Chess Candidates 2024, Round 6 Highlights: Pragg beats Abasov; Vidit beats Firouzja; Gukesh draws vs Nakamura; Humpy, Vaishali lose

Open

Gukesh D 0.5-0.5 Hikaru Nakamura 

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 1-0 Alireza Firouzja 

Praggnanandhaa R 1-0 Nijat Abasov 

Ian Nepomniachtchi 0.5-0.5 Fabiano Caruana 

Women’s

Vaishali Rameshbabu 0- 1 Kateryna Lagno

Humpy Koneru 0- 1 Lei Tingjie

Tan Zhongyi 1-0 Anna Muzychuk 

Nurgyul Salimova 0- 1 Aleksandra Goryachkina

Aleksandra Goryachkina beats Nurgyul Salimova as all four games in the women’s Candidates gave a decisive result today. 

Humpy resigns on the 48th move against Lei Tingjie and her poor forms continue in the Candidates 2024. 

Nijat Abasov resigns in the 45th move and we have the second result in favour of Indian. Praggnanandhaa grabs his second win of the tournament. 

Another mistake from Abasov which makes rook trade inevitable and this game could anytime now. 

Humpy took a pawn back but her position is pretty much lost. 

Humpy is in a serious trouble against Lei Tingjie. She gets the 30 additional minutes after the 40th move but her opponent’s pawn is running towards her territory and it’s not easy to stop them. 

40 moves are up and Gukesh offers a handshake which Hikaru Nakamura accepts without any second thought. Gukesh joins Nepomniachtchi with 4.0 points while Nakamura now has 3.0 points from the first six rounds. 

The queens have been exchanged in the Gukesh vs Nakamura game. It’s heading to a quiet draw unless any of the players want to take some chances in the rook endgame. 

Tan Zhongyi is just unstoppable. She strikes yet again and beats Anna Muzychuk in this round to grab her third win of the tournament. She is expanding her lead from the rest of the pack. 

Pragg makes a couple of inaccurate moves and suddenly his advantage seems to have gone. 

Pragg pushes his pawn to f6 after Abasov retreats his bishop back to b8 square, giving the Indian a favourable position. 

Firouzja finally folds and Vidit gets his second win of Candidates 2024. Vidit pounced whenever Firouzja erred and made sure to drive the hard-earned advantage home. 

Vidit is under some serious time crunch. But he continues to make the right moves to hold onto his advantage. 

Lagno makes her advantage count. Vaishali has no choice but to resign, with her opponents in a far superior position. 

Vidit manages to capture a rook from Firouzja. But the Frenchman has managed to claw back a semblance of a position. 

Praggnanandhaa is finding it increasingly harder to break down Abasov’s defence. His advantage has dwindled down to just +0.15. 

Lagno has the match in her palm after Vaishali makes a few miscalculations. There seems to be no way back for the Indian now. 

Humpy has managed to create a foothold for herself in the game. She has two knights in the middle of the board, but Tingjie has a decent time advantage in her favour. 

Tingjie takes Humpy by surprise by making a rook trade and the game is back in the balance. 

Abasov has managed to keep Pragg from running away with this game. The Indian though holds a slight advantage after his 19th move. 

Gukesh pushes a bishop in support of the e5 pawn as the battle intensifies. A win will give him the outright lead in the tournament. 

Once again, Vidit has found the right move. He pushes his pawn to e5, putting pressure on Firouzji’s defence in the centre. 

Caurana and Nepo race to the 40-move cut off and immediately shake hands. This has to be one of the earliest draws of this tournament. 

Vaishali has lost the initiative against Lagno, who now has a slender lead as per Chess.com’s eval bar. 

Firouzja’s decision to play Queen to f2 has put this game completely in Vidit’s control. The Indian will look to seal the deal soon. 

Vidit finds the right move and it is Firouzja who is under pressure to salvage position in this game. 

And we still have all pieces on board for Humpy vs Tingjie. The Chinese will be the happier of the two, having negated Humpy’s advantage with the white pieces. 

Both Praggnanandhaa and Abasov castle to the shorter side. Both have lost just two pawns each. 

Firouzja errs! He goes Bishop b7, which was not one the best moves as per Chess.com. Vidit has a +1.28 advantage and can seal it by castling to the longer side and he does just that. 

Caruana vs Nepo heading to an early finish. The two players are happy to offload pieces in a hurry. Just a bishop and two rooks left on the board for both - and an equal number of pawns. And now there is a rook trade. 

Pragg puts pressure on Abasov’s queen with knight to a4. Abasov is under tremendous pressure early on in the game. 

Nearly flawless game from Vidit so far. 100% accuracy so far, as per Chess.com. But once again, he is at fault for dwelling too long on moves early on. Firouzja has more than 20 minutes on the clock. 

Gukesh castles to the short side, early on. He has a chance to work his way into a good position here. 

Vaishali has forced a Ruy Lopez game against Lagno and has now forced her opponents into a deep ponder to make move 11. 

All pieces still on board for both Humpy and Tingjie as the two create a muddled centre of the board. It is the King’s Indian Defense to start the game with. Humpy is in dire need of a win. 

Gukesh quickly works himself into a position of great potential. He trades a bishop for a knight, having cut through Hikaru’s right flank. 

Sicilian defence for the opening of the Vidit vs Firouzja encounter. Both players stick to the expected lines to kickstart the proceedings. 

Pragg vs Abasov starts off with a Tarrasch Defense structure. The two players put together a crowded centre of the board. 

Round 6 action begins. 

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. 

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

FIDE Candidates 2024: Follow for all updates and highlights from the fifth round of the FIDE Candidates tournament, happening in Toronto, Canada on Wednesday.

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Open

Alireza Firouzja - Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

D Gukesh - Hikaru Nakamura

Nijat Abasov - Praggnanandhaa R

Fabiano Caruana - Ian Nepomniachtchi

Women’s

Vaishali Rameshbabu - Kateryna Lagno

Koneru Humpy - Lei Tingjie

Tan Zhongyi - Anna Muzychuk

Nurgyul Salimova - Aleksandra Goryachkina

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s Live Blog of the sixth round of the FIDE Candidates 2024, happening at the Great Hall in Toronto, Canada on April 11, Thursday (IST). Stay tuned as we bring you all the live action