukesh, the Frenchman Alireza Firouzja easily swept the Azerbaijani Nijat Abásov off the board. Then he went to the press room to complain again about the incident in the 9th round, when the referee called him out, at the most critical moment of the game against Niepómniashi, because his shoes were making too much noise when he stepped on them.
He also said that his goal now, once ruled out of first place, is to achieve 50%. And when they asked him about the two Indian wonders, he did not ignore the problem: “They are more consistent and solid than me, and also more professional because chess is clearly the priority of their life, and not mine,” he said, referring to her fashion design studies. And he said even more: “They don’t play quick tournaments online during tournaments, and I do.” The latter happened just the day before, when Firouzja, Nakamura and Caruana participated in Title Tuesday from the hotel, while the Indians preferred to rest on a day without games.
While all this was happening, Gukesh gradually squeezed Caruana, but spending a lot of time, too much. And that led to a disappointing conclusion when a fight to the death was expected under the pressure of the clock: with nine minutes for Gukesh and 33 for Caruana to make ten moves in a position of slight advantage for the Indian, he provoked a continuation that led directly to the tie.
The other two Indians were also pressed by the clock. However, while Vidit seemed to know what he was doing, after giving up a pawn for the activity of his pieces, 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa completely lost control when he had eight minutes left in twelve moves, and was immediately lost. . Even stranger was seeing him completely whole in the press room, commenting on variants and answering questions as if he had not just suffered one of the most important defeats of his brilliant career.
But the biggest surprise of the day was still missing. Suddenly, after passing the first time control (move 40), Vidit rejected a draw due to repetition of moves and took a risk when there was no solid basis for it. Doing that in front of an old lion like Niepómniashi, as tough as he is patient, is nothing short of suicidal, as it soon turned out.
The Russian, looking very tired, did not seem very satisfied despite the victory, perhaps because the result was much better than his game. In the press room, he was asked this question: “How do you evaluate your game today compared to the other games in this tournament?” Answer: “I have no idea.”
The day was electrifying in the Candidates Tournament, with an unexpected and impressive victory by the bottom player, the Indian Rameshbabu Vaishali (sister of Praggnanandhaa) over one of the favorites, the Russian Alexandra Goryáchkina, who is now out of contention for first place , like her compatriot Kateryna Lagno, defeated by Zhongyi Tan.
Now everything is between the two Chinese, although the strange outcome of Tingjie Lei’s game with Anna Muzychuk must be highlighted, who allowed a very dangerous piece sacrifice by her rival. However, the Asian got mixed up, was almost lost but finally gained half a point that keeps her in the fight to challenge the champion, her compatriot Wenjun Ju.
Results (11th round).-
Candidates: Praggnanandhaa – Nakamura, 0-1; Gukesh – Caruana, tables; Vidit – Niepómniashi, 0-1; Firouzja – Abbasov, 1-0.
Candidates: So – Lagno, 1-0; Lei – A. Muzychuk, tables; Koneru – Salímova, 1-0; Vaishali – Goryachkina, 1-0.
Classifications.-
Candidates: 1st Niepómniashi 7 points; 2nd-3rd Gukesh and Nakamura 6.5; 4th Caruana 6; 5th Praggnanandhaa 5.5; 6th Vidit 5; 7th Firouzja, 4.5; 8th Abbasov, 3.
Candidates: 1st Tan 7.5; 2nd I read 7 points; 3rd-5th Goryáchkina, Lagno and Koneru 5.5; 6th-7th A. Muzychuk and Vaishali 4.5; 8th Salímova 4.
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