D Gukesh held Caruana to a draw, Vidit Gujarati lost again
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Grandmaster D Gukesh held top seed Fabiano Caruana of America to a draw but Vidit Gujarati suffered another defeat against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia in the fourth round of the Candidates Chess Tournament here. R Praggnananda shared points with Hikaru Nakamura of America while Nizat Abbasov of Azerbaijan and Firozha Alireza of France also ended in a draw.
This double round robin competition of eight players will decide the challenger for the next World Championship. Nepomniachtchi became the first player to take the singles lead in the tournament with three points from his second win playing with white. Caruana and Gukesh are at second place with two and a half points, half a point behind them. Praggnananda is fourth with two points while Vidit, Abbasov, Alireza and Nakamura are all on one and a half points.
In the women’s category, R Vaishali played a draw like her younger brother Praggnananda. She held Russia’s Alexandra Goryachkina to a draw. India’s Koneru Humpy, however, suffered her first defeat of the tournament against the lowest-ranked and youngest player, Nurgyul Selimova of Bulgaria. China’s Zhongyi Tan maintained her singles lead with three points after playing a draw against Russia’s Katerina Legno.
China’s Tingji Lei shared points with Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk. After Tan, Goryachkina is at second place with two and a half points. Vaishali, Selimova and Legno are tied for third place with two points each. After this defeat, Hampi has slipped to joint sixth place with one and a half points. Muzychuk and Lei are also jointly in sixth place with one and a half points. Gukesh handled the pressure well against Caruana with the black pieces and finally after 72 moves both players agreed to share the points.
Nepomniachtchi, the previous two-time Candidates Tournament winner, was in a better position for most of the time against Vidit, who had won against Nakamura in the second round, and the Russian, who has played the World Championship match twice, was ultimately successful in registering victory. Praggnananda is getting appreciation and respect from his rivals with each round. It was the same against Nakamura and the American player agreed to a draw after just 24 moves despite playing with white pieces without taking any risks.
On the other hand, in the women’s category, Selimova, who qualified for the tournament through the Women’s World Cup, showed that her qualification was not a fluke by defeating Humpy. The Bulgarian player won in 62 moves. The fifth round of the competition will be played after the first day of rest. There are still 10 rounds of play left in this biggest competition of the year.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
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