FIDE Candidates 2024 Round 1
Looking at some moments I found interesting.
I love when a big tournament is going on, and the stakes are hardly higher for any non-World Championship than the Candidates Tournament which decides the next contender for the title. This is where people really seem to cut loose with interesting plans and ideas, uncork theoretical computer-approved (or at least computer-mended) novelties.
Here were a few of my favorite moments from Round 1:
Fabiano Caruana - Hikaru Nakamura
We were treated to a rather interesting sight: The notoriously solid and consistent Nakamura had basically stuck to 1…e5 in the 2022 FIDE Candidates tournament, and played rock-solid chess against the Spanish opening, though he lost in the first round to Caruana back then. This time, on round 1, against his American compatriot and probable favorite to win the tournament, Naka played a d6-Sicilian, signaling that we were in for some fighting chess. Naka wanted to play for a win!
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3
5…e5!?
This is an extremely rare choice, and is generally considered to be theoretically dubious because of White’s (and Caruana’s) reply:
6.Bb5!
Black’s system is so thrown into doubt here that for this exact reason, the Najdorf Variation (5…a6) exists to prevent 6.Bb5. White should have a comfortable advantage because of the pressure against Black’s King and the time gained for the move Nf4, which is exactly what Fabi went for. But as time went on, it became clear that Nakamura had been very successful in surprising Caruana in the opening and he amassed a huge advantage on his clock.
Later in the game after 13.O-O, the game reached a very interesting moment for Nakamura, who may have just left his preparation:
Naka played the very strong 13…e4! here. It opens up the dark square bishop on the long diagonal, and gains a little space for his pieces in the center. Fabi responded well:
14.Nxe4 Nxe4 15.Re1 O-O 16.Rxe4 Bxb2 17.Rb1
If White has an edge here, it’s pretty slight. The opposite-color bishops are an important feature in the position, because this feature often leads to drawn endgames especially if all the major pieces are swapped off.
A few moves later, Nakamura fell victim to “Long Think Wrong Think” and burned 20 minutes off of his clock, having started with just under an hour vs Fabi’s 30 — a significant advantage since there wasn’t an increment for the first 40 moves. White is winning a pawn either way, but Black had a choice of how to play.
Naka’s 22...Bc3? allowed Fabi to win a pawn under superior conditions via 23.Rxb5, with additional pressure on the d5-pawn. According to Stockfish, 22…Qe7! was best, where the desired 23.Rxb5?? fails due to 23…Qe2!, when White’s rook blocks the queen from the defense of the kingside and White is liable to a back-rank mate or an obligatory queen sacrifice to stay in the game.
However, immediately after Fabiano won the pawn, Nakamura, in a difficult position, had managed to find an extremely powerful sacrifice to stay in the game.
23…Rxf2!!
20 minutes of calculation justified by one beautiful move! The spoilsport says Rf6 was a better choice, but you have to give Naka points for style here. The rook is clearly immune: 24.Kxf2? Qh4+! and perpetual check is incoming, because of how weak the kingside is on the dark squares. This is one of the interesting effects of the opposite color bishops in this game, since White’s light-squared bishop has no potential defend the king
Fabi continued to consolidate his position well, and things were looking well until a mistake on move 28:
Here Fabi played 28.Rf5? and after an eventual trade of rooks, White’s king was too weak to escape the attack on the dark squares, which prevented him from making further progress, so the players agreed to a draw on move 41. It was kind of a bummer because Fabi definitely had all the chances to win from this position and Nakamura could only defend, but it’s just like Hikaru to fiercely defend slightly worse position this well, waiting for an impatient mistake to equalize the game. This feels like an important moral victory for Naka, especially since the result is an improvement and not a repeat of the 2022 Candidates; whereas I’m interested to see how Fabi fares in the rest of the tournament — will this game’s result psychologically affect him negatively or is he going to stay cool and keep playing his best?
Nijat Abasov - Ian Nepomniachtchi
It was an interesting Queen’s Gambit Declined with a typical isolated queen’s pawn. I’ll just post a gif of this one.
Abasov had a very solid showing, and while maybe Nepo had a few chances to go for more, he kept his cool and things ended in a repetition. Since Abasov is by far the singular Dark Horse of this tournament, it was cool to see him walk (or limp?) away with no real scratches. Nepo appeared visibly annoyed at the idea of a draw, but neither player had anything better, and both players likely played about as accurate as they could have hoped:
Alireza Firouzja - Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
One of three Indian phenoms in this Candidates cycle, Pragg put on an incredible display against the daring Alireza Firouzja in an Open Ruy Lopez, showing that he was ready to put up a strong fight and go for the initiative. In the middlegame Alireza allowed Pragg to double his f-pawns in order to open the g-file and put pressure down the kingside.
White was maybe slightly better, but Alireza made a slight inaccuracy that allowed the initiative to turn to Pragg, who began to open up the position for himself on the kingside. Things started to look just a bit shaky for White after 26.Qg3:
From here Pragg began to turn the screws a bit. White isn’t losing but it felt like Black was a lot more comfortable.
A bit later, Pragg’s initiative was really starting to turn up, but he also made some inaccuracies, the biggest of which was 30…Qh5?!, but Alireza, like Pragg, was getting low on time and returned the favor with 31.Nxe6?, missing Reg2 with mounting pressure against the Black kingside with a devastating f5-push incoming. With their clocks getting low on time, Pragg went for a repetition-in-hand against the White king with a couple sacrifices to secure the game by perpetual check.
Gukesh Dommaraju - Vidit Gujrathi
While their compatriot faced off against former prodigy Firouzja, the other two Indian candidates met each other over the board in a very Gukesh-looking Semi-Tarrasch:
Vidit temporarily sacrificed a pawn to try to create some threats against White’s King, but Gukesh defended well. Then came a very fascinating moment:
Here Vidit spent 40 minutes, contemplating how to continue the game. Vidit played:
17…Bg4!?
Sacrificing a piece on an empty square! At first this move looks wild, but it makes sense: The position is pretty good for Black: Safe king, open queenside, uncoordinated enemy pieces (especially the kingside bishop and rook which are still sleeping!), a weak enemy passed pawn, and a passed b-pawn of his own. The one issue is the lack of connection between his rooks, and in particular, the White queen is in a slightly weak position. What Black wants is a rook on c8, pressuring the queen and preventing the defensive move Bc3. There’s a problem: Black’s bishop is on c8. So Vidit decides on this clearance sacrifice, hoping to play Rfc8 next.
Accepting the gift bishop is fatal: 18.fxg4?? Rfc8 19.Qd3 Ra1+ 20.Bxa1 Rc1+ 21.Ke2 e4! and White’s queen is trapped:
Gukesh is a smart guy, and declined the sacrifice, instead opting for 18.Bc3, and after 18…Qa3, the game ended in a repetition of moves: 19.Bb2 Qb4 20.Bc3 Qa3 1/2-1/2.
Overall every game ended in a draw this round, but the moral winners were definitely, in my view anyway, Nakamura, Praggnanandhaa, and Abasov. I’m very much looking forward to even more awesome chess come tomorrow. Thanks for reading! Give me your thoughts about the games in the comments below!
- Nick
Nice recap