Candidates chess: 3 Indians among 8 in the fray as tournament commences

The Fide and Women’s Candidates Chess tournament, in a historical first, started simultaneously in Toronto, Canada.

All the four encounters in this double-Round Robin event in the Open section ended in deadlock, but such was not the case in the shorter or swifter version, as was the norm a few years back when players wanted to settle slowly and steadily into the long tournament.

The only decisive result of the day came in the Women’s section with former Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi defeating compatriot Lei Tingjie.

A new chapter in Indian Chess also commenced with the Candidates boasting of three Indians amongst the elite eight in fray -- for the first time since its inception -- a far cry from the times that 5-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand was the solo entrant from India.

Dommanraju Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi are the Indian GMs in the Open section and Koneru Humpy and R Vaishali feature in the Women’s section. In another record, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali are the first brother-sister duo to qualify for the same Candidates event.

In one surprising result today, Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan, the lowest-rated player in the fray held two-time World Championship Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi.

As is the norm, players of the same country are pitted against each other in the early rounds, and thus the D Gukesh versus Vidit Gujrathi battle started in the Queen’s Gambit Declined version. A calm and cool play from both resulted in a few exchanges with an early draw signed on the 21st move with most of the pieces still gracing the board.

One of the most awaited tussle between youngsters touted as the’ future faces of chess’, Alireza Firouzja and R Praggnanandhaa, began with one of the oldest openings in the game -- the tried and tested ‘Ruy Lopez’.

This game had its fair share of excitement with Alireza castling early and Praggnanandhaa preferring to keep his King in the centre and delaying casting, to launch an attack on the King-side.

Praggnanandhaa looked ready to go for the kill with his queen and rooks firing on the King-side. Alireza in turn created a counterattack in the centre of the board and set up his own checkmating nets. Praggnanandhaa forced the draw with perpetual checks on the 39th turn with his queen.

The battle between top two contenders and favourites Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, arising out of the sharp Sicilian Defence, was also evenly contested and the game ended after 41 moves.

The Italian Opening game between Vaishali and Koneru Humpy was a rather solid and sedate affair with pieces being systematically exchanged at regular intervals. Both players agreed to split the point after 41 moves when each was left with a bishop and knight along with an identical number of pawns.

Round 1 results:

GM Hikaru Nakamura (2803) drew GM Hikaru Nakamura (2789);

GM Nijat Abasov (2632) drew GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2758);

GM Alireza Firouzja (2760) drew GM R Praggnanandhaa (2747);

GM D Gukesh (2743) drew Vidit Santosh Gujrthi (2727)

Women’s Section - Round 1 Results

GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2553) drew GM Kaeryna Lagno (2542);

GM Anna Muzychuk (2520) drew IM Nurgyul Salimova (2432);

GM Tingjie Lei (2550) lost to GM Zhongyi Tan (2521)

IM Vaishali Rameshbabu (2475) drew GM Koneru Humpy (2546)