Credit: X
Dommaraju Gukesh, the Indian grandmaster, suffered a heartbreaking loss against the French Alireza Firouzja after finding himself a few moves away from winning in the seventh round of the Candidates Chess 2024 tournament. With a tough result, the 17-year-old is no longer in the joint lead, getting left behind by the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi with 4.5 points.
During a pulsating match, Alireza Firouzja had only nine minutes to put together 18 moves to reach the highly important 40th move, where more time would have been added to his clock. With a pawn down, the French grandmaster was ready to resign, but a couple of mistakes from Dommaraju Gukesh turned the match completely on its head, which the Indian ultimately lost.
The two other Indian grandmasters in the men’s competition at the Candidates Chess 2024 tournament, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi drew their matches against the American Fabiano Caruana and the Azerbaijani Nijat Abasov respectively. Also, with a draw for Ian Nepomniachtchi against Hikaru Nakamura, at the halfway stage of the tournament, the Russian grandmaster found himself in the lead, putting himself a step closer to making yet another World Chess Championship final appearance.
In the women’s competition at the Candidates Chess 2024 tournament, the Indian Vaishali Rameshbabu blundered in time trouble against the Chinese Lei Tingjie, succumbing to a tough defeat in the process. Her compatriot, Koneru Humpy managed to earn a draw against Anna Muzychuk, to stay in touch with the rest of the field, tied in sixth place at the bottom of the table with 2.5 points.
The Chinese Tan Zhongyi is in the sole lead with five points after seven rounds of action during the Candidates Chess 2024 tournament.