Candidates 2024 R3: Praggnanandhaa's refreshing f5 takes Vidit by surprise
R Praggnanandhaa bounced back well in the third round of FIDE Candidates 2024. Despite him suffering a loss in the previous round and his opponent Vidit Gujrathi crushing Hikaru Nakamura (USA), the recent history was in favor of Praggnanandhaa. That gave the teenager the courage to unleash his surprise 4...f5 in the Ruy Lopez. The element of surprise definitely helped him as White needs to be well-prepared to refute it. D Gukesh outplayed Ian Nepomniachtchi. He just needed to find the right break in the endgame to score full point. It would have given him good chances. The remaining two games ended in draws. Round 4 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 12 a.m. IST. Photo: Maria Emelianova/chess.com
Gukesh outplays Nepomniachtchi, misses good chance
All Indians facing each other rounds are over. Now all three of them will face the remainder opponents till round 7.
Vidit - Praggnanandhaa: 0-1
R Praggnanandhaa (2747) defeated Vidit Gujrathi (2737) in their last three Classical rated games. The recent one occurred at 6th Prague Masters last month. The teenager unleashed 4...f5 a delayed Schliemann/Jaenisch Gambit in the Ruy Lopez as his weapon of surprise.
4...f5 is a dubious line. However, to seize advantage of this dubious variation, one has to know the nuances and intricate details. 5.d4 exd4 6.e5 b5 7.Bb3 Na5 8.Nxd4 Bb7 9.Nxf5 Vidit grabbed a pawn which is what Black wants in this position. 9...Nxb3 10.axb3 d6 11.Qe2 Qd7 12.e6 Qc6 13.Bg5 g6 14.Ne3 h6 15.Bf4 Ne7 16.c4 b4 Black has consolidated his position quite well and White only has an extra pawn but it is not able to do much. Soon Black grabbed a couple of pawns and started turning things in his favor.
34...g3 ended things for White. 35.Nxb7? there weren't many choices left for White gxf2+ 36.Kxf2 Qxb7 37.Qf3 Reg5 and Black won the game in the next few moves.
Gukesh - Nepomniachtchi: 0.5-0.5
D Gukesh (2743) played only one Classical rated game against Ian Nepomniachtchi (2758) earlier this year at 86th Tata Steel Masters. The teenager won that battle. Gukesh outplayed the former two-time World Championship Challenger. He could have repeated that result if he had spotted his tiny window of opportunity.
Here, White needed to play 29.a4 to disintegrate Black's queenside pawn structure and maximize his bishop pair. The game continued 29.Bb6 Rd7 now also 30.a4 was possible. However, he did not do it again. 30.Rd1 Rxd1 31.Bxd1 and White's advantage faded.
Vishy Anand tweeted on Gukesh's chances
Time control
The time control for each game is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 41.
Prizes
The total prize fund is €500000. The top three prizes are €48000, €36000 and €24000. All prize money shall be divided equally among the players with the equal score after 14 rounds regardless tie-break results. In addition, each player gets €3500 euros for every half point scored.
Replay Round 3 live stream
Replay Round 3 games
Round 3 results
Standings after Round 3
Round 4 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | 2789 | GM | Nakamura, Hikaru | GM | Praggnanandhaa, R | 2747 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | 7 | 2758 | GM | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | GM | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2727 | 5 | ||||
| 3 | 1 | 2803 | GM | Caruana, Fabiano | GM | Gukesh, D | 2743 | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 2 | 2632 | GM | Abasov, Nijat | GM | Firouzja, Alireza | 2760 | 3 |
