Candidates 2024, Round 9: Valiant Vidit nails Nakamura; Draw with Praggnanandhaa keeps Gukesh in joint lead

It was only fair that Vidit Gujrathi got undivided attention as the day’s hero. Much before the return-clash involving joint leader D. Gukesh and R. Praggnanandhaa ended with honours even, Vidit emergied as the ninth round’s lone winner but more significantly, ensured the bragging rights for pulling off something very special in the world of chess.

A day after losing his third game in the FIDE Candidates 2024, Vidit produced a pretty finishing-touch that proved a knockout punch for World No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura. With his third win in nine rounds, Vidit now holds a hugely enviable 2-0 head-to-head record after four encounters in classical time format against Nakamura, not known to lose many.

Draw on the other three boards meant Gukesh and Ian Nepomniatchi stayed ahead. Nakamura’s loss left Praggnanandhaa in the sole possession of the third spot.

Though not among the front-runners, Vidit has already established a huge reason to be remembered with pure admiration in every discussion on the FIDE Candidates 2024 even long after it gets over.

After all, this was Vidit’s second victory over Nakamura in the space of eight rounds. Seen in the backdrop of Nakamura coming to Toronto with an unbeaten of 46 games in classical time-format, Vidit’s twin-triumphs over the American is a feat that would have made even World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen proud.

Interestingly, in his pre-Candidates assessment of the three Indians, Carlsen did not expect much from Vidit and Gukesh but rated Praggnanandhaa higher.

Having got the better of the mercurial American in the second round with black pieces, Vidit repeated the dose with white pieces on Sunday, punishing the second seed with a rook-sacrifice that ended the contest.

After a fairly equal opening phase, Vidit saw his opportunity when, on the 26th move, Nakamura chose to capture white’s pawn on the centre of board. The trade of bishops followed and Vidit quickly removed Nakamura’s central pawn with his rook. It was this rook that was to hasten Nakamura’s end.

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The rook put the black queen almost out of play, captured a kingside pawn and paved the way for the white queen to occupy the seventh rank. When Nakamura brought his knight to defend, Vidit captured it by offering a rook to trigger off a checkmating sequence. Nakamura, known to be extremely expressive over the board, kept shaking his head in disbelief while calculating most of his last nine moves and eventually resigned.

This sensational victory for Vidit, a day after losing to Gukesh, brought him on par with top seed Fabiano Caruana and Nakamura in the tied fourth spot.

The Gukesh-Praggnanandhaa clash was fought on an even keel with neither player holding any edge at any point. Though Gukesh was the one pressing for advantage, Praggnanandhaa found the appropriate response without being in serious danger. With the players completing 40 moves and the possibility of a draw by three-fold repetition of moves available for the players, a peace treaty was signed.

This result also meant Gukesh finished his games in the competition against Vidit and Praggnanandhaa with an identical 1.5-0.5 scoreline. Significantly, Gukesh’s victories came with black pieces.

Playing white, Firouzja opened with his king-knight against Nepomniachtchi, thereby making this the first game in nine rounds where a pawn-push did not mark the opening.

Soon, in the middle game, Firouzja had Nepomniachtchi worried and kept up the pressure. He even sacrificed a rook for a bishop to promote his kingside pawn to the sixth rank. However, with both players having seven pawns each, Nepomniachtchi easily kept the position locked and blocked the advanced pawn with his queen. Firouzja soon realized he could not make any progress and draw was agreed.

Nijat Abasov continued to gain the respect of the chess elite. In a battle involving the highest and the lowest rated player in the field, the Azerbaijani held favourite Fabiano Caruana.

After Caruana gained early control and pressed hard to enlarge his opening advantage, Abasov found the precise defence and managed to keep the American at bay. Caruana could have tested Abasov a little more but eventually agreed to draw.