Chess Candidates 2024 Highlights, Round 3: Pragg beats Vidit; Gukesh gains a draw; Humpy draws vs Zhongyi; Vaishali wins

And it ends. Praggnanandhaa gets his first Candidates win. Pragg had his rook aligned and there was no escape for Vidit. 

Vidit offers a queen sacrifice to stay in the game. He has just 53 seconds on his clock. 

Pragg doesn’t take it as he moves his rook into attack. Vidit though sacs his queen. We are into a rook endgame. 

Vidit fights on, winning a pawn as Pragg pins down on the h-file. 

Caruana and Firouzja shake hands and that is a draw after a three-fold repetition. Caruana moves to two points and goes level with Gukesh and Nepo at the top of the table. 

Fabiano Caruana vs Alireza Firouzja continues to hang in balance, with both players looking for a foothold. Both players have under 10 minutes on the clock now. 

Vidit manages to squeeze in an excellent move, which looks set to precipitate an exciting end game. 

Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi settle for a draw. That put both of them on top of the leaderboard, tentatively. 

Salimova finally folds and Vaishali has her first win of the Candidates. 

Vaishali continues to pile on the pressure. She brings the second rook out to put another check in. Salimova quickly offers a rook sacrifice and Vaishali takes it. 

Anna Muzhychuk is on course to win her first game of the tournament. She is in a winning position against Kateryna Lagno. 

Gukesh missed a chance to press with the white piece with a rook on the board but he chose to exchange the piece. He still is in a favourable position with the bishop pair against black’s knight and bishop but converting this position against experienced Nepomniachtchi would not be easy. 

“I am not really satisfied with this result today. It is not about the draw, but I couldn’t continue with the game. I think she (Tan Zhongyi) is very well prepared, and I think I just failed out in outpreparing her.”

Oh my god, Salimova blunders. The Bulgarian offers her bishop which gives Vaishali a fair edge over her. 

Vaishali offers a full piece to Salimova and the latters take it. Vaishali is a knight down but she has enough compensation on the board but the low time would be a key factor here. 

Vaishali is making slow progress against Salimova and both players now have less than 25 minutes on the clock with just 13 moves being played. 

Big news for Indian chess! Arjun Erigaisi is the World No. 5 in the live ratings. He beat compatriot Aryan Chopra in the Menorca Open to gain 3.3 ratings and has a 2762.0 rating on the live rating list. 

Vidit now has only 34 minutes while Pragg has 1 hour 11 minutes with only 16 moves being played. 

Hikaru is repeating his moves against Abasov and are we going to see another draw? Yes, the clocks have been stopped and the arbiter confirms and the handshake happens as Abasov holds the World No. 3 to a draw with white pieces. 

And we have a result already! Humpy draws her game against Zhongyi with ease. 

Monk-like focus from Gukesh ahead of the third round against Ian Nepomniachtchi. 

Humpy is a pawn up against Tan Zhongyi who has over 91 minutes while the experienced Indian has half the time left if compared to her opponent. The match is heading to a rook endgame. 

Nijat Abasov is ahead on the clock against Hikaru Nakamura in a symmetrical position. 

Praggnanandhaa is blitzing his initial moves and looks to be in his preparation in this line. He has an accuracy of 99.2 while Vidit, who has white pieces has only 77 minutes on the clock, also his accuracy is only 96.9 per cent as of now. 

Meanwhile, Gukesh is over 30 minutes down on the clock against Ian Nepomniachtchi. GM Daniel Naroditsky in Chess 24 stream says he would not be very comfortable with black’s (Nepo) position and although the Indian youngster is low on time, he has a preferable position since the Catalan is a slow burner. 

Li Tingjie has more time on the clock with which she started. She has over 1 hr 32 minutes after the first 14 moves due to the 30 seconds increment while her opponent Aleksandra Goryachkina has already spent over 35 minutes out of her 90 minutes. 

Vaishali, who struggled with her time management in the first two rounds is ahead on the clock by over 20 minutes against Nurgyul Salimova. 

Wow, the queens have been exchanged in the Hunpy vs Zhongyi game. We may go to the endgame pretty soon. 

A pawn and a knight are off the board in the Humpy vs Zhongyi game. It’s the French variation of the King’s Indian attack. Mind you, Zhongyi is the only player to have won her first two rounds. 

Standard e4-e5 line in the Pragg vs Vidit match. The game went on to have a Ruy Lopez opening. 

We have a closed Catalan opening in the Gukesh vs Nepo match. The Russian starts with 1.d4 and Gukesh replies with knight to f6. 

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. 

The time control for the open category is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move 41.

For the women’s category, it is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move one.

Open

• Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE, 2758) – qualified as the previous World Championship match runner-up.
• Praggnanandhaa R (India, 2747) – qualified as the 2023 World Cup runner-up.
• Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2804) – qualified as the third-place finisher at the 2023 World Cup.
• Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan, 2632) – qualified as the fourth-place finisher at the 2023 World Cup after the winner, Magnus Carlsen, declined his right to participate.
• Vidit Gujrathi (India, 2747) – qualified as the 2023 Grand Swiss winner.
• Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2789) – qualified as the 2023 Grand Swiss runner-up.
• Alireza Firouzja (France, 2760) – qualified as the best by rating on January 1, 2024.
• Gukesh D (India, 2747) – qualified as the 2023 FIDE Circuit winner.

Women’s

• Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2542) – qualified as the 2022−23 Women’s Grand Prix winner.

• Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 2553) – qualified as the 2022−23 Women’s Grand Prix runner-up.

• Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria, 2426) – qualified as the 2023 Women’s World Cup runner-up.

• Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine, 2520) – qualified as the third-place finisher at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

• Vaishali R (India, 2481) – qualified as the 2023 Women’s Grand Swiss winner.

• Tan Zhongyi (China, 2521) – qualified as the 2023 Women’s Grand Swiss runner-up.

• Humpy Koneru (India, 2546) – qualified as the best by rating on January 1, 2024. The rating spot became available as a replacement for the Women’s World Cup winner since Goryachkina had already qualified through the WGP.

Open

Hikaru Nakamura 0-1 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 

Praggnanandhaa R 0-1 Gukesh D 

Ian Nepomniachtchi 1-0 Alireza Firouzja 

Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Nijat Abasov 

Women’s

Kateryna Lagno ½-½ Humpy Koneru 

Tan Zhongyi 1-0 Vaishali Rameshbabu 

Nurgyul Salimova ½-½ Lei Tingjie 

Aleksandra Goryachkina 1-0 Anna Muzychuk

Want to catch up on what happened in the second round? We got you!

Chess Candidates 2024, Round 2 Highlights: Vidit beats Hikaru; Vaishali loses to Zhongyi; Gukesh wins vs Praggnanandhaa; Humpy draws vs Lagno

FIDE Candidates 2024: Get the updates, analysis, commentary and highlights of the second round of the FIDE Candidates 2024, happening in Toronto, Canada on April 6, Saturday (India). 

Open

Nijat Abasov - Hikaru Nakamura 

Alireza Firouzja - Fabiano Caruana 

Gukesh D - Ian Nepomniachtchi 

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi - Praggnanandhaa R 

Women’s

Anna Muzychuk - Kateryna Lagno 

Lei Tingjie - Aleksandra Goryachkina 

Vaishali Rameshbabu - Nurgyul Salimova 

Humpy Koneru - Tan Zhongyi

Open Category: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Hikaru Nakamura, Nijat Abasov, Vidit Gujrathi, R. Praggnanandhaa, D. Gukesh

Women’s Category: Lei Tingjie, Kateryna Lagno, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Anna Muzychuk, Nurgyul Salimova, Tan Zhongyi, R. Vaishali, Koneru Humpy

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.

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s live streaming of the third round of the FIDE Candidates 2024, happening at the Great Hall in Toronto, Canada on April 7, Sunday (IST). Stay tuned as we bring you all the live action.