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The Indian grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi and Rameshbabu Praggnanadhaa registered wins in the sixth round of the Candidates Chess 2024 tournament, defeating Alireza Firoujza and Nijat Abasov respectively. Dommaraju Gukesh and Hikaru Nakamura settled for a draw, which meant that the Indian stayed in the joint lead of the men’s competition with four points alongside Ian Nepomniachtchi.
During the match in the sixth round of the Candidates Chess 2024, Alireza Firoujza employed the Sicilian Rauzer while experimenting with a queen sortie, finding himself in trouble shortly after. Vidit Gujrathi took advantage of the situation, executing a clean winning move on the 14th, which led to him getting the better of the French grandmaster with ease.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa had Nijat Absov on the ropes for the majority of the match, but the Azerbaijani kept on extending the fight with his resourceful play in the endgame. On the 38th move, Abasov captured the pawn on F6, which was the most natural move in the position, but it proved to be his undoing after the next couple of moves from the Indian grandmaster.
In the sixth round of women’s competition in the Candidates Chess 2024 tournament, the Indian grandmasters Koneru Humpy and Vaishali Rameshbabu lost to Tingjie Lie of China and Kateryna Lagno of Russia respectively, to slip into the bottom half of the points table. Tan Zhongyi of China defeated the Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk to keep her sole lead intact with 4.5 points.