FIDE Candidates 2024 Round 3

It was kind of a quiet day for the Candidates with the exception of some particular fireworks that happened, featuring the very prepared Indians Praggnanandhaa and Vidit.

Gukesh D - Ian Nepomniachtchi

We got into what appeared to me to be a pretty normal Catalan, where Ian defended well and Gukesh had just a slight edge until the end of the game when the players agreed to a draw. Overall Nepo defended well and Gukesh wasn’t able to get anything out of the game

Nijat Abasov - Hikaru Nakamura

Abasov reportedly wasn’t feeling good so he played an Exchange Slav, and shortly went into a repetition shortly thereafter. As both players lost a game yesterday, this probably represents a good chance to recuperate and regain a little bit more energy for the next day

Alireza Firouzja - Fabiano Caruana

This Candidates cycle we keep getting interesting Sicilians!

The game itself wasn’t too interesting, as pieces were quickly traded off and the game ended via repetition, but somehow I feel openings like this will find their way into the online chess meta.

Vidit Gujrathi - Praggnanandhaa R

The big one. Things were looking like a normal Ruy Lopez by Vidit when Pragg deviated from all restraint and played the Schliemann Defense Deferred (!?)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 f5!?

After an opening inaccuracy by Vidit, Pragg got a nice playable position with a massive advantage on the clock by move 11, where Vidit was down by 40 minutes. Pragg started spending more time, but he clearly had a nice position with a lot of activity. Vidit used his extra pawn to establish a passer, but time pressure continued to be an issue, and as both players hurtled toward the time control to get an extra 30 minutes after move 40, Vidit’s position continued to deteriorate, as he entered a very lost double-rook and pawn endgame down too many pawns. Pragg picked up the win pretty quickly thereafter.

This game reflects the general contemporary advice regarding openings: Anything is playable. The Delayed Schliemann should be basically refuted, but if you have strong prep and can surprise your opponent, then in very critical games like this, it can make all the difference. Pragg’s advantage on the clock continued to produce insidiously torturous pressure on his opponent, and Vidit started to crack. This is an excellent bounce back for Pragg, and it remains to be seen if Vidit is also able to bounce back from this loss so soon after a dazzling win against Hikaru Nakamura in the previous round.

Lastly I wanted to draw some attention to the following game from the Women’s Candidates:

Lei Tingjie - Aleksandra Goryachkina

Lei opened with the Italian, and after Goryachkina responded with the Giuoco Piano, we got to see a rare sight in grandmaster chess: The Evans Gambit!

Goryachkina went for a well-known solid line: 4…Bxb4 5.c3 Be7 6.d4 Na5!, kicking the bishop from its active square to e2. I felt like Lei had a bit of initiative in the middlegame, but Goryachkina defended perfectly and neutralized White’s play, and the game ended in a draw. It was just nice to see such a romantic opening in the upper echelons of modern chess play:

Nick