“‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”, Alfred Tennyson wrote in his great poem In Memoriam A.H.H.
It’s probably true, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way when one has loved and lost, or when one has invested so much of oneself in some great endeavor and failed. It’s a great moment for Dommaraju Gukesh, who at the age of 17 is the youngest-ever Candidates winner, and will become the second-youngest ever World Champion (and the youngest undisputed World Champion) if manages to dethrone Ding Liren in their title match, which begins in early November. But it’s a tragic moment for Fabiano Caruana, who had a win in his grasp against Ian Nepomniachtchi - repeatedly - before letting his opponent slip out a final time to make a draw. Had Caruana won, he and Gukesh would have had a playoff match today (Monday); now, he must deal with “what if?” and regret. Hopefully he will cope with it better than someone like David Bronstein, who never seems to have fully come to terms with his failure to finish off Mikhail Botvinnik in their 1951 World Championship match. And I can scarcely imagine what it was like to be Paul Keres, repeatedly coming up just short in four or five Candidates events. Brutal.
The setup, you may recall, was this: Gukesh entered the last round half a point ahead of Hikaru Nakamura, Caruana, and Nepomniachtchi. Conveniently, the four were paired: Nakamura had White against Gukesh, and Caruana had White against Nepo. Thus a win for Gukesh would guarantee clear first, a Gukesh draw would guarantee him at worst a tie for first, and a Nakamura would win would guarantee him at worst a tie for first. A tie would only happen, in the last two cases, if Caruana beat Nepo or Nepo beat Caruana; otherwise, the player who finished with the best overall score in the Nakamura-Gukesh game would win the tournament.
As it turned out Gukesh played a very good game, quickly equalizing and then achieving a slight edge against Nakamura, and it was soon clear that the game would finish in a draw. Nakamura did his best and continued until only kings were left, but he never came within a mile of winning the game.
Meanwhile, Caruana was much better very early on against Nepomniachtchi, and was winning by move 22. He continued to play very well, and for a long time the only thing he did wrong was to take too long to make his very good moves. On moves 35-37 he missed opportunities to put the game to bed, and on move 39, with less than a minute remaining to reach the time control, he played a terrible move that unexpectedly made the win extremely difficult.
Mistakes on move 40 (or whatever the last move of a given time control happens to be) are a commonplace, but so are mistakes on move 41. Caruana didn’t stop long enough to calm himself and recalibrate, and hastily made a move that gave away the win. It turned out, however, that Black’s task was scarcely easier, and he returned the favor on move 44. After that Caruana was winning again, and both players had come to understand the position much better. They both played great until White’s 59th move, when Caruana fell into a nice trap set by Nepo, who again returned the favor (in a still confusing position) on move 61. The last consequential error came on move 66, when - again with only a minute or so left - Caruana failed to spot a winning maneuver and had to acquiesce in a line that left him with queen and two pawns vs. queen and pawn, all on the same side. Maybe Caruana would have won that endgame against some of us, but there was no chance of his defeating Nepo, and the players called it a game, and a tournament, after Caruana’s 109th move.
There were two other games, but they were mostly an afterthought. Alireza Firouzja and Santosh Vidit Gujrathi were content to end the tournament as quickly as possible, executing the beloved Berlin draw in less than ten minutes. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was much more bloodthirsty, and saddled poor Nijat Abasov with his seventh loss of the tournament. To repeat a quote I’ve sometimes cited on this blog, experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want. Abasov got a lot of experience in this tournament.
What can we say? Congratulations to Gukesh, who played a great tournament and showed tremendous composure throughout. He had a couple of hiccups in the first half of the tournament, failing to convert a winning advantage against Nepo and then losing from a superior position against Firouzja. But overall his chess was very stable, and he managed to put sustained pressure on his opponents - and many of them broke.
Nepo led much of the tournament, primarily thanks to his incredible resilience. He was lost in rounds 3, 5, 11, and 14, and in serious trouble in rounds 7 and 9. Somehow he escaped in every one of those games and even won one of them. There’s no “what if?” for him in this event.
That’s not the case for Nakamura and Caruana, but they can also be proud of their play, especially in the second half of the tournament as they both made late charges to come up just short.
Praggnanandhaa performed to his rating, and was in the mix for a good chunk of the event. He’s only 18, and will almost certainly be back and in the hunt for the World Championship for at least another decade.
Vidit exceeded expectations until near the end. He had an even score after 10 rounds, and would have been on +1 if he had converted a winning advantage against Nepo. Instead, he lost that game and then lost to Caruana in the next round before finishing with a couple of draws to close out the tournament.
Firouzja got off to a terrible start (-3 after six games) before righting the ship most of the rest of the way. Everyone acknowledges him as a great talent, but both this Candidates and the last one were disastrous for him. Maybe maturity or better coaching will help him? Let’s hope so, especially as he’s one of the most interesting players in contemporary chess.
Here are the last round games (with my notes, especially to the Caruana-Nepomniachtchi epic), and here are the final standings:
1. Gukesh 9
2-4. Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi, Caruana 8.5
5. Praggnanandhaa 7
6. Vidit 6
7. Firouzja 5
8. Abasov 3.5
The Women’s Candidates was won by Tan Zhongyi. Like Gukesh, she scored 9/14, but finished 1.5 points clear of her closest pursuers, Humpy Koneru, Lei Tingjie, and Rameshbabu Vaishali (Pragg’s sister). That 1.5 point gap is misleading, though, as Lei was neck-and-neck with her until the last couple of rounds.
Vaishali’s tournament was the most interesting. She had an even score after five rounds, but then lost in rounds 6-9 to sink to -4. That seems like a problem, right? Well, it kept her out of the winner’s circle, but she won her last five games - and not only against tailenders - to reach the tie for second. She’s only 22, so streaks like that give the other top women reason to be worried about her come the next Women’s World Championship cycle.
Dennis, have avidly devoured all of your wonderful recaps -- thank you! In terms of sheer pathos/drama, how would you rank yesterday’s Fabi/Nepo game?
Pragg started strong but seemed to lose a lot of steam in the 2d half. I wonder if it was a stamina/conditioning issue.