Chess Candidates 2024 Highlights, Round 7: Vidit, Praggnanandhaa, Humpy settle for draws; Firouzja beats Gukesh; Vaishali loses to Tingjie

And we have the final result of the day. Vidit and Abasov settle for a draw. 

Praggnanandhaa and Caruana decides that it is enough. It is a draw. 1/2 a point for both. 

And the queens are off the table. Seems like we are heading into the endgame. Firouzja looks to have clawed his way back into the game with some smart moves. And now Gukesh fails to get his 40th move inside the required time. Firouzja gets the win. 

Vidit vs Abasov encounter gets over the 40-move mark and hence 30 more minutes have been added to the clock for both players. 

Tingjie keeps making the right move after right move and finally Vaishali folds. Another disappointing defeat for the Indian contender. 

Tan Zhongyi and Aleksandra Goryachkina settle for a draw. That means Zhongyi continues her stay atop the women’s standings, while Goryachkina is still second. 

Vidit goes Rook to d6 as he looks to put pressure on Abasov’s kingside. But that move causes the eval bar to go for a toss. Stockfish points out that Vidit’s advantage dropped from -1.67 to 0.00

No signs of easing off in the Praggnanandhaa vs Caruana contest. The Indian doubles down on Caruana’s c2 rook with his own rook. 

Suddenly so much happening in all the boards at the same time. Firouzja’s rook to a1 puts Gukesh in a favourable position. 

Vaishali’s queen-b8 move instantly messes up her position against Lei Tingjie. Looks very tough to save this position. 

The search for a first win for Humpy continues as she draws her game with Anna Muzychuk with mutual agreement on the 40th move. 

VIdit finally gets some reprieve. Abasov makes an inaccuracy and the engine favours Vidit by +1.50. 

Humpy trades queens and now it’s definitely heading to a clear draw against Anna Muzychuk. 

Gukesh is not able to play fast. His 30 minutes time advantage has fizzled out and the Frenchman is continuously putting pressure with accurate moves. 

The tables have turned in the Vaishali and Lei Tingjie game. It is the Indian who is in down on the clock now. 

Ian Nepomniachtchi holds Hikaru Nakamura to a draw after playing a brilliancy. He continues to hold his lead on the leaderboard. 

Wow! Ian Nepomniachtchi has sacked his bishop and looks like he will be able to hold Hikaru with perpetual checks. 

Hikaru has lost all of his advantage against Nepomniachtchi after playing a4. 

The game between Humpy and Muzychuk has simplified with one set of rooks being changed. Queen and one set of rooks are left on the board as the game seems to be heading towards a draw. 

Caruana’s rook to b1 gives Pragg a slight advantage in the position and his edge over white has increased to +0.57 from +0.19. 

Praggnanandhaa advances his a-file pawn, looking to open his extreme file. Caruana takes the pawn and the Indian takes it back instantly. 

We’re just 20 moves into the Vidit vs Abasov game and the Indian has already used his 75 per cent of the time. Difficult times ahead for Vidit. 

The clash of leaders of the Women’s Candidates between first-place Tan Zhongyi and second-place Aleksandra Goryachkina is heavily skewed in favour of the Chinese. She has more than 35 extra minutes on the clock.

Vidit needs to be a bit careful now. He is consuming a lot of his time on each move. 

Hikaru is slowly building up on his edge. The engine now favours him by + 0.69

Hikaru has a 50-minute time advantage over Ian Nepomniachtchi. The American is an exchange up and holds a slight edge in this position. Can he beat unstoppable Nepo in this round to open the race? 

Vidit castles on the short side after thinking for 13 minutes He is already 30 minutes down against Abasov. 

Heathy time advantage for Vaishali who has over 1 hour and 23 minutes on the clock while her Chinese opponent Tingjie is under an hour now. 

Nepo goes for the rook exchange. Although Hikaru is an exchange up and has taken one extra rook from his opponent but the engines believe it to be an equal position. 

Vidit trades his dark bishop but Abasov has double pawns in the e-file. 

Hikaru forces Nepomniachtchi to think deeply in a complex position. The question here is whether the Russian will exchange the rooks on the e-file or not. 

Playing with white pieces, Lei Tingjie is taking her time against Vaishali. She has spent nearly 20 minutes on her last three moves. 

Caruana trades his knight for Pragg’s light-squared bishop as the position continues to be stable after the first 14 moves. 

Hikaru chops off Nepomniachtchi’s rook in the 16th move in Petrov’s Defense game and we could see an exciting game here with material imbalance right from the start. 

Muzychuk offers a dark-squared bishop exchange and Humpy instantly accepts it in the Morphy Defense of Ruy Lopez game. 

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Ruy Lopez in the Vidit vs Abasov game is being played, while it’s an Indian defense game in the Gukesh vs Firouzja board. 

We’re off to an exciting start in the open category. Praggnanandhaa plays an advanced version of the French Defense against Fabiano Caruana, who has the white pieces. 

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) - 4.0 

2. D Gukesh (IND) - 4.0 

3. Fabiano Caruana (USA) - 3.5 

4. R Praggnanandhaa (IND) - 3.5 

5. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) - 3.0 

6. Vidit Gujrathi (IND) - 3.0 

7. Nijat Abasov (AZE) - 1.5 

8. Alireza Firouzja (FRA) - 1.5

Women’s Category

1. Tan Zhongyi (CHN) - 4.5 

2. Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) - 4.0 

3. Kateryna Lagno (RUS) - 3.5 

4. Lei Tingjie (CHN) - 3.0 

5. Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) - 2.5 

6. R. Vaishali (IND) - 2.5 

7. Anna Muzychuk (UKR) - 2.0 

8. Koneru Humpy (IND) - 2.0

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

Alireza Firouzja - D Gukesh 

Hikaru Nakamura - Ian Nepomniachtchi 

Nijat Abasov - Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 

Fabiano Caruana - Praggnanandhaa R 

Women’s

Vaishali Rameshbabu - Lei Tingjie 

Kateryna Lagno - Nurgyul Salimova 

Koneru Humpy - Anna Muzychuk 

Tan Zhongyi - Aleksandra Goryachkina

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s live Coverage of the FIDE Chess Candidates 2024 round seven actions happening in Toronto, Canada on Friday. Stay tuned as we bring you all the live updates.