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Gukesh loses in a time scramble, knocked out of lead
Pragg holds Caruana; Nepo back in sole lead after Round 7 at the Candidates
India’s D Gukesh found himself in an insane time scramble and suffered a heartbreaking loss to Alireza Firouzja in Round 7 of the Candidates. The result knocked him out of the shared lead. It saw Ian Nepomniachtchi, who drew his game with Hikaru Nakamura, back in sole lead. With seven more rounds to go, Gukesh now finds himself tied on points (4) with compatriot R Praggnanandhaa and Fabiano Caruana.
Early on, playing with White, Firouzja tried to create an unbalanced position on the board in the London System. The French-American Grandmaster who has been having a pretty rough tournament and finds himself at the bottom of the standings, played online blitz on the morning of his Round 7 game against Gukesh. “I wanted to win some games but I lost those too so it was terrible,” he laughed.
With under 40 seconds on the clock, Firouzja found the dangerous and resourceful Nd7! His opponent, Gukesh ran into deeper time troubles, dropping to under 30 seconds on the clock and responded with Kh7 – a terrible choice. Under immense time pressure, Firouzja managed to spot 37…Rf3 and delivered checkmate. The blitz session on the morning of his game may have after all been the break Firouzja needed and perhaps inspired him to pursue a mating attack. For Gukesh it turned out to be his first defeat in seven rounds.
“I have nothing to lose…I’ll probably have to play risky chess. I have to win all the games basically if I want to have a chance,” Firouzja who stands at 2.5 points said.
Praggnanandhaa who’s played the most surprising and ambitious openings in the tournament so far, trotted out the French Defense much to the shock of everyone watching. Particularly since his opponent, world No 2 Caruana has had some good wins against the French Defense. Though they were largely in the main line with Nc3 on the third move rather than e5 of the Advance variation. They agreed to a draw in 41 moves.
“The French these days is a way in which you can try to equalize on the spot,” Caruana said, “It's very forcing in general. Pragg knew the line very well. Unfortunately for me, I didn't know it as well. So, I didn't get anything from the opening.”
Praggnananadhaa interacted with fans after the game and said he’s content with how the tournament has turned out for him so far. “The games have been really interesting. I’ve also been playing quite well …I’m happy with the quality.”
Asked how he manages to recall the all lines at the board he said: “Actually, before this game, I was telling Peter that this tournament my memory hasn’t been good, I’ve been forgetting stuff. Thankfully I haven’t been forgetting any important line. Those things you have to remember, where you have to be precise…If you try to remember everything you’ve seen before a game, it’s just impossible.”
As the players head into a rest day before the final seven rounds, Praggnanandhaa spoke of not having much trouble recovering from tough moments in the tournament. “I was not very upset after Gukesh’s loss…It was a complicated game and he played well...I didn’t miss any chances. My mom, sister and my trainer (Peter Svidler) helped me come out of it quickly.”
Round 7 results
Open
Hikaru Nakamura (3.5) ½ Ian Nepomniachtchi (4.5)
Fabiano Caruana (4) ½ Praggnanandhaa R (4)
Nijat Abasov (2) ½ Vidit Gujrathi (3.5)
Alireza Firouzja (2.5) 1-0 Gukesh D (4)
Women
Kateryna Lagno (4) ½ Nurgyul Salimova (3)
Aleksandra Goryachkina (4.5) ½ Tan Zhongyi (5)
Anna Muzychuk (2.5) ½ Humpy Koneru (2.5)
Lei Tingjie (4) 1-0 Vaishali R (2.5)
Round 8 pairings
Open
Hikaru Nakamura - Fabiano Caruana
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Nijat Abasov
Praggnanandhaa R - Alireza Firouzja
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi - Gukesh D
Women
Kateryna Lagno - Aleksandra Goryachkina
Nurgyul Salimova - Anna Muzychuk
Tan Zhongyi - Lei Tingjie
Humpy Koneru - Vaishali Rameshbabu
