Malcolm Pein on the Candidates

We held the magazine to await the outcome of the Candidates. The tournament was decided late into the night UK time when after over six hours of play, Fabiano Caruana could not convert a winning position against Ian Nepomniachtchi in order to force a playoff and so 17-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh became the youngest world title challenger in the history of the game. Gukesh will take on Ding Liren later this year in the first ever all-Asian match for the world title. I’m pleased to report that Ding described himself as “the favourite in Classical chess” when asked about the upcoming match, so perhaps he is recovering better from Long Covid, which, I understand, has been the main reason for his poor performances since becoming champion.

It does feel like a new era is upon us. It was only yesterday that I attended The Memorial Beer and Blitz at the iconic Kings Head pub in Bayswater, west London, sponsored by GM David Norwood and where nine-year-old Supratit Banerjee was beating GMs. Someone came up to me and said: “Supratit has just beaten x and y” (names withheld to protect the innocen) and I said, “And so he should!” As I write, Bodhana Sivanandan, 9, is on 2/3 at the European Individual and has faced three established titled players who compete for Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Gukesh was perhaps the least fancied of the Indian trio who qualified for the eight-player double-rounder at Toronto, but a glance at the crosstable shows he bested both his compatriots. Hikaru Nakamura’s two defeats at the hands of Vidit Gujrathi stand out too. Nakamura played brilliantly otherwise and even managed to do his nightly video round-ups to keep his fans happy. He inflicted on Fabiano Caruana his sole defeat as both Americans came agonisingly close. The last round was set up perfectly: Nakamura 8/13 vs Gukesh 8½/13 and Caruana 8/13 vs Nepomniachtchi 8/13.

Gukesh produced some superb preparation to defuse Nakamura’s attacking intent:

11...b4! The point is 12 axb4 Nc6! and the knight gets to b4 controlling the key d5-square. If 13 b5 axb5 14 Qxb5? Nb4 15 Qe2 Qc7!! prepares ....Ba6 and Black is better. After 12 Ìe4 bxa3 Black was fine and Nakamura’s pawn sacrifice only led to him struggling to hold an endgame.

Gukesh’s TPR at Toronto was close to 2850 and he shot up ten places to world number six. The excitement in India is already building.

It’s certainly been a meteoric rise. According to chess historian Olimpiu Urcan, in August 2021 Gukesh, then 15, was ranked 311 in the world. A year later he was 38th, and last August he entered the top ten for the first time. He only qualified for the Candidates at the last gasp, winning a hastily organised tournament in Chennai at the end of December after a failure at the London Chess Classic. This took him to the top of the FIDE Circuit.

Gukesh was a pleasure to have at the LCC, a true gentleman at 17, and he made a wonderful impression on everyone he met at the closing dinner. I hope Toronto ends the debate on the Candidates format. It was a tremendous tournament, as was London 2013 which will never be matched for sheer drama I suspect. I look forward to a great world title match.

We’ll cover the nerve jangling Caruana-Nepomniachtchi game in the next issue. Afterwards both were naturally visibly deflated. Nepomniachtchi said: “I’m very sorry.” Caruana replied, “My fault”.

Caruana was always chasing qualification after this defeat. Hikaru Nakamura really has dominated his rival in Classical encounters, winning the last three: the 2022 Madrid Candidates in an Open Lopez, Norway Chess 2023 in a Two Knights Defence, and at the FIDE Grand Swiss in a Scotch Four Knights. He did it again, in another 1 e4 e5 opening, outplaying the world number two in what I would call a Slow Ruy Lopez. This was brilliantly played by the full-time chess streamer who rather revelled in his interview persona of a part-time player who doesn’t care too much. In his nightly video summary after this game he said: “I just want to play good chess and see where the chips will land.”

The psychology of this game was interesting. Nakamura was keenly aware of the fact that Caruana was half a point behind Ian Nepomniachtchi, who was White against the backmarker and outsider Nijat Abasov. Nakamura thought this might make Caruana keener than he might normally be with Black to make the game interesting.

Click on the notation to get a replay board with engine assistance.

Nakamura, Hikaru2789

1–0

Caruana, Fabiano2803

FIDE Candidates 2024 Toronto CAN13.04.2024[Malcolm]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 Bc5 6.0-0 d6 7.c3 0-0 8.Re1 Ne7 8...Ba7 9.Bg5 9.h3 Qe7 0-1 Gunsberg,I-Janowski,D DSB Kongress-13 Meisterturnier-12 Hannover 1902 (13) 9...Ne7 9...h6 10.Bh4 g5 and in comparison with the Giuoco Piano lines the bishop is badly placed on a4 as opposed to c4 9.Nbd2 Ng6 10.Nf1 d5N 'N' 10...b5 11.Bb3 Bb7 12.Ng3 h6 13.h3 Re8 14.Nh2 d5 0-1 (45) Hirneise,J (2315)-Bindrich,F (2590) Doha 2016 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Bb3 c6 13.d4 13.Nxe5 Bxf2+ 14.Kxf2 Nxe5 15.Kg1 15.Rxe5?? Qf6+ 13...exd4 14.Nxd4 Nf6 \"I think Be6 is completely fine here.\" (Nakamura) 14...Be6 Intending Bc5xd4 and Nd5-f4 wasplayable because if "completely fine" - Nakamura 15.Nxe6 fxe6 White's best is Be3 16.Be3 Nxe3 17.Bxe6+ Kh8 18.Qxd8 Raxd8 19.fxe3 Ne5 However this may not appeal 20.Bb3 15.h3 Bxd4 16.cxd4 \"I think this is just a poor decision because even though I have the isolated pawn, I get the two bishops versus the bishop and the knight... Black has to prove where the play is.\" (Nakamura) Nd5 17.Bc2 Be6 18.Ng3 Ndf4?! 18...Qh4!? 18...Qb6!? 19.Re4 Nd5 20.a3 Re8 20...Qd7 20...Qb6 21.f4 Nf6 22.f5 Nxe4 23.Bxe4 Bb3 24.Qd2 Nh4 25.Qf4 Is pretty scary to the human eye 21.Bd2 Nf6 \"All my moves become obvious.\" (Nakamura) 22.Bg5 h6 23.Bxf6 Qxf6 24.Qd2 Qg5 There is no repetition 24...Bd5 25.Rg4 Be6 26.Nh5! Qe7 27.Re1 Keeps some pressure 25.Re3 \"I could tell he missed something... he thought it was a blunder. But then he used 20 minutes because he realized of course it wasn't a blunder.\" (Nakamura) Nf4 26.h4! Qd5 \"It's still probably okay somehow, but very, very tough.\" (Nakamura) 26...Qxh4 27.Re4 g5 28.Rae1+- The knight and queen are out of play. 27.Re4 Ng6 28.Rae1 Nf8 29.Re5 Qd8 30.h5 Black has been forced into passivity 30.Qf4 was even stronger, leaving the h5-square open for the knight as in the line Nd7 31.Nh5! Nxe5 32.Qxe5 f6 33.Qg3 g5 34.Qd3 with a winning attack. 30...Bd7? \"I think this is simply a blunder.\" The engine recommends 30...Qf6 31.Ne4 Qd8 32.Nc5 b6 33.Nxe6 Rxe6 34.Rxe6 Nxe6 35.Qd3 Nf8 with a passive but more solid position than in the game. 31.Rxe8 Bxe8 32.Nf5 Qf6 Nakamura showed 32...Ne6? 33.Nxh6+ gxh6 34.Qxh6 Qg5 35.Rxe6 Qxh6 36.Rxh6 Rd8 37.Rf6 Rxd4 38.h6 with a win. 33.Qb4 b5 \"Already here it's very hard to play.\" (Nakamura) 34.Ne7+ Kh8 35.Nd5 White threatens the queen and checkmate on f8. 1–0

Had Nepomniachtchi qualified, this would have been a key win. The Russian must have done a lot of work on the Berlin Endgame for his two world title matches and uncorked a novelty which probably won him the game in practice, even if the move does not remotely threaten the viability of Black’s set-up.

Nepomniachtchi,I2758

1–0

Vidit,S2727

FIDE Candidates 20242024

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Bd7 10.h3 h6 11.g4 Ne7 12.Nh2 Novelty g5 35 minutes 13.f4 gxf4 14.Bxf4 Be6 15.Ne4 b6 16.Nf3 c5 17.Nf6 Kc8 18.Kg2 Kb7 19.Kg3 a5 20.a3 a4 21.Rad1 Nc6 22.c3 Be7 23.Nh4 h5 24.g5 Ra5 24...Bd8 25.Ng2 Ne7 26.h4 Ng6 Black's position remains extremely solid 25.Rde1 Rb5 26.Bc1 Rb3? 26...c4! 27.g6 Nxe5 28.g7 Bxf6! 29.gxh8Q Bxh8 Black's pieces dominate after Ne5-d3 and White's king could be exposed 26...c4 27.g6 Nxe5 28.g7 Bxf6 29.Rxf6 Rg8 30.Bh6 Nd3 31.Rexe6 fxe6 32.Rf8 Rxg7+ 33.Bxg7 Rg5+ Is a clever point 26...c4 27.g6 fxg6 28.Nxg6 h4+ 29.Kh2 Rd8 Was fine according to the computer 27.g6 fxg6 28.Nxg6 Rd8?! 28...h4+!? 29.Kh2 29.Nxh4 Rb5 29...c4 29.Nxe7 Nxe7 30.Nxh5 Rd3+ 31.Rf3 Rxf3+ 32.Kxf3 Bxh3 33.e6 Black will struggle to contain the pawn in time pressure despite the presence of opposite bishops b5 34.Bg5 Nd5 34...Ng6 35.Kg3 35.e7 Bd7 36.e8Q Bxe8 37.Rxe8 Rxb2 38.Bf6 Black should draw with b4 39.cxb4 Rh2 40.Ng3 cxb4 41.axb4 a3 42.Re1 Kb6 43.Ra1 a2 And Black should be able to exchange the last pawn 35...Bxe6 36.Rxe6 Nf8 37.Re8 Nd7 35.e7 Bd7 36.Rd1 36.e8Q Bxe8 37.Rxe8 Rxb2 or 37...b4 should secure an exchange of all the pawns and a draw 36...Kc6 37.Ke4! Be8 37...Nxe7 38.Bxe7 Rxb2 39.Nf4 Rb3 39...Rc2 40.Ng6 Bh3 41.Ne5+ Kb6 42.Rd3 Black can fight but should lose in the long run 40.Nd3 Be8 41.Ne5+ Kb6 42.Rd8 Bc6+ 43.Kd3 Rxa3 44.Rb8+ Bb7 45.Nd7+ wins 38.Rxd5 Bxh5 White to play and win: Answer 39.Bc1 Bg6+ 40.Ke5 b4 41.Kf6! Be8 41...Kxd5 42.Kxg6 42.Rd8 bxa3 43.bxa3 43.Rxe8 a2 44.Rg8 43...Bd7 43...Rxc3 44.Rxe8 Rxc1 45.Rd8 44.Kf7 1–0

I had hoped that the younger players Vaishali Rameshbabu, Praggnanandhaa’s sister, and Nurgyul Salimova would break through at the Women’s Candidates, but the Chinese maintained their dominance as Tan Zhongyi goes through to play Ju Wenjun, six years after their first match which the holder won narrowly 5½-4½.

Vaishali actually won more games, five in all, than Tan, but lost four and finished in a highly creditable tie for second with her established compatriot Koneru Humpy and another former title challenger, Lei Tingjie.

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About CHESS Magazine

The above editorial is reproduced from Chess Magazine May/2024, with kind permission.

CHESS Magazine was established in 1935 by B.H. Wood who ran it for over fifty years. It is published each month by the London Chess Centre and is edited by IM Richard Palliser and Matt Read.

The Executive Editor is Malcolm Pein, who organises the London Chess Classic.

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