Chess Candidates 2024 Highlights, Round 12: Gukesh, Vaishali gain wins; Praggnanandhaa holds Nepomniachtchi; Caruana beats Vidit

Vidit folds against Caruana. He had worked himself into a corner from where there was no escape. Caruana moves to 7 points and is well in the hunt for the top spot. 

Great escape for Tan Zhongyi as she salvages a draw against Salimova. That takes her to 8 points and gives her the sole lead of the tournament.

Vaishali promotes her pawn to a queen against Muzychuk. She will look to close out this game soon, with her opponent still having a pawn and a knight on board. 

Muzychuk soon folds. Vaishali gets her third win on the trot. 

Nakamura gets the better of Firouzja and moves to 7.5 points and level with Nepomniachtchi at the top of the standings. 

Pragg vs Nepo ends in a draw. Nepomniachtchi adds another half a point to his kitty to make it 7.5. 

Vidit makes another mistake against Caruana as he goes Qf4. But Caruana returns the favour by playing Bf5. Is that the break Vidit needed?

Abasov errs under pressure. Gukesh has another win in his reach. 

In his hurry to get his 40th move in, Abasov makes a mistake, opening up the game for Gukesh, who now pins the white bishop with his rook. 

Abasov under a bit of time pressure now. He has to get in five moves in less than five minutes to get to the second time control. 

Inaccuracy from Vidit as he pushes his knight c6 attacking the white rook. Caruana responds by realigning his rook to put pressure on black’s queen. This game is fast slipping away from Vidit’s reach. 

Lagno and Tingjie settle for a draw after a threefold repetition. That takes Tingjie to 7.5 and tentatively level with Tan Zhongyi at the top of the table.

Praggnanandhaa gets to move 40 and adds another 30 minutes to his clock against Nepo. 

Vaishali closing in on another win after forcing Muzychuk into making another ill-advised move. The Indian GM should see it off from here. 

Abaov goes Bishop to g2, which is contrary to the computer’s suggestion. Gukesh now has a chances to compound on the mistake. 

Caruana is slowly gaining an advantage against Vidit who suffered a gut-wrenching loss to Nepomniachtchi in the last round. The American is on the move here and looks to pounce against the Indian. 

Humpy had a big edge over Goryachkina but she went for a three-fold repetition and drew her game. The only possible explanation would be an oversight from the experienced Indian. 

Salimova has another chance against Zhongyi after the latter miscalculated her pawn push in the b-file. 

The dark-squared bishop and one set of knight have also been exchanged in the Pragg vs Nepomniachtchi game and we are heading to a rook and knight endgame. 

Goryachkina retreats her rook back to d1 and now the engine is giving a big advantage to Humpy. 

Pragg accepts the queens’ trade and it’s going to be a long game by all the looks of it. 

Nepomniachtchi offers queen exchange and Pragg 7is thinking whether to trade the strongest pieces on the board or go for some other move. 

Humpy did not find the best move after Goryachkina played Knight to c4 and the position has been equalised yet again. 

Nurgyul Salmova has some initiative against leader Tan Zhongyi. The Chinese is leading the pack with 7.5 points in 11 rounds. 

Goryachkina’s knight to c4 move is a positional inaccuracy which means Humpy could strike back with black pieces here. 

Nijat Abasov is feeling the heat against Gukesh or in GM Judit Polgar’s words -- “White pawns are terrible.” Gukesh has two pawn islands while Abasov has awkward doubled pawns in the c file which can be a threat to him later on. 

Lei Tingjie is challenging Tan Zhongyi’s throne as she is pressing hard against Kateryna Lagno with black pieces and has a better position to play now. 

Gukesh used 36 minutes to play his last two moves. The board is heating up now. 

Current position

Muzychuk denies the queen’s trade offered by Vaishali on the 16th move. 

The gap in the clock between Muzychuk and Vaishali has widened! The Indian has a time advantage of nearly 40 minutes now. This is amazing as Muzychuk will only have a little more than 50 minutes to play 24 moves in order to reach 40 moves. 

Caruana is looking for a central break after pushing d pawn. We can finally see the first exchange on board anytime now. 

Muzychuk has created an imbalance after taking a pawn and a bishop for her rook. She is eyeing to open her B-file and possibly putting pressure on black’s king with her dark-squared bishop. 

Nijat Abasov has already used 30 minutes while Gukesh has been blitzing out his moves till now. Does that mean Gukesh has caught the Azerbaijani in his opening? Possibly! 

The Catalan opening has been played in the Humpy vs Aleksandra Goryachkina board where the latter is yet to grab a pawn back from the Indian. 

Anna Muzychuk has handed a healthy 20-minute lead to Vaishali and it has only been 11 moves in the game. Vaishali has a bishop pair for Muzychuk’s knight-bishop duo. 

A standard e4-e5 start in the Vidit vs Caruana game. The American castles on the kingside on the fourth move as the game proceedings into a Giuoco Piano game. 

It’s a symmetrical start to the game until Nepomniachtchi’s a-file pawn push against Praggnanadhaa. Another French Defense on the board. 

Nimzo-Indian Defense game in the Gukesh vs Abasov board where the Indian has the black pieces.

And the 12th round starts with the French game in the Hikaru vs Firouzja game. 

So if you don’t know, there is a 15-minute delay in all the official broadcasts of the games to ensure anti-cheating measures. The live board will be activated at 12:15 IST.

Open Category

1. Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) - 7.0 

2. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) - 6.5 

3. D Gukesh (IND) - 6.5 

4. Fabiano Caruana (USA) - 6.0 

5. R Praggnanandhaa (IND) - 5.5 

6. Vidit Gujrathi (IND) - 5.0 

7. Alireza Firouzja (FRA) - 4.5 

8. Nijat Abasov (AZE) - 3.0 

Women’s Category

1. Tan Zhongyi (CHN) - 7.5 

2. Lei Tingjie (CHN) - 7.0 

3. Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) - 5.5 

4. Koneru Humpy (IND) - 5.5 

5. Kateryna Lagno (RUS) - 5.5 

6. Anna Muzychuk (UKR) - 4.5 

7. R. Vaishali (IND) - 4.5 

8. Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) - 4.0

Where to watch the live stream of the Candidates 2024 chess?

The live streaming of the Candidates 2024 will be available on the FIDE YouTube channel.

Which TV channel will broadcast the Candidates 2024 chess?

There has been no official announcement for the broadcasting of the Candidates 2024 in India.

Open

Hikaru Nakamura- Alireza Firouzja 

Nijat Abasov - Gukesh D 

Fabiano Caruana - Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Praggnanandhaa R

Women’s

Kateryna Lagno - Lei Tingjie 

Anna Muzychuk - Vaishali Rameshbabu 

Aleksandra Goryachkina - Humpy Koneru 

Nurgyul Salimova - Tan Zhongyi 

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s live coverage of the 12th round of the FIDE Candidates Chess 2024 tournament, happening in Toronto on Friday. Stay tuned as we bring you all the live updates.