Candidates, Round 9

Vidit beats Nakamura again; all other games drawn.

It was a lively round, and one that seemed to promise multiple decisive results, most notably in the games featuring the leaders, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Dommaraju Gukesh. Instead, it was defense that prevailed as Nepo survived a scare with Alireza Firouzja, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa endured Gukesh’s pressure without breaking, and Nijat Abasov once again proved his resilience with a successful defensive effort against Fabiano Caruana.

Still, there was one decisive game, and that was Santosh Vidit Gujrathi’s second win in the tournament against Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura played 3…Nf6 and 4…h6 against Vidit’s Italian Game, which he soon followed up with 6…g5. This has been played by quite a few super-GMs, albeit most often in games with a short time control. It may seem too extravagant for classical chess, but it’s really not that bad. He was fine out of the opening, and remained essentially okay after mutual inaccuracies and errors until his 27th move. There he blundered, either missing or underestimating White’s 29th move and its implications. He was clearly lost after a further error on move 30, and a final error on move 33 soon left him facing imminent mate or massive material losses. Nakamura entered the round with a +1 score, half a point behind the leaders, while Vidit was on -1. Now they’re both on 50%, a full point behind Mssrs. Nepo and Gukesh.

Gukesh was pressing against Pragg throughout their game, on the white side of a Closed Ruy with d3 and Bxc6. Pragg defended very well, and remained in striking distance just half a point behind Gukesh (and Nepo).

As for Nepo, he was in serious trouble against Firouzja’s 1.Nf3 d5 2.b3 - it’s not just an opening for blitz. Nepo’s 13…d4 and 14…e5 gained space, but at the cost of a position where the pawn breaks were in White’s hands and White also enjoyed a splendid outpost for his knight on c4. Black’s main trump was the degree to which the board was locked up. For all White’s advantages - a huge amount of extra space above all - there wasn’t enough room to break through. Firouzja’s exchange sac was an excellent idea, but precise defense from Nepo neutralized that as well. Somehow, Nepo has remained undefeated, but he hasn’t won a game since round 4 and has been in trouble pretty consistently with the Black pieces, barely holding against Pragg in round 5, Nakamura in round 7, and now Firouzja in round 9. He is also the only player so far who was unable to win with White against Abasov, so unless all the other contenders crack under the pressure or he has some super-novelty prepared with White, I’m nervous about his chances to cross the finish line in first.

Finally, Abasov vs. Caruana. Abasov had some chances for an advantage with White early on, but after his 12th move the advantage was with his opponent. Would Caruana strike back and close to within half a point of the leaders? He wouldn’t. Abasov defended excellently - as he has throughout the tournament - and the only, fairly minor chance Caruana had to obtain even a moderate edge was missed. So, another draw.

(Today’s games, with my annotations, are here.)

The players have one more round before their next rest day, and these are the pairings.

• Nakamura (4.5) - Abasov (3)

• Caruana (4.5) - Firouzja (3.5)

• Nepomniachtchi (5.5) - Gukesh (5.5) (a win for either player would be huge)

• Praggnanandhaa (5) - Vidit (4.5)

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A quick update on the Women’s Candidates. In round 8 - the previous round - Tan Zhongyi lost to Lei Tingjie, after which they were tied for first with Aleksandra Goryachkina with 5/8, half a point ahead of Kateryna Lagno. Tan bounced back with a win, while the other three ladies drew, putting Tan back into clear first where she has been for almost the entire event.