Chess Candidates 2024, Round 9 Highlights: Vidit beats Nakamura; Praggnanandhaa-Gukesh, Humpy-Lagno end in draw; Vaishali loses to Zhongyi

Open

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 1-0 Hikaru Nakamura 

Gukesh D 0.5-0.5 Praggnanandhaa R 

Alireza Firouzja 0.5-0.5 Ian Nepomniachtchi 

Nijat Abasov 0.5-0.5 Fabiano Caruana 

Women’s

Humpy Koneru 0.5-0.5 Kateryna Lagno 

Vaishali Rameshbabu 0- 1 Tan Zhongyi

Lei Tingjie 0.5-0.5 Nurgyul Salimova 

Anna Muzychuk 0.5-0.5 Aleksandra Goryachkina

Finally Humpy and Lagno decide to end the game by mutual agreement. It’s a draw. 

Humpy took 16 minutes to move her rook to b8. She just needs to be mindful of her clock. 

Kateryna Lagno has started her pawn march on the kingside while Humpy is one pawn down. Still it seems like a holdable position for the Indian. 

The last game in the open section between Fabiano Caruana and Nijat Abasov also ended in peace. Both players end the game on the 44th move in a dead draw position. 

Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa end their game in a draw by mutual agreement. Gukesh joins Ian Nepomniachtchi at the top of the leaderboards with 5.5 points. 

The Humpy vs Lagno game is ending towards a straight forward draw with rook engame being played on the board. 

Here is the confirmation. Hikaru stops the clock and Vidit does the double on the American! 

Candidates 2024: Vidit Gujrathi beats Hikaru Nakamura in round nine

India’s Vidit Gujrathi beat USA’s Hikaru Nakamura in a round nine match in the FIDE Candidates tournament happening in Toronto, Canada on Monday.

Another result comes in. Nurgyul Salimova and Lei Tingjie decide to end the game by threefold repetition. 

Meanwhile, Ian Nepomniachtchi holds Alireza Firouzja with black pieces from an inferior position. He moves to sole lead momentarily in the open section. 

Hikaru makes another mistake and Vidit is thriving against the World No. 3. 

The queens are off the board in the Humpy vs Lagno game but the Indian has lost her initiative in the position under time trouble. 

Vidit takes the free h6 pawn and is now pawns up against Nakamura. A win would put the Indian in a fighting position on the leaderboard with five more rounds to go. 

Vidit played the best possible move in the position and he is the one who’s having an initiative on the board. Will Vidit be able to do a double on Hikaru?

Goryachkina vs Muzychuk ends in a draw. Goryachkina misses an opportunity to get back level with Tan Zhongyi. 

A mistake from Nakaumra is quickly followed by a brilliant move by Vidit and the balance of the game has shifted in favour of the Indian. 

Abasov gets back into the contest against Caruana, who has forfeited the early advantage he had. Not much to separate the two for now. 

We have the first result of the day. Tan Zhongyi gets the better of R Vaishali and returns to winning ways. The Indian contender made one mistake too many to gift the win to her Chinese counterpart. 

Vidit vs Nakamura perfectly in balance. The Indian has largely made up the time deficit, while there is nothing much to separate the two in terms of board position. 

Vaishali has put herself in a spot of bother against Tan Zhongyi after miscalculated move with her queen. 

Not the greatest start to the game for Nepo. Just 96.0 accuracy for him according to stockfish. Firouzja has burnt a bit of his clock, but has a narrow edge in the game. 

Both Humpy and Lagno have castled to the shorter side. The latter though has burnt through a significant amount of time on her clock. Very close to spilling under 30 minutes. 

Caruana with the early momentum as he trades queens with Abasov. He will look to capitalise on this early advantage and recover from his defeat to Nakamura in the last round. 

Gukesh puts pressure on Pragg’s queen with his bishop. Both players are evenly places with regards to time on the clock. 

Lagno up by a pawn against Humpy and now has a good stronghold in the middle of the board. 

Once again, Vidit is wasteful with time. Nakamura already has a nearly 30 minute advantage on the clock. 

Another pitched battle happening in the adjacent board. Firouzja and Nepo have entrenched themselves in a Reti Opening battle, with the former operating with the white pieces. 

Pragg has the better of Gukesh in the early stages of this round 9 match. But it is not a cutting advantage yet. This is going to be a long battle. 

Sicilian Defence is the name of the game for the Vaishali vs Zhongyi opening. The Indian GM is quick to castle to the short side against the joint leader from the women’s category. 

Gukesh gives up his bishop for Pragg’s knight. Pragg has enjoyed a sharp start, maintaining a 100.00 accuracy as per stockfish, while Gukesh has tailed off just a bit. 

Humpy with the white pieces against Lagno. Ragozin Defence formation to start the game. Humpy has had a lacklustre tournament so far and will need to make her advantage with the white pieces count today if she wants to stay alive in this tournament. 

Vidit Gujrathi is quick to castle to the short side after an Italian Game opening against Hikaru Nakamura. Vidit is in dire need of a win to resurrect his Candidates campaign. 

Standard Ruy Lopez opening lines from Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa, with the former wielding the white pieces. 

And we are off. Round 9 of the FIDE Candidates tournament 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.

Women’s Category 

1. Tan Zhongyi (CHN) - 5.0 

2. Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) - 5.0 

3. Lei Tingjie (CHN) - 5.0 

4. Kateryna Lagno (RUS) - 4.5 

5. Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) - 3.5 

6. Koneru Humpy (IND) - 3.5 

7. Anna Muzychuk (UKR) - 3.0 

8. R. Vaishali (IND) - 2.5

Open Category 

1. Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) - 5.0 

2. D Gukesh (IND) - 5.0 

3. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) - 4.5 

4. R Praggnanandhaa (IND) - 4.5 

5. Fabiano Caruana (USA) - 4.0 

6. Vidit Gujrathi (IND) - 3.5 

7. Alireza Firouzja (FRA) - 3.0 

8. Nijat Abasov (AZE) - 2.5

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

Hikaru Nakamura - Vidit Gujrathi 

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Alireza Firouzja 

Nijat Abasov - Fabiano Caruana 

Praggnanandhaa R - Gukesh D 

Women’s

Kateryna Lagno - Humpy Koneru 

Aleksandra Goryachkina - Anna Muzychuk 

Nurgyul Salimova - Lei Tingjie 

Tan Zhongyi - Vaishali Rameshbabu

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s live coverage of the FIDE Candidates 2024 round nine, happening at the Great Hall in Toronto, Canada on Monday. Stay tuned as we bring you all the live updates.