Chess
Candidates 2024: Gukesh registers another win, other Indians play draw
D Gukesh emerged as the sole winner in the fifth round of FIDE Candidates 2024 as other Indians played out the draw.
D Gukesh became the youngest champion in the history of the FIDE Candidates on April 22, 2024.
Indian GM D Gukesh continued his good run at the Candidates Tournament 2024 and registered another win in the fifth round of the tournament on Tuesday.
Gukesh managed to secure a victory over Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan that went on for almost six hours and became the joint leader in the Open category with Ian Nepomniachtchi at 3.5 points.
This is the second win of the tournament for Gukesh after he defeated his compatriot R Praggnanandhaa in the second round. He will take on Hikaru Nakamura in the sixth round.
Other Indians in the tournament, Vidit Gujrathi and Pragg both played out draws against World number two Fabiano Caruana and leader Ian Nepomniachtchi.
It was a good comeback from Vidit who lost two consecutive games in the last two rounds. In the Pragg vs Nepomniachtchi game, the Indian teenager had forced the Russian under massive time pressure with his excellent opening prep.
Currently, Vidit is ranked sixth with two points while Pragg is joint fourth with 2.5 points. In the sixth round, Vidit will take on Alireza Firouzja while Pragg will take on Nijat Abasov.
In the women’s section, India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu and Humpy Koneru were also held to draws by Anna Muzychuk and Aleksandra Goryachkina respectively.
Vaishali is ranked joint third with one win and four draws in five games while Humpy is still at the joint sixth with four draws and one loss.
In the sixth round, Humpy will face Lei Tingjie of China while Vaishali will take on Kateryna Lagno
While all the women’s games ended in draws, Hikaru Nakamura finally got his first victory at the tournament, beating Alireza Firouzja.
