Candidates Tournament 2022: Nepo close to win, fight for second place continues

New Delhi: Ian Nepomniachtchi is just a draw away from officially winning the Candidates Tournament 2022. The 12th round saw Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura drawing in just 14 moves and Ding losing to Teimour Radjabov. The tournament is only getting exciting because of the fact that it is not clear as of now that will Magnus Carlsen defend his title or not. In case he chooses not to, the first and second place holders of the Candidates Tournament will then play for World Championship.

Ian Nepomniachtchi Vs Hikaru Nakamura (1/2-1/2)

The game between Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura saw the famous quick draw in Ruy Lopez: Berlin defence, which has been part of the top-level chess quite a few times now. The game ended in just 7 minutes. Later on, Nakamura went on to compliment Ian by saying, “I think a lot of people have been critical of Ian. They feel like he’s been getting a lot of gifts, he’s been lucky … But when you play well throughout the way he has, you make your own luck, so I think it’s very deserved in terms of how Ian has performed.”

Ding Liren Vs Teimour Radjabov (0-1)

Ding’s loss against Radjabov has brought Nakamura to second place, tied with Ding. This was Ding Liren’s worst game of the tournament or maybe one of the worst games ever. Ding seemed not very comfortable with the opening and move 8…Na6 really caught him off guard. Not being able to castle cost him the game. Radjabov played one good move after another and was able to win easily.

Piling up on b2 bishop and bringing in 26…Bf4 just finished the game. Ding was forced to resign from the game on that very move.

Jinxed Lizhen :/

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) July 1, 2022

 Jan-Krzysztof Duda Vs Alireza Firouzja (1/2-1/2)

The game opened with Semi-Slav and Black sacrificed an exchange on move 20, which is part of the theory. On move 22, Firouzja got involved with the g-pawn business again. He made the move 22…g5, which was a mistake.

Duda missed 27. Kh1 which could have landed him into a comfortable endgame. Firouzja did not play accurately and landed in a worse position again. Again Duda gave him another chance to make a draw by playing 37. Rxf7. Firouzja did not miss the chance to draw this time.

Richard Rapport Vs Fabiano Caruana (1/2-1/2)

Another game in the Ruy Lopez: Anti-Berlin Variation where Rapport got into a good position. He played 7 knight moves out of his 13 moves. Just before reaching time control, they exchanged all the pieces to enter a rook endgame.

Fabiano was a pawn up in the endgame, but Rapport managed to draw it without any difficulty. Caruana still keeping his chances for the second place alive, sits at fourth place after round 12.

Standings