Ian Nepomniachtchi held the entire top place in the Open section to himself with three rounds remaining in the Candidates. He holds the power of destiny. One last chance to win the world championship.
Then came Round 12, when a slew of outcomes completely upended the competition.
From an Indian point of view, D Gukesh made a name for himself on the day by skillfully manipulating his way to the top of the scoreboard and finishing with black pieces versus Nijat Abasov.
It required an unexpected opening, a calculated set of the first 14 moves, and a strong endgame in which he showed maturity beyond his years.
Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Gukesh all needed to triumph in order to maintain pressure on Nepomniachtchi. Thus, they took action. It was necessary to restrain Nepomniachtchi in order to prevent him from maintaining total control. Thus, R Praggnanandhaa rose to the occasion, recovering from a humiliating loss in the prior round.
Gukesh has stated on a few times that he views the Candidates as a personal competition and that it is unreasonable to expect his fellow citizens to support him. Though Pragg and Vidit are already essentially eliminated from the race for the top place, the former contributed helped Gukesh’s cause in Round 12. Pragg played out a respectable draw against Nepo in a match that was never close to going either way. If Nepo loses the tournament, he may look back and regret not being more aggressive this time around.
And just like that, four guys are in with a real chance of winning the event with two rounds remaining.
Pre-tournament expectations were met with the inclusion of Nakamura and Caruana.
It was also anticipated that Nepomniachtchi would maintain his lead; after all, he is the newest contender for the World Championship crown. However, Gukesh has amazed everyone, even though he was only considered until now. This is especially true given that he has a real chance to win the last two rounds.
In chess, the legendary Magnus Carlsen rarely makes a mistake. The Indian teenager has responded well to his appraisal on chess.com, saying, “I think it’s probably more likely that (Gukesh) will have a bad event than a good event,” on the message boards.
Playing with black, the 17-year-old understood he had to push through with unexpected manoeuvres to confuse his opponent from the outset. Gukesh charged in even though Abasov was at the bottom of the standings because up until this point, he hadn’t lost a match with white pieces in the tournament.
Gukesh used almost no time off the clock in his opening 14 moves, stringing together well-thought-out tactics that made Abasov have to take his time.
“I thought I was beating him, but in the end, he did have a few drawing opportunities. In his commentary following the game, Gukesh stated, “I surprised him in the opening with this line.” He was alluding to move 11, in which he retreated his knight to h7. GM David Howell described this move for Chess.com, and the sheer audacity of it almost had him jump out of his chair.
“Although it is obviously not one of the main lines, I just thought this would be an interesting line for the game and it seems quite interesting so yeah, can only be happy about that,” Gukesh continued.
From that point on, Gukesh maintained a little advantage over Abasov, who responded to the first challenge admirably, until the latter made a mistake in his 40th move while under time pressure. It gave Gukesh the confidence he needed to win with composure.
One or both of the other two leaders, Nakamura and Nepomniachtchi, will forfeit points in Round 13. If Gukesh prevails and the two veterans neutralise each other, he might be leading by himself. He faces the mysterious Firouzja, the seventh-ranked French Grandmaster who was born in Iran.
The Firouzja Test
However, Gukesh’s lone loss in the competition thus far came against Firouzja. Gukesh appeared to have a tiny advantage in the seventh round match, but he made a mistake with the clock running down and ended up losing badly.
On Friday, he thought about that loss as well.
“Anything can happen in a time crunch; the game wasn’t bad at all, I just made a mistake when there was a rush to finish.” However, it does happen; you know that you will obviously fail after 14 rounds. I’m relieved that it ended and I moved on.
Thus, a child and three pre-event favourites will approach the weekend with the mindset that anything is possible.
Gukesh’s matter-of-fact comment regarding what will be crucial was, “Whoever plays good chess in the last two rounds and manages to remain focused, I think that person would have a pretty good chance.”
The reporter then put pressure on. What is the one thing that keeps you focused? Have you had experience? Managing anxiety? Freshness? Good fortune? Yes, I’d say a little bit of everything. While luck does play a part, I make every effort to control what I can. It’s true that luck plays a role in chess; nothing is entirely beyond our control, therefore it’s probably best to focus on our work and ignore the rest.
