Chess Candidates 2024 Live Updates, Round 12 Today: Gukesh moved into the joint-lead while Pragg played his part in creating a three-way tie at the top.
FIDE Chess Candidates 2024 Round 12 Live Updates: On a day where the Open tournament at Candidates got blown wide open, India’s D Gukesh moved back into a joint-lead as he defeated Nijat Abasov with black pieces. Gukesh was helped by R Praggnanandhaa’s draw against the unbeaten Ian Nepomniachtchi, also with black.
However, having started the day as solo leader, Nepomniachtchi finds himself level with India’s Gukesh and American Hikaru Nakamura, all on 7.5 points with just two rounds to go. With Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura facing each other in Round 13, Gukesh finds himself in a position to push forward going into the final rounds.
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Vidit Gujrathi, however, went down fighting against Fabiano Caruana, with the latter staying in the hunt for the top spot too, moving up to 7 points.
INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the Round 12 Candidates game between Gukesh and Abasov below and also click on the notations at the right of the board to retrace the way the game developed:
In the Women’s category, Vaishali R made it back-to-back wins while Koneru Humpy finished with a draw.
Open Round 12 results
Hikaru Nakamura 1 – 0 Alireza Firouzja
Nijat Abasov 0 – 1 Gukesh D
Fabiano Caruana 1 – 0 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi
Ian Nepomniachtchi 1/2 – 1/2 Praggnanandhaa R
Women’s Round 12 results
Kateryna Lagno 1/2 – 1/2 Lei Tingjie
Anna Muzychuk 0 – 1 Vaishali Rameshbabu
Aleksandra Goryachkina 1/2 – 1/2 Humpy Koneru
Nurgyul Salimova 1/2 – 1/2 Tan Zhongyi
Here’s a full recap of Round 12 action.
We are near the business end and it promises to be a tense day (or night in India).
Follow updates of Round 12 below
Live Blog
Chess Candidates 2024 Round 12 Live: Follow all the updates from Chess Candidates 2024 Round 12 from Toronto, Canada
Candidates Chess 2024: How Vidit Gujrathi let Ian Nepomniachtchi off the hook
Think of Ian Nepomniachtchi not as a grandmaster, but as an escape artist. Time and again at the Candidates tournament in Toronto, he’s found himself in losing positions, like he did against Praggnanandhaa in Round 5 and against Alireza Firouzja in Round 9. Time and again, he’s escaped unscathed. On Thursday, Nepomniachtchi performed his most jaw-dropping trick in Toronto yet, managing to survive from two losing positions before defeating Vidit Gujrathi after a marathon battle that lasted over five hours.
The victory sent Nepomniachtchi into sole lead in the open section of the Candidates chess tournament with seven points. Nepomniachtchi has Gukesh, the 17-year-old, first-timer from India, and 36-year-old Hikaru Nakamura, a two-time Candidates contender, hot on his heels.
Both have half a point less than Nepomniachtchi with just three more rounds left. Gukesh played out a draw against World No.2 Fabiano Caruana with white pieces while the third Indian in the open competition, Praggnanandhaa, lost to World No.3 Nakamura, a result that sees him 1.5 points off the pace. (READ MORE)
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First uploaded on: 19-04-2024 at 00:06 IST
Hasibur Rahaman is a passionate sports journalist. He covers everything from cricket to field hockey, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis of sporting events, both within India and on the international stage.
