FIDE Candidates 2024 Round 13
FIDE Candidates 2024 Round 13
The best of all possible outcomes?
Nepo and Naka drew by repetition on the 27th move. The position itself was pretty equal, and both players may be trusting their chances against the other guys more than against one another.
Vidit and Abasov drew by repetition as well after a relatively quiet game in the Petrov Defense.
Praggnanandhaa R - Fabiano Caruana
We got a pretty standard Fabi-esque Rossolimo, but something seemed to have gone rather wrong for Pragg on move 15.Qh3
A couple pawn pushes later and a queenside castle and it was very clear that White was in a lot of trouble.
Fabi’s attack played itself, but I still find this position quite striking:
That’s very clearly a 5-point knight, but Fabi still traded it off with 25…Nxe1!?, and followed up with 26.Qxe1 Qd7. For a long time, it seemed like Pragg was in trouble, but slow moves fizzled out the attack and the position was back to something that appeared normal.
On 44…Rxh5, the position is basically theoretically level. White’s position is holdable, and the missing exchange is not felt — given that a knight can more easily navigate this closed position, it’s not clear that White should miss their rook when the knight on f5 appears virtually unassailable. However, Fabi decided to win on demand, simply playing like he did not want the game to end.
Pragg faltered in time trouble: 68.Ba1??, allowing 68…Rd7, threatening to take on d3. 69.d4 Rc7! threatening to take on c3. 70.Ne3 exd4 71.cxd4 Rb3! 72.Kf4 Rc1!
Fabi will capture on a1 then play Bd2, winning the knight for good. Pragg delayed resignation for a long time, squeezing every bit of fight out of his position, but in the end, Black’s extra piece told in the promotion race and the h2 pawn, condemned so early in the game, spelled White’s doom.
Speaking of winning on demand…
Gukesh D - Alireza Firouzja
Alireza went for a Berlin Defense against Gukesh, but made another one of those late-game impetuous decisions that ended up costing him the game when he was in an otherwise equal position.
Move 45 and with plenty of time on his clock. 45…Qg6?? 46.Qxg6! hxg6 47.Rd6!
White wins a crucial pawn. If 47…Kh7? then 48.Rb6! followed by 49.Rxb7. (48…Rb8 only delays the inevitable). Alireza saw the pawn was lost and played 47…Re8. But the game ended quickly thereafter. 48.Rxg6 Ne6 49.Nd5 Nd4 50.Rb6 Nc2??
Gukesh went 51.Rxb7, creating a second passed pawn. From there the win was trivial, as the b- and c-pawns can’t both be stopped and the knight on d5 perfectly glues White’s position together.
What an end to round 13.
Gukesh is the sole leader after Round 13. Fabi joins Naka and Nepo for second place — and Fabi and Nepo will meet once more — Fabi holding the White pieces! — and Naka will be doing his best to fight Gukesh for a win. There are so many possibilities and we have a non-zero chance of tiebreaks come Monday, if Gukesh draws (or if Naka wins) and somebody wins Fabi-Nepo. I’m still rooting for Fabi, but if Gukesh wins the Candidates, I wouldn’t be that bothered either. :)