The youngest participant at the Candidates, 17-year-old India’s D Gukesh has moved into the joint lead at the Candidates alongside two-time World Championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi after five rounds of play. Gukesh and the lowest seed in the Open section, Azerbaijan’s Nijat Abasov were locked in combat for a marathon six hours and 87 moves in what was the longest game at this Candidates so far and the Indian managed to steer a drawn position to a win.
Early on after the opening, Black seemed to be in no grave danger. Gukesh found himself in a mad time scramble having to make four moves in under a minute. His 40th move right before they hit time control turned out to be an error that saw him shred advantage right away. The evaluation bar that was in favour of White promptly dropped and the game appeared objectively drawn. Abasov erred by giving up his D6 pawn and Gukesh began a fresh push for a win. The Indian was up a pawn in a queen endgame and pressed for a decisive result until Abasov cracked. The Azerbaijani eventually blundered with 83…Qf1+ that brought on the trade of queens and lost within the next four moves.
Nepomniachtchi managed to escape with a draw despite Praggnanandhaa dazzling early on with his preparation. The 18-year-old managed to surprise the two-time Candidates winner in the Petroff Defence, choosing to move away from the well-trodden path with 16.Bh3.
As the game progressed, Praggnanandhaa couldn’t keep up the pressure and the exchange of queens snuffed out his advantage and Nepomniachtchi defended the game stoutly to a draw.
Much like his compatriot, Vidit Gujrathi too ended the day with a feeling of a missed opportunity. The Indian was in a position of advantage and though he was low on time for the most part, he had world No 2 Caruana on the ropes. Vidit missed the …Qa4 idea which Caruana spotted to force a perpetual check.
“A draw is a good result considering the danger I was in,” said Caruana, “but still I feel my play was not very good. It’s something I need to work on for the rest of the tournament. Certainly, if I keep playing like this I’m not going to get lucky every day.”
Pre-tournament favourite Hikaru Nakamura managed to earn his first win of the tournament, defeating Alireza Firouzja with the Black pieces. The game seemed to be headed to a draw before the American chose to gamble on pushing for a win. Part of the reason, he said later, was because he felt his opponent was battling a whole lot of nerves and pressure.
“It’s pretty well known that he’s (Alireza) got bad nerves and he’s very nervous in general. I thought I might as well go for it, if I lose, I lose…There’s far more pressure on Alireza than there’s on me. I’d like to do well maybe I can win if I get a little bit of luck but Alireza is the anointed one…Magnus spoke about him as the next junior who could surpass him and now there’s a lot of these juniors – the Indians and Nordirbek, right behind him and I felt he was under pressure and if I could keep the game going, good things would happen.”
In the women’s section, all four games ended in draws.
Round 5 results
Alireza Firouzja (1.5) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (2.5)
Gukesh D (3.5) beat Nijat Abasov (1.5)
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2) drew Fabiano Caruana (3)
Praggnanandhaa R (2.5) drew Ian Nepomniachtchi (3.5)
Women
Lei Tingjie (2) drew Kateryna Lagno (2.5)
Vaishali Rameshbabu (2.5) drew Anna Muzychuk
Humpy Koneru (2) drew Aleksandra Goryachkina (3)
Tan Zhongyi (3.5) drew Nurgyul Salimova (2.5)
Round 6 pairings
Open
Gukesh D – Hikaru Nakamura
Vidit Gujrathi – Alireza Firouzja
Praggnanandhaa R – Nijat Abasov
Ian Nepomniachtchi – Fabiano Caruana
Women
Vaishali R- Kateryna Lagno
Humpy Koneru – Lei Tingjie
Tan Zhongyi – Anna Muzychuk
Nurgyul Salimova – Aleksandra Goryachkina
