CANDIDATES TOURNAMENT: Round 10 report: Fighting Chess!
THE FIGHT TO PLAY WORLD CHESS CHAMPION MAGNUS CARLSON
CANDIDATES TOURNAMENT – June 17th to July 5th July 22 – Madrid Spain
Round 10 – Wed 29th June 22 Report
Nepomniachtch takes a commanding 1½ point lead after drawing his match in round 10 against Radjabov as the wheels come off Caruana`s tournament after losing again this time against Duda! It seems Caruana`s defeat against Nakamura in round 8 has taken all the wind out of his sails and he has nothing more to offer in the candidates! Having said that both players and indeed most players in round 10 were up for fighting chess and choose more aggressive lines in the hope of catching Nepomniachtch! Caruana just over played his hand and paid the price!
Nakamura playing against Firouzia (Sicilian Najdorf) seemed to be up for the fight this time after his loss in the last round. Firouzia on move 10 played gxf6?! It has been played before but is very double-edged! After that Nakamura seemed to gain the edge and pilled the pressure on forcing mistakes from Firouzia. It was a nice finish by Nakamura to win the match to keep him in touching distance just!
Ding beat Rapport in a Ruy Lopez to move him in to a 3 way tie on 5½ points with Nakamura and Caruana!
It’s looking more likely that Nepomniachtchi will slowly walk his way to the finishing line for the second time in a row and earn his right to play World Champion Magnus Carlson for the second time in a row! He is the only player who has not lost a game! The only player in the chasing pack who will play Nepomniachtchi is Nakamura with black on tomorrow. Of course it’s not over until the end but I feel it would take a catastrophic collapse from Nepomniachtchi and an outstanding run from one of the three players on 5½ points!
Mind you second place might, but unlikely get you a shot at the world championship if Carlson sticks to his guns and refuses to play the winner of the candidates? I can’t see it but the world championships does have some history on this sort of thing!
Round 11 – 15:00 CEST – Thurs 30th June 22
Nakamura v Rapport
Firouzja v Nepomniachtchi
Radjabov v Duda
Caruana v Ding