Nerves, pressure and the Indian hope
Candidates 2024: The final stretch
Four rounds remain in the Candidates (till Wednesday), with six players in the race. Three of the six are Indians and one of them — D Gukesh — is in the shared lead with two-time Candidates winner Ian Nepomniachtchi. Only first place matters.
On paper, Gukesh’s path ahead appears to be relatively less troublesome compared to his Russian co-leader. In two of his remaining four rounds, the 17-year-old Indian is paired to face Nijat Abasov and Alireza Firouzja, who are at the bottom of the standings and out of contention. The minor detail here is that Abasov has yet to lose a game with White, and Gukesh’s only loss came against Firouzja in a time scramble.
Ahead of the Candidates, Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura were considered the favourites and the three Indians — R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi and Gukesh — were handed a combined odds of less than 20%.
Gukesh was quick to dismiss the numbers. “I wouldn’t say anyone is a favourite,” Gukesh told HT before the tournament, “It will come down to players’ state of mind I suppose. Once someone is in the rhythm, it can go well.” Like it has for him so far. Barring the blip of a time scramble defeat, the Indian teen has been on a steady, impressive run. He’s shown maturity beyond his years and has been unfazed under the bright lights of a highstakes tournament. A lot will come down to how he handles the final stretch.
The only player who remains unbeaten so far is Nepomniachtchi. The Russian has, to his credit, salvaged bad to hopeless positions with Black so far in the tournament.
It’s one of the reasons that former world No.2 Levon Aronian believes that he might be a favourite to win a record third time. “Luck counts for a lot in such tournaments and so far, I think Ian has been the luckiest participant. He’s been dodging bullets and I think he has a good chance to become a legend by winning the Candidates a third time...I’ve also been quite impressed with how Vidit has fought back after tough losses and Pragg’s ability to take risks.”
In many ways, less experience also makes for less emotional baggage in such tournaments, which can be a good thing for young Indian players.
“I remember I wasn’t worried at all at my first Candidates tournament, but I also had no one to turn to...The Indian guys playing today have Vishy (Anand) for anything they need. Huge help.”
After 10 rounds, Nakamura and Caruana are half a point out of the lead.“America is back, baby,” Nakamura declared on his stream. Nakamura’s step dad and earliest chess trainer Sunil Weeramantry
arrived in Toronto and was seen with the world No.3 ahead of Round 11.
The other American, Caruana — who’s been rather unremarkable in the tournament — may have found some momentum with his Round 10 win going into the final stretch. “I try not to think about statistics because my play has been suffering clearly,” said Caruana, “If I play well, I’ll get
some chances, maybe it’s enough. I just need to focus on my play.”
On the rest day ahead of Round 11, half the Candidates participants – Caruana, Nakamura, Vidit and Firouzja, chose to play Titled Tuesday, Chess.com’s online blitz event. With only a few rounds to go, everyone is looking for ways to cope with the pressure and get themselves into a good headspace.