Chess Candidates 2024, Round 5 Highlights: Gukesh beats Abasov; Pragg holds Nepomniachtchi; Vidit draws with Caruana; Humpy, Vaishali games end in draw

Open

Alireza Firouzja 0- 1 Hikaru Nakamura

Gukesh D 1-0 Nijat Abasov 

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 0..5-0.5 Fabiano Caruana 

Praggnanandhaa R 0..5-0.5 Ian Nepomniachtchi

Women’s

Lei Tingjie 0..5-0.5 Kateryna Lagno

Vaishali Rameshbabu 0..5-0.5 Anna Muzychuk

Humpy Koneru 0..5-0.5 Aleksandra Goryachkina

Tan Zhongyi 0..5-0.5 Nurgyul Salimova

Here we go! Gukesh wins the marathon game! Beats Abasov to join Nepo on top of leaderboards. 

Candidates 2024: Gukesh beats Abasov in round five, joins leader Nepomniachtchi on top

Candidates 2024: D. Gukesh beats Nijat Abasov in the fifth round to become joint-leader of the tournament.

Wait...the match has more twists left. Abasov makes another mistake and this time Gukesh finds the winning move. He is threatening checkmate here and it’s pretty much over for the Azerbaijani. 

Noo...Gukesh played king f5 which is again takes the position to a drawn one. 

Oh my god! Abasov blunders and it’s winning again for Gukesh. Queen to c5 is the only winning move for Gukesh here. 

Looks like Gukesh has somehow managed to mess up his position. The players have exchanged the queens but have promoted their extreme pawns to queen just a few moves later. 

It’s a complicated endgame and the bar shows the game is equal, yet again. Abasov will need to play cautiously if he needs to save the game. 

The current position looks very promising for Gukesh now after Abasov pushed his g pawn to fifth rank. 

Big news coming in! Hikaru Nakamura beats Alireza Firouzja, claiming his first victory of the Candidates 2024. A much-needed win for the World No. 3 after the Frenchman blundered in the endgame. 

Gukesh creates an outside past pawn after playing bxa4. He still has some chances to win this game from this position. 

Still, a faint chance for Gukesh to convert this game being a pawn up with white pieces, but looks like we will get to see another draw. 

The pawn and the rook have been exchanged in the Gukesh vs Abasov game and we are heading to Queen’s endgame which means the game will go on for a little while longer than we thought. 

Oh my god, Gukesh blunders. He is not losing but not winning instantly. Abasov can get counterplay after Gukesh’s knight-to-e4 move. 

Another blow and Abasov is just losing after his rook to g5 move. Gukesh will join Nepomniachtchi with 3.5 points if he converts this position. 

Gukesh takes the pawn at D3 Square and then plays the next best move to gain a significant advantage in the position. 

The game between Tan Zhongyi and Nurgyul Salimova also ended in a draw as all four games in the women’s category failed to give any decisive result in the fifth round. 

Abasov plays Knight C6 which essentially gives Gukesh the chance to go a pawn up, yet again. 

Vaishali holds Muzychuk to a comfortable draw even after being a pawn down. So four Indians have drawn their games with Gukesh being the only one left in the fray today. 

Abasov chops off Gukesh’s extra pawn by playing knight takes c5. 17 minutes left for Gukesh. 

Another result! Koneru Humpy exchanged the dark bishop before the knight and agreed to a draw against Aleksandra Goryachkina to get 0.5 points from this matchup. 

As expected, Ian Nepomniachi and Praggnanandhaa mutually agreed to a draw on the 44th move. The Indian will be disappointed with this result after letting go of his early advantage to beat the tournament leader. The Russian, meanwhile, continue to be the sole leader of the tournament. 

Oh...so much drama unfolded in the Gukesh vs Abasov game before the 40th move. Gukesh played Qg2, an inaccuracy and Abasov quickly responded with the knight to e6, intending to win the c5 pawn before getting exchanged. It’s an equal game now. 

Lei Tingjie, who was completely winning her game against Kateryna Lagno made a blunder by playing her queen to d3 and lost all her advantage and eventually, they both agreed to a draw on the 45th move. 

Only three pawns and a rook left on both sides in the Praggnanandhaa and Nepomniachtchi game. This game is heading towards a dead draw. 

Gukesh didn’t play the best move (probably g4) and he’s feeling the heat now. 

Gukesh only has 1 minute and 51 seconds on the clock against Abasov with six more moves yet to be played to reach the 40th move. He’s holding the advantage in the current position but needs to be careful about his clock. 

Vidit gives perpetual checks to Caruana and it is drawn by repetition. Uuf, another disappointing result for the Indian, especially considering the advantage he had once. 

Goryachkina offers bishop exchange, it looks like the game will end in a draw, not a result that Humpy would have wanted. 

40 moves up in the Vaishali vs Anna Muzychuk game. Although Vaishali is a pawn down but with the rook pair and a knight, she should be able to hold it. 

Just as we speak, Vidit played queen to e5, which instantly nullifies his big advantage. The engines now show + 0.13 in Vidit’s favour which was earlier at + 3.38.

An array of inaccurate moves from Caruana and Vidit now has a promising position. 

Vaishali feeling the time pinch against Muzychuk, who is now holding a better position on the board too. 

Caruana plays Rook to a4 and Gukesh responds with Bishop to d4, putting pressure on the g7 pawn. Advantage Gukesh now. 

Caruana errs by going e5 and Vidit finds the right move by sliding queen across the board, pinning the e5 pawn onto the black queen. 

Gukesh goes Rook to e1 to setup a full on attack. Abasov responds by opening up a space for his king to escape. 

Vaishali vs Muzychuk hangs in balance. The Indian has just +0.12 advantage heading into the 24th move. She will have to play out of her skin to force a win today, from this situation. 

Abasov has caused himself no harm by running a solid game so far. Gukesh is forced to stretch to crack this game open. He has a 12-minute advantage in his hand though. 

Goryachkina has a one-pawn advantage against Humpy and she now moves her rook into a really promising position. Humpy is the one under pressure now. 

Caruana has 20 minutes on the clock against Vidit. But the Indian GM has a better position on the board. Only time will tell if he can convert that into a win. 

Pragg goes Bishop to f5, which brings his advantage crashing down from +2.55 to +0.67. Is that the opening for Nepo to make a comeback here?

Abasov finds himself bang level against Gukesh, who will be ruing his inability to make the white advantage count. But he still has a lot of time to make amends. 

Nothing much to separate Humpy and Goryachkina after the queen trade. Goryachkina will be the happier of the two considering she has a time advantage and positional balance despite playing with black. 

Vidit recalibrates and take a minor advantage in his game against Caruana. He castles to the long side with his knight primed for action in front. 

Pragg goes Rook to d5, putting pressure on the Nepo’s Queen. The Russian had a golden chance to turn the tables on Pragg by going Bishop to h2. But he goes knight to c5, completely giving the control of the game to the Indian. 

Caruana offers a queen trade to Vidit. But the Indian GM hits back with a bishop attack and Caruana retreats his queen. The game is firmly in balance. 

Pragg sacs his knight! He forces Nepo to bring out his king to take the knight. Is that the game-changing moment right there?

Another surprise move from Pragg. He goes Rook to d3, instead of checking. The computer projects his chances to have dipped based on that move - from +0.89 to +0.13. 

Vaishali has the game under control against Muzychuk, who hasn’t helped her cause by playing a few outside-the-line moves. 

Gukesh has worked himself into a solid position against Abasov. A win today could possibly take him to the top of the table. 

And Nepomniachtchi is still pondering. 30 minutes plus added to his clock. 

Queens are off the board as Goryachkina accepts Humpy’s trade offer. Goryachkina has a time advantage in her hand now. 

After a helter-skelter start to the game, Nepo decides to slow things down. He has gone past 23 minutes as he calculated his 19th move. The game is quite open and could possibly yield a result. 

Vidit takes his time with move seven. He is narrowly ahead of Caruana at this moment, but it is a slippery position for the Indian. Vidit goes for Bf4, which seems to have cut down his chances by a shade. 

Not the greatest start for Vaishali as she gives Anna Muzychuk an early grip in their Round 5 game. She foregoes a chance to castle to the short side and chooses to go with a4. 

Gukesh has a foothold in the middle of the board, with a knight to support. Both players have castled as Gukesh looks to crack Abasov’s defence open. 

Both Pragg and Nepo castle to the short side and are soon down by a knight each. The game has opened up quite well with the Russian driving his queen forward into his opponent’s half. 

Humpy brings out both her knights early on against Goryachkina. The game has developed into a Semi-Tarrasch Defense structure. 

Caruana brings out the Sicilian defence with black against Vidit, who is quick to trade off his bishop for a knight. 

And we are off for Round 5. Both Pragg vs Nepo and Gukesh vs Abasov begin with the Petrov’s defence. 

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

Alireza Firouzja - Hikaru Nakamura 

Gukesh D - Nijat Abasov 

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi - Fabiano Caruana 

Praggnanandhaa R - Ian Nepomniachtchi 

Women’s

Lei Tingjie - Kateryna Lagno 

Vaishali Rameshbabu - Anna Muzychuk 

Humpy Koneru - Aleksandra Goryachkina 

Tan Zhongyi - Nurgyul Salimova

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.

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FIDE Candidates 2024: Gallant Gukesh, plucky Praggnanandhaa and valiant Vidit impress in first four rounds

Despite making their debut in the competition, Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit have proved they truly belong at this level

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s Live Blog of the fourth round of the FIDE Candidates 2024, happening at the Great Hall in Toronto, Canada on April 10, Wednesday (IST). Stay tuned as we bring you all the live action