Chess Candidates Tournament 2024 Round 2 Updates: In the battle of the Indian teenage prodigies, 17-year-old Gukesh took down fellow Chennai boy Praggnanandhaa in the second round of the Candidates chess tournament. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi also recorded a victory over Hikaru Nakamura, who is ranked No 3 in the world.
Vidit, playing with black pieces, ended Nakamura’s 47-game unbeaten streak, which had started after he lost to Ding Liren at the last Candidates tournament in 2022. Vidit will take on Pragg tomorrow while Gukesh has a clash against two-time world championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Before the tournament begun, former world champion Magnus Carlsen had praised Vidit for his recent improvement.
“Vidit has improved a lot, especially from a psychological point. I’m sure he will be very serious and well prepared. He will not win the tournament. Although, I feel he has the capacity to make a really good score if things go his way. I really like the way he plays,” Carlsen had said on Chess.com while analysing the chances of the contenders, before adding: “But I can also see vidit losing quite a few games. He’s more likely to make a -4 score than +3 (by the end).”
Before the event began, Nakamura had made waves with his comments on his primary career: streaming.
“I’m a streamer first, creating content is what I do to earn a living. Playing chess is somewhat secondary,” Nakamura declared in an interview with FIDE before the event started. “I don’t feel any pressure with this tournament. If I win, nice and fine. Fact of the matter is if I become world champion, the reach or influence of that is so minor compared to what I have done via streaming or content creation. I just found another path (streaming), that for better or worse is far more lucrative and makes it a lot easier to enjoy chess.”
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, who is in Toronto doing commentary for the event, called it one of the “best days in chess”. “Really beautiful games, intense to follow,” he said before pointing out that Vidit’s game against Nakamura has been so good that he had not been able to spend as much time as he would have liked on the game between Pragg and Gukesh.
Candidates Chess 2024 Updates: In the battle of the Indian teenage prodigies, Praggnanandhaa lost to Gukesh in the second round of the Candidates chess tournament. (FIDE via Michal Walusza)
Gukesh, who is the second youngest participant in the Candidates tournament in history, also earned his win while playing with black pieces. Remarkably, there was a point in the game when Gukesh was almost an hour behind on the clock with Pragg still in his prep.
Gukesh has many firsts to his name: he is the the youngest player to surpass a rating of 2750+, and became the first Indian to overhaul the five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand as India’s top-ranked player in the FIDE’s published rankings after 36 years.
The day saw all four games in the open category end with a decisive result in complete contrast with the first round, which had seen four draws.
It was a bad day on the board for Praggnanandhaa’s sister Vaishali Rameshbabu as well, after the 22-year-old was defeated by China’s Tan Zhongyi. Tan was the only player to end the first round with victory across her name in round 1.
The fifth Indian at the event, the veteran Humpy Koneru, was held to a draw by Kateryna Lagno.
For the eight men in the open category, there’s a chance to take on world champion Ding Liren at stake. The eight women are battling to face Ju Wenjun.
INTERACTIVE: How Gukesh defeated Pragg in Round 2
INTERACTIVE: How Vidit Santosh Gujrathi defeated Hikaru Nakamura in Round 2
INTERACTIVE: How Kateryna Lagno and Humpy Koneru played out a draw
INTERACTIVE: How Vaishali Rameshbabu lost her game against Tan Zhongyi in Round 2
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