FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament resumes

THEFIDE (International Chess Federation) Candidates Tournament t o determine who will challenge world champion Magnus Carlsen resumes April 19 with eight top grandmasters battling to be the challenger for the crown. In case you’ve forgotten, the candidates are Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Wang Hao, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Kirill Alekseenko, and Maxime Vachier- Lagrave. Alekseenko substituted for Teimour Radjabov who asked for a postponement of the competition because the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has started to rage in Europe

Of course, FIDE denied Radjabov’s request and the competition was ordered started. The event, however, was stopped April last year when the European lockdowns began. At any rate, the Round 8 pairings will be Caruana vs. Vachier-Lagrave, Wang vs. Ding, Nepomniachtchi vs Giri, and Alekseenko vs. Grischuk.

The standings after Round 7 or after the event was halted: 1-2. Vachier-Lagrave, Nepomniachtchi, 4 ½ ; 3- 6. Caruana, Grischuk, Giri, Wang, 3½; 7-8. Alekseenko, Ding, 2½.

Here are some of the memorable decisions of the event: Ding, L (2805)-Wang, H

(2762) [A20] Yekaterinburg (1.2) 2020

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 Bc5 4. d3 0- 0 5. Nc3 c6 6. Nf3 d6 7.0-0 Re8 8.Na4 Bb4 9.a3 Ba5 10. b4 Bc7 11. e4 a5 12. Bb2 Na6 13.b5 cxb5 14.cxb5 Nc5 15.Nxc5 dxc5 16.a4 Bg4 17.Ra3 Nd7 18. h3 Bh5 19. Qb1 b6 20.Nd2 Nf8 21.Bf3 Qg5 22.h4 Qg6 23.Qd1 Bxf3 24.Qxf3 h5 25.Qf5 Rad8 26.Qxg6 Nxg6 27.Kg2 f6 28.Nc4 Kf7 29.Bc1 Rd7 30.f4 exf4 31.Bxf4 Nxf4+ 32.gxf4 f5 33.e5 Re6 34.Kf3 Rg6 35.Ne3 Ke6 36.Rd1 Bd8 37.Ra2 Rd4 38.Nc2 Rd5 39.Ne3 Rd7 40. Rdd2 Bxh4 41. Rg2 Rg4 42.Rh2 g6 43.Nxg4 fxg4+ 44.Ke3 Be7 45.Rac2 h4 0-1

Vachier- Lagrave, M (2767)-Ding, L (2805) [C88] Yekaterinburg (2.4) 2020 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5

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