Nepomniachtchi beats Vidit in a tense struggle to lead the Candidates alone again on 7/11

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Round 3 Summary

Ian Nepomniachtchi emerged as the winner of an extraordinarily tense
game against Santosh Vidit. Nepomniachtchi played the very solid Petroff
Defence and Vidit replied with something slightly offbeat
6.Nc3. Nepomniachtchi’s 7…Bg4 turned out to be pretty smart
and by move 10 the position was unbalanced but equal. 15.c3?!
c5! gave black a small edge according to the engines but
Vidit played well over the next moves and was the one with the
initiative. The first decisive moments of the game came after
33…Rb3? which is given as winning for white after 34.h5!
34.Kd3= a3 35.Bc1 a5? 36.Bxa3! and now Vidit with about
6 minutes left to make move 40 spent about a minute on 37.Kc2?
rather than 37.Nxd5! falling in with black’s idea of winning a
piece but with too many pawns. Most likely there just wasn’t
enough time to make sure this idea worked. The position was
then equal and 49.Rb1 was likely an efficient draw, black
activated his king white had to be precise.
58.Bb3 (58…Ne5!=) was the start of real trouble
and 60.Nb2+ was the decisive error in an already difficult position (60.Ne5! again
was strictly the only way) and Nepomniachtchi didn’t even
have to be particularly precise after that. A big result
all around. Alireza Firouzja beat Nijat Abasov in just
24 moves of a flank opening, 15…e5? was the first serious,
and almost immediately decisive error. Vidit will be very frustrated, a win
would have put in right in contention to win the tournament, as it is he’s out of it completely.

Hikaru Nakamura had a direct hit with his choice of
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c5! against Praggnanandhaa.
White should have at least a little something but
in practice, event though Praggnanandhaa clearly knew something
the surprise value meant it was advantage black. The players
followed what seems to be the modern main line until 9.Nb3.
Here 9…Bd7 seems to be preferred slightly over 9…Nc6,
which was Nakamura’s choice. 11.Nb5 (11.Bg5 or 11.Na4 should
probably be preferred) allowed black at least equality
and this must have been uncomfortable for Praggnanandhaa.
25.Rb1?! was a waste of time and black had a nasty edge.
27.g4?! (at least try and prepare this with 27.h3 perhaps) placed
white on the precipice and soon a fatal mistake followed 29.Ke3?
(29.Ke1 strictly) was followed by the final error 32.Rf4?
which led to a decisive loss of loss of material and a win
for Nakamura in 54 moves although resignation could have come
much sooner.

Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh drew a rather unbalanced Queen’s Gambit.
Gukesh was certainly the one that was pushing but the game
finished with a draw by repetition after 40 moves. Caruana
will certainly have to go all out for a win in Round 12 now.

In the basement battle Alireza Firouzja demolished Nijat Abasov
in just 24 moves. Abasov has been targeted and under pressure in almost every
round and he must be getting really tired by now. Firouzja chose an
offbeat Flank opening with 1.Nf3 and 2.b3 leaving both players on their own
fairly quickly. 15.Rc5 e5? (15…Qe6) was bad and black’s position
disintegrated almost immediately.

FIDE World Championship Candidates Round 11 Commentary

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