4/12/2024 – At the halfway mark in the Candidates Tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi tops the standings with 4½ points to his name. Former co-leader Gukesh D was defeated by Alireza Firouzja, who came from losing 3 out of the first 6 games he played in Toronto. Gukesh is now sharing second place — a half point behind Nepomniachtchi — with Praggnanandhaa R and Fabiano Caruana. Rounds 8-10 will take place between Saturday and Monday, following the tournament’s second rest day. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
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Firouzja bounces back
After Ian Nepomniachtchi grabbed the sole lead in round 4 of the Candidates Tournament, we pointed out that the Russian GM had similarly climbed to sole first place in the tournament’s previous edition (which he ended up winning). Three rounds later, Nepomniachtchi regained the sole lead thanks to Firouzja’s victory over former co-leader Gukesh D.
Nepo was also the sole leader at the halfway mark in Madrid, though back then he had impressively collected 5½ points by round 7 (he beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Ding Liren in rounds 5 and 6), while he is now atop the standings ‘only’ with 4½ points to his name.
If we continue looking for coincidences between the two editions, we note that Fabiano Caruana also stood a half point behind Nepo in 2022 — back then, though, he was in sole second place, while now he is tied for second with Praggnanandhaa R and Gukesh D.
Two other parallelisms can be made between the events in Madrid and Toronto: i.e. the number of points achieved by Firouzja and Hikaru Nakamura after seven rounds of play. Nakamura finished the first half of both events with 3½ points, while an out-of-form Firouzja collected 2½ points on both occasions.
Firouzja signed 3 draws and suffered 3 losses in the first six rounds of the tournament in Toronto. After a painful loss against Vidit on Wednesday, though, the 20-year-old bounced immediately back with a victory over Gukesh. Since Nepo did not have a first half as strong as his first half in Madrid, Firouzja stands not 3 but 2 points behind the leader this time around — still with outside (yet realistic) chances of fighting for the title.
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.
A half point behind the leader — Fabiano Caruana drew Praggnanandhaa with white in the seventh round | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
Glorious sacrifices, unexpected tactics and checkmating attacks. The King's Gambit is one of the oldest and most romantic openings in the game of chess. These DVDs contain all you need to know to play the King's Gambit.
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.
On his way to a third Candidates victory in a row? — Ian Nepomniachtchi | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
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.
London System PowerBase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
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