FIDE Candidates Round 6: Praggnanandhaa beats Nijat Abasov; Koenru Humpy, R Vaishali lose out

It was a day of mixed fortunes for India as both Koenru Humpy and R Vaishali lost to Lei Tingjie and Kateryna Lagno respectively in the Women’s section in the 6th round of the FIDE Candidates Chess tournament.

Incidentally, the Women’s 6th round witnessed decisive results throughout. The Open section however scripted a contrasting story with Praggnanandhaa defeating Nijat Abasov, Vidit squaring off against Alireza Firouzja, and Gukesh holding second-seed Hikaru Nakamura to a draw.

The battle between bigwigs and hot favourites, top seeded Fabiano Caruana and two time- World Championship Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi petered into a draw without much fanfare.

It was another fine and steady display by Gukesh which ensured that he jointly leads the eight-player pack with 4 points along with Nepomniachtchi. Pragg and Caruana are trailing half a point behind the leader.

Vidit and Nakamura have totalled 3 points each and Alireza and Abasov bring up the rear with 1.5 points each. The Indian players in the Open section have been impressive so far and remain very much in the race as this Double Round Robin event approaches the halfway mark.

Tan Zhongyi recorded her fourth victory to tally 4.5 points after a scintillating win against Anna Muzychuk today and maintains her sole lead. Alexandra Goryachkina also kept up her good run by defeating Nurgyul Salimova to trail half a point behind the leader.

Vidit has shown tremendous willpower, apart from fine form, as he scored his second successive win after two consecutive losses in the third and fourth round. In a roller coaster ride, the player saw two victories, suffered two losses and has been involved in two draws.

In a Sicilian defence adopted by Alireza, Vidit castled on the King-side even as the former delayed and debated before castling on the opposite side. Vidit broke through on the queen side and the centre, winning a couple of pawns and pushing his central pawn all the way to the 7th rank to score a victory after 40 moves.

Nakamura too opted to go the Sicilian way against Gukesh in the Dragon variation. The systematic and frequent exchange of pieces transposed the game into a rook and pawn ending where peace was signed on the 29th turn.

In the Tarrasch variation of the Queen’s gambit, Pragg missed holding onto an advantage in the opening against Abasov, the lowest-rated player in the fray. Enjoying a positional edge Pragg had no problems in romping home the victor in a knight versus bishop ending after 45 moves.

The Nepomniachtchi versus Caruana tussle in a scotch game was drawn after 41 moves when the transposition to the ending resulted in opposite colour bishop and pawns ending.

Koneru Humpy’s poor form continued as she also battled for time against Lei’s Kings Indian defence. A passed pawn in the centre which Lei kept pushing at every possible opportunity resulted in Humpy losing on the 48th turn.

Vaishali too was not in good nick and error prone against Kateryna Lagno in a Ruy-Lopz game and lost rather quickly after 29 moves.

Round 6 Results

Gukesh d (4) drew Hikaru Nakamura (3); Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (3) beat Alireza Firouzja (1.5); R Praggnanandhaa (3.5) beat Nijat Abasov (1.5); Ian Nepomniachtchi (4) drew Fabiano Caruana (3.5).

Women’s section

R Vaishali (2.5) lost to Keteryna Lagno (3.5);

Koneru Humpy (2) lost to Lei Tingjie (3)

Tan Zhongyi (4.5) beat Anna Muzychuk (2)

Nurgyul Salimova (2.5) lost to Aleksandra Goryachkine (4)