The Candidates 2024 tournament witnessed an uneventful opening day as seven of the eight opening matches ended in a draw on Friday in Toronto, Canada.
A see at the comes about, appearing a draw on all four sheets, might effortlessly delude one into accepting that there was a premium on fervor in the opening circular of the FIDE Candidates 2024 in Toronto. Well, the truth was distant from it.
Hard-fought fights, compatriots going for each other’s throats, a few resolved resistance and more. In the long run, when the tidy settled down on the war zone, each player cleared out The Fantastic Lobby with a few positives, getting off the stamp being the greatest of them.
The pairings were outlined in a way to guarantee players from the same nation played each other early in each half of the twofold round-robin arrange. That implied Vidit Gujrathi and D. Gukesh were included in a furious fight where no quarter was given, none inquired for.
On a day when best seed Fabiano Caruana missed his chances against individual American and moment seed Hikaru Nakamura, R. Praggnanandhaa demonstrated break even with to the much-acclaimed Alireza Firouzja. Lowest-rated Nijat Abasov picked up a few more regard for the way he managed with two-time protecting winner Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Playing dark, Vidit had Gukesh on the cautious after deforming his kingside pawn structure taking after a knight-trade. This implied Gukesh may not advance with the regular arrange of castling on the kingside. Vidit did oversee to bring up sufficient assets to drive Gukesh to keep his ruler on the beginning piece indeed after the queenside pawns were off the board.
Gukesh claimed a central pawn on the 13th move, but Vidit’s position proceeded to show up sound.
However, on the 17th turn, Vidit came up with a unusual bishop-offer on the kingside. Gukesh shrewdly picked to oust Vidit’s ruler, and a three-fold redundancy of moves taken after that brought a or maybe untimely conclusion in fair 21 moves. This amusement unquestionably held the potential to offer much more.
Praggnanandhaa came out as an amazing entertainer against the higher-rated match from France. Playing dark, Praggnanandhaa went for the castled white lord with his ruler and rooks. Firzouja had no inconvenience summoning his assets to foil the youthful Indian. Praggnanandhaa intelligently yielded both knights to drive a draw by ceaseless checks.
Playing white, Caruana missed a winning continuation after Nakamura’s unusual rook-offer on the 23rd move where he captured a pawn with an unprotected rook. Caruana found the right move by choosing not to capture the dark rook but failed before long. Nakamura recaptured his composure and guarded precisely to rescue half a point.
The Abasov-Nepomniachtchi fight seen a arrangement of trades driving to a rook-pawn endgame. Here, the players rehashed rook moves to conclusion their challenge, taking off the Russian feeling fine with a draw from the dark pieces and Abasov satisfied with an unbeaten begin. Know More Latest Chess Sports News…
First-round results (Indians unless stated): D. Gukesh drew with Vidit Gujrathi in 21 moves in Tarrasch Defence; Alireza Firouzja (Fra) drew with R. Praggnanandhaa in 39 moves in Ruy Lopez Open; Fabiano Caruana (USA) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA) in 41 moves in Sicilian Defence; Nijat Abasov (Aze) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE) in 34 moves in Queen’s Gambit.
Second-round pairings: Praggnanandhaa-Gukesh; Nakamura-Vidit; Nepomniachtchi-Firouzja; Caruana-Abasov.
