4/19/2024 – Round 12 of the Candidates Tournament saw three players scoring full points to greatly increase their chances of achieving overall victory. Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh D defeated Alireza Firouzja and Nijat Abasov respectively to join Ian Nepomniachtchi in the lead, while Fabiano Caruana got the better of Vidit Gujrathi to go into the final two rounds at a half-point distance from the co-leaders. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
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Four players in contention
Two rounds ago, six players remained in contention for first place in a very close race at the Candidates Tournament in Toronto. On Wednesday and Thursday, though, Praggnanandhaa R and Vidit Gujrathi suffered losses that left them out of the fight going into the final two rounds of the event.
In round 11, Ian Nepomniachtchi grabbed the sole lead by achieving a 67-move victory in his dramatic encounter against Vidit. Then, in round 12, Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh D caught up with the Russian grandmaster by defeating Alireza Firouzja and Nijat Abasov, respectively. The three co-leaders are tied for first place with 7½ points each (a plus-three score).
Thursday’s round also saw Fabiano Caruana beating Vidit to remain in contention going forward, as he now stands a half point behind the leaders. Following a painful loss against Nakamura, Caruana scored wins the next two times he played with the white pieces. Importantly, the top seed is set to face Nepomniachtchi — with white — in the final round.
The player who will enter the deciding rounds with the most momentum surely is Nakamura, who scored three consecutive wins in rounds 10-12. In fact, the last time the famous streamer signed a draw in the event was in the seventh round, when he split a point with Nepomniachtchi — he went on to beat Caruana and lose to Vidit in rounds 8 and 9, before scoring the hat-trick that left him tied for first.
Out of the three co-leaders, Nakamura is also the player who has collected the most wins so far in the event (and the most losses, of course), with 5 victories and 2 losses to his name. Gukesh has suffered 1 loss, while Nepomniachtchi is the only participant to remain undefeated in Toronto (in either of the two categories).
Find below the pairings of the final two rounds, set to take place on Saturday and Sunday. In case of a tie for first place, all participants sharing the lead will play a rapid (and blitz, if necessary) tiebreaker on Monday.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
Will Gukesh become a World Championship challenger at 17? | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
Nakamura 1 - 0 Firouzja
Analysis by André Schulz
Hikaru Nakamura obtained a third win in a row on Thursday | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.
In Calculation Training – Sharpen Your Game! a total of 73 examples have been selected, the vast majority containing multiple questions, and more than 160 questions of varying difficulty.
The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
Opening videos: Sipke Ernst brings the Ulvestad Variation up to date + Part II of ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’. Special: Jan Werle shows highlights from the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in the video. ‘Lucky bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores the fascinating world of King’s Indian and Pirc structures with colours reversed, often arising from the French or Sicilian.
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