Candidates Chess, Round 8: D Gukesh beats Vidit Gujrathi, joint-top with Ian Nepomniachtchi

D Gukesh beat compatriot Vidit Gujrathi in the eighth round of the Candidates Chess tournament on Saturday in Toronto. It put him in joint-lead, on five points, with Ian Nepomniachtchi who drew his game against Nijat Abasov. Elsewhere, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana in the all-American matchup to leapfrog him in the standings. The other Indian in the competition, R Praggnanandhaa drew with French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja. Praggnanandhaa is tied third with 4.5 points alongside Nakamura.

Gukesh, playing with black pieces, picked up his third win in the competition, the most by any of the eight players in the Open category.

Play resumed in the Candidates Chess tournament after a rest day with the players returning to play the first round of the second half of the competition. As part of the double round-robin format, the opponents were the same from first half of the competition but with colours reversed.

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Results | Round 8 | #FIDECandidates

🇮🇳 Praggnanandhaa R ½-½ 🇫🇷 Alireza Firouzja
🇮🇳 Vidit Gujrathi 0-1 🇮🇳 Gukesh D
🇺🇸 Hikaru Nakamura 1-0 🇺🇸 Fabiano Caruana
Ian Nepomniachtchi ½-½ 🇦🇿 Nijat Abasov pic.twitter.com/KsZOz0FMNT

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 14, 2024

Gukesh, who had lost against Firouzja in round seven, squandering an advantage in time trouble before collecting 0 points in a defeat. He roared back to winning ways by forcing Gujrathi to resign one move before an inevitable checkmate. “Coming back into the joint lead, it’s good, but I’m just happy that I played a good game and I came back to the shape that I’m supposed to be in,” said Gukesh after the win.

In the women’s section, Koneru Humpy picked up her first win of the competition against compatriot Vaishali Rameshbabu while using white pieces.

The win takes Humpy to joint-fifth spot with Bulgaria’s Nurgyul Salimova on 3.5 points. Vaishali is last with 2.5 points.

The women’s event has three joint-leaders on 5 points each – Chinese players Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi and Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina. The event was split open after Tingjie, with black pieces, defeated then tournament leader Zhongyi.