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FIDE Candidates 2026: Sindarov v. Anish & Fabiano v. Pragg Feature As Tournament Intensifies! Rd 7
04-05-2026 · 6h 46m
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That's it.
I
I
One dynasty ends, then a new one begins.
Every chess player has one goal in mind when it comes to classical chess, to feed a world
championship. But before you can take a shot at the king, worthiness must be proven. Eight
for the open section, and eight for the women are in Cyprus to do just that.
First chances for some.
What a moment!
Last chances for others.
Whether or not he gets another shot at the world title, his career will be defined
by resilience. But all with just one goal in mind.
Give you a bit of youngest war champion.
World champions do cash in through enjune await their challenges and we wait with them.
It's time to let the games begin.
Welcome to round 7, Sindoroth is stormed to an amazing lead and now leads the field by
quite some margin after another win.
Behind him the chasing pack is running out of room and today the leader faces Geary,
while Karana has Black against Prag.
In the women's Anamuzi Chuck now stands alone at the top after beating Zhu Jinn'er, but
with the gap from first to last still only a point and a half, the fight remains
completely alive.
to round seven of the FIDE Candidates 2026.
And happy Easter as well, my name is John Sargent.
I am joined by two fantastic experts once again
for this wonderful broadcast.
First, someone who once a year dresses up as a rabbit
and gives the rest of the office clues
while they do puzzle rush.
Please welcome Tanya Sajdev.
How are you doing, Tanya?
TANYA Sajdev- I'm doing good
and I'm super hyped about today.
I mean, this candidate has just played
beyond anyone's imagination.
And today, traditionally, the halfway mark round seven
is a very pivotal point in the tournament.
And it's that moment where pressure changes shape.
Patience turns into urgency.
And when there's one player in the speed run,
everyone has to respond.
It's now.
I like that.
I love that.
Patience turns to urgency.
Hold on to that thought, because I
think it's going to be a bit of a theme for today.
Speaking of patience, alongside myself and Tanya,
we're also joined by a man who grinds so hard.
He once had a position die on him and revive itself three days later.
It's David Howell. How are you doing, David?
I'm good, John. Happy Easter. Happy Easter, Tanya.
It's good to be here and we're going to learn so much today.
We saw some crazy chess yesterday, especially from Sinderov.
It's round seven.
I'm reminded of my favorite chessbook, The Seven Deadly Chess Sins.
The Seven Deadly Chess Sinderovs, maybe, as he goes for even more glory.
But yeah, I'm expecting maybe players to slow down
just before this rest day as we reached the halfway mark.
But there's a couple of players like Karawana
who really cannot afford that luxury.
So it's going to be fascinating today.
Yeah. The truth of the matter is,
because the open section is so much more spread out,
it means that the players who aren't at the top
are really feeling a little bit more pressure
to try and get their tournament back on track.
We'll talk about that in-depth in just a moment.
But for now, let's go ahead and head over to Mike Klein
for his start of day roundup of what's been going on on the ground.
Hello, and here we are, nearing the halfway point in round seven.
I am at the press conference station.
This is where the winners come and talk about their games.
So let's just go ahead and get this seat ready for Javik here.
We pretty much know he's going to be sitting here in four or five hours time.
Pretty much nothing has stopped him.
Five and a half out of six.
His tournament performance rating is 3150, and that's actually higher than his chess.com bullet rating.
And by the way, if you want to count bullet games on chess.com,
He actually played two of them after his win against Nakamura two days ago.
He won them both, so he's kind of sitting on seven half out of eight.
Now before we go into thinking that this is a runaway train that can't be stopped, remember,
if he were to slip and lose a game, and Fabiano were to win a game, Fabiano would
actually control his own destiny still because there is a head-to-head matchup in the second
half of the tournament.
But what are we going to see today?
Well, Javik here gets white, as if the rich getting richer isn't something we
need.
White against Anish Keri and Fabiano gets Black against Prognananda.
Over in the ladies' section, Ana Muzichuk is all clear on plus two. Her four out of
six has actually doubled the number of points she had after six rounds in
Toronto. There are no less than five ladies on even scores chasing her. One of
them is her opponent today, Bibi Sara Acebayeva. So Ana in the driver's seat,
Javak here in the driver's seat. Let's see how things shake out here on
this Sunday in Cyprus.
Thank you very much for that, Mike and Tanya. I think Mike Tidas are perfectly for this.
Yes, there is a sole leader. Muzitruk, the last-minute replacement, leads the tournament after round six,
which is fantastic stuff. But look at that chasing pack. And even the bottom of the order is only
another half a point behind. Even though they're shaped to this, it really is still wide open.
1,000% I mean there's just a point and a half separating the entire field from top to bottom
five players in the chasing pack as well. Anna Muzichuk is happy today going into this
halfway mark and I think the solid result serves her well but this tournament wide open like
you're saying and you've got some incredible pairings as well. Now I think for Anna this
is a key day because she's playing a player who started hot Bibisara did but then two
back to back losses can Anna monetize on that and make it maybe three in a row
for Big Isara and get that going into that second half, even bigger and wider.
That would almost be unthinkable.
Baby Sarah losing three games in a row.
She's such a strong player, so fierce over the board.
David, we have to entertain the possibility, though.
Moosey Trek really coming into her own.
Exactly. And I think she just feels that fate is on her side this last minute ticket.
And the way it's been going so smooth, not only is she in the lead,
But she's maybe the player who's been in trouble the least.
Looks like she's in control.
A lot of the other games, topsy-turvy, roller coasters up and down,
players taking their chances, players blundering.
But she's been consistent just like Cinder off in the open section.
So very well deserved lead for Anna, all eyes on her today.
Well, let's stay with you for a second, David,
while we go ahead and take a look at the standings in the open section.
It's a bit of a different story here, one and a half points clear.
Now, that's not necessarily how do I put it?
That's the kind of score where at the end of the tournament if someone won with it one and a half points clear you go
Wow, that was a really good tournament well done. We're not even at the halfway point. What the hell is going on?
Exactly reminds me of the tortoise and the hare, you know
Sometimes you start fast, but you still have to keep it up that being said the one and a half point gap to Fabiano is
Impressive Cinder off to this crazy start
But if we look further down the pack, he's three and a half points above the tail enders that include Hikaru Nakamura
So that gap it's it's got to close at some point you would think but
Javakir does start with white today against Anish Gehry. Anish is two and a half points behind him
So despite having black already, you've got to start thinking that these players must feel their muscle in situations against
Cinderoff and not easy for Karawana either. Black against Prague. I think those two are the ones that we'll be focusing on today.
Well, Tanya, let's talk about that because Fabiano, a point and a half behind.
Black against Prague may be feeling like a little bit of a must-win game.
What a strange position to be in and against someone like Prague as well. That's going to be very tricky.
You know, while everyone's going to be talking about the Cinderoff and each clash,
I'm going to say I think this is really the big one because it's the big fight between the two chasers, right?
They're the ones who want to stay relevant, want to stay in the hunt now, prog with the white pieces.
I believe he will try to try to push in this game. A draw serves neither.
Yes, it won't be a big setback, but in the big scheme of things, you know,
when you've got Fabi at four out of six, which given any other tournament, any other candidates would put him in the lead.
But there's one guy with five and a half out of six.
I think a decisive result is very important for these two players, whether it's a win by
Fabi with the black pieces or Prog pushing and making it, which means that we'll see a game where both players are taking chances.
So very likely, at least in my head, this one will be decisive.
I've got one more question to ask. I'll say both of you. I'll ask David first.
We have Hikaru playing Matthias today.
BlueBam has been unbelievably solid. Hikaru, obviously the pressure is a little bit off.
He might be playing a little bit more freely. Does he break through today with black? What do you think, David?
I'm going to say no just because I haven't seen yet from Hikaru that fire, that energy, that passion, and just that creativity on the board, and Mathias has been so impressive.
It's hard to see him being defeated with white at this stage.
Your thoughts on the same point, Tani.
Yeah, I would agree with David here and I think Blue Bomb has just been so incredibly solid.
He had one blip, one loss but otherwise well on the course of the great Blue Bomb streak
there and with the white pieces I don't see him losing control in this one but I will
add, we've been talking about Fabby and Prug being the big chasers but even the rest
of the field the volatility still exists because one blip from Senderov, one loss
really compresses the margins. So why yes improbable but not impossible yet for anyone even in the open.
Righty-ho. Well the clocks are beginning to tick. The games have started and the first moves are now
on the board. A lot of eyes of course on Cinder off Geary but I think I agree with Tanya here.
I feel like Prague, Karoana could bring us the fireworks in this round. I am looking forward
to seeing how that plays out as well as Muzičuk as Albaev as well. So I'll leave it
over to you guys to decide where we're going to start. David, Tanya, let's go.
Let's do it. Let's get into round seven and Tanya, this game starts as a Queen's Gambit declined
and Geary does a bunch of moves he could have chosen from, but he chooses the Ragozin
that's the Bishop landing on B4. A lot of theory here. He's played it before, Anish.
This is maybe the most topical line at the highest level and we'll find out a lot now
Over the next few moves, Cinderov brings his bishop out.
This is the main line.
If he takes this knight, we could see some quieter lines
where he hedges his bets.
There we go.
Still main line stuff, Tanya, but solid from Cinderov.
That shows that maybe he's not going
to push too hard in this game.
Completely agree.
And there are some ways in which White can proceed bringing
the queen out as well to defend that knight on C3,
which leads to such equal positions in the mid game.
In fact, Cinderov, after that trade opens up his own bishop,
I think being solid for Cinderov at this point
with the rest day coming up tomorrow, David,
does make the most sense.
He mentioned in his interview yesterday
that given his tournament situation,
he fully realizes that being solid
is what is demanded of him.
I mean, let's remind everyone,
five and a half out of six
never been seen before at the candidates.
In fact, at the halfway mark in the candidates
with the way it exists,
the format that is there right now,
the highest score we've seen so far
has been by Jan Lappam in Madrid in 22,
where it was five and a half out of seven.
And here's a guy who's already reached that point
with a round to spare.
There's just no need to go into any crazy variations,
any crazy lines where if maybe you can show it,
if the bishop would have retreated,
black can even push the jeep on forward,
bring the knight to the center of the game,
and things would have gotten incredibly wild.
Yeah, I'll do just that, Tanya.
So we see most likely pawns,
pieces start to leave the board.
Here we go.
The center is disappearing now.
If we just jump back a few moments ago to this position,
there is a bit of a crossroads here.
Often, you can give a check with the white queen.
That's another line.
But the white bishop dropping back, as you mentioned,
this comes with some risk.
Black can start pushing things forward,
start jumping with the knight.
The H-born often starts mobilizing,
and this gets a bit fiery.
So very interesting bit of information here
that we see Sinderov finally happy to take his foot off
the gas pedal a little bit.
and okay, I do slightly fear that there are some famous drawing lines in the system.
Tanya, I'm not sure we'll see it, but okay, knight to e4 now. We'll figure out what
syndrome is doing next. If he takes with a pawn, gives himself an isolated queen's pawn,
he wants to keep some tension. If he takes back in the near future with a knight,
symmetrical pawn structure, my bet is that this might be a bit more peaceful than some of
the previous rounds. But I do like this approach by syndrome. I think it's super
professional David. It's the kind of opening where you early on start to get the feel that
you're playing for two results here. Even if you capture with the knight, going into
that symmetrical position that you're talking about, simply compare all the white pieces
to black's army that is yet to develop, finished development. He's reaching for the pawn
and I believe it will be the knight that will step into the center of the board.
He in fact takes it with the pawn. So, Syldorov is ready for a fight today. He
takes the isolated queen's pawn. The knight might jump to E5 if it's allowed to
do that. David, why a solid approach but keeps the game alive? This last decision does.
Wow. I eat my words. I admit I was wrong then. He doesn't just want a symmetrical position that's
going to fizzle out very quickly. He wants a little bit of life. Black, of course, should be fine.
Objectively, Black's done nothing wrong. But I must admit, Tanya, I've looked at this position
a lot myself. And I never really took pawn takes pawn seriously. I think a3 was the main line
there. And knight takes d4. The two moves I was focusing on, because I thought, okay,
this whole approach. You want to minimize risk but he doesn't care. He wants to attack
while the black pieces are still at home asleep. Yeah, I agree with you. I wanted to play this
line with the white pieces and usually I do take that pawn with the knight and just either usually
ends in a draw or you've got something to play for with the piece activity that you have.
But Cinderov, now his ideas are to start even pushing and pushing the black bishop back
And I'll point out why the move knight to c6 is the most natural looking move but I've never liked it for black in this particular position David.
It's because then a3 b4 b5 just comes with a tempo kicking that knight away and then eventually the white knight does land onto e5.
So still not very easy. So Anish to finish development on the queen side.
Ideally and look at that. I think he's equally surprised with Sindarov's last decision of pawn takes on.
Yeah, the body language tells us everything.
We don't need to be experts on body language to understand the fact that Geary is surprised
as well by this move.
It looks like it's the third most popular move in the position, and that's often how
modern opening preparation works, right, Tanya?
Like the players, they don't want to play the top line, the most popular, well-explored
variations, because the opponent will know what to do.
Often they look for the third move according to the computer.
Still fine, still logical, still purposed to it, but gets the opponent thinking
for themselves.
It's very interesting because as you mentioned,
and I just did a quick check on that, David,
over 100 games have been played with the move A3
instead of capturing immediately in the center
and then white goes on to pick up the pawn,
just to move a goal, right here.
So A3 is the most popular move,
at least according to my database.
And even now, the queen takes pawn,
Knight takes pawn, Ace preferred to capturing it back with the pawn, but if we go back,
the second most popular move is Knight takes pawn, and only about 20 games with it being
recaptured by the e3 pawn.
So that's what we have on our board, and Deere does take a decision, he doesn't go
for the Knight move, he brings the rook to the center five, so still discouraging
the move 95 by putting pressure on that d4 pawn.
I'm expecting Sintraov at some point to push back the bishop, regardless he first
gets the queen out of the way.
I'm that square which has just been
rotated for his rookie one coming up.
Yeah, and Tanya, yesterday we saw
Cinderov just blitzing, even after the opening
in the middle game, deep into the game,
like three, four moves away from delivering the killer blow.
He was still blitzing, trusting himself just
in the flow.
What do you think we'll see today?
Do you think we'll see him just blitz Geary the whole game
again?
So far, that's on point, right?
that theory that this is Sinderov's preparation.
I don't know how many times we've said that
in the last six games that we've had of the candidates.
I mean, the performance that we've seen by him,
three massive wins with the black pieces as well,
showing incredible prep, incredible ability
to take the game into fighting waters there.
I think for Sinderov, this tournament
is not even about being in control right now.
It's about psychological dominance over the others,
which of course anyone facing him,
including an elite player like Anish Giri,
will also be feeling.
And when Cinderov makes a move early on,
gets up and leaves the board, takes that phone
with the third most popular move,
which perhaps Anishkiri didn't study today,
I am with you on it.
It's a statement by Cinderov.
And Anish goes for a second think now.
Yeah, at this point, the chess is one thing.
I mean, chess has been another level, Cinderov,
but this psychological pressure he puts on opponents,
not just with the streak, the confidence,
but the clock as well.
It all adds up.
It all adds up to just a really scary opponent.
So maybe we leave Anish to this thing, Tanya.
Still early days, most likely he'll, as you say,
bring the knight out.
The most natural move would be knight C6, for example.
But he has choices.
And yeah, when he gets a bit of time to think,
to come to terms with the fact he's been surprised,
I'm sure Geary will find something solid to do.
But here we see the eight boards
and what catches your eye at this early stage.
So our four ground boards, that's the open section.
The four red boards is our women's section.
Let's start with our open boards for the roundup here, David.
We've had three Queen's Point opening
and that fourth one on the bottom row,
Espenko versus Weyi, that started
with the King's Point opening
and very symmetrical copycat chest there
between Espenko and Weyi.
But the other game that we've been talking about
which is, I think one of the more defining games
of the Chaser pack right now,
Cragna Nanda versus Fabiano Caruana.
I see that Fabio already has an extra pawn.
The C4 pawn for now has been picked up,
and I believe this had to have come off a Slav defense.
Let's jump in.
Our second marquee matchup.
I'm not talking about Espenko against Wei Yi,
unfortunately, I'm talking about this one,
and Prague is a bit of a crossroads.
Tanya will just do a very quick action replay.
Like you said, the Slav defense,
one of the main lines, D4, D5,
And Prague not playing the exchange variation, so it doesn't want to resolve the tension too early, he keeps that tension alive and Semislav now would be e6, but he goes for the main variation takes on c4, white plays this move a4, this is the main line just to stop black expanding and after the bishop comes out, knight e5.
I believe that knight to d7 is the main line here Tanya and after knight d7, knight takes c4
only now queen to c7 to try and force through the move e5. Black actually casts in queen side
quite often so it looks like Fabi's surprise pride by playing maybe the same idea just a different
order. What do you think might be the difference behind starting with the queen move?
I'm trying to work this out because in my head I'm looking at the move g3 here that's
That's something that we do see in the other move order,
to try to bring the Bishop out to F4.
And then if the Black Knight was to come out to D7, David,
Knight takes pawn, I wonder if that converts directly
into that main line, I don't know,
thousands and thousands of game theory at this point.
Knight takes pawn, and now the move E5
would take us right back to where you were pointing,
the direction you were pointing at.
Exactly.
Like you say, thousands of games
is on the chess.com master database alone.
It's 1.9k, so nearly 2,000 games, just this position.
And that's super strong players.
So maybe Prec's prepared this, if you're right.
And this is what he was angling for anyway.
Then he might start with G3, just to try and transpose.
But what's the difference if he takes the pawn?
Is Black just going to go back to the main line anyway?
Or is there something more clever
that he wants to do here, Fabi?
So again, if the knight comes out G3, mainline territory heavily, heavily studded.
So coming to your question, what are the options or what is the difference that Qc7 allows
black to go for in this position?
And the only thing that I feel is that if it keeps the knight development flexible for
black, could there be a possibility, especially considering that white pawn is on a4, that
that knight might come land on a6, and the b4 square as well, is this something that
could be on Fabi's radar to try to confuse pregnant online this game.
Yeah, very possibly.
Maybe it's just a psychological trick and it's going to transpose and
he's forced Prague to burn like five, 10 minutes.
Maybe we'll just go back to the main line, but this is an interesting one.
Tanya and normally white has two plans like the G3 plan you mentioned
with Bishop f4, Fiancato'd.
He actually does take the pawn Prague.
So we're headed this direction, but G3 here is too slow because of
I guess knight to b4 coming in, or at least it feels a bit scary, but the other plan is like f3 to build with e4
This is quite a regular one as well in the slav and the black bishop gets a bit stuck
There was some world championship games Vichy Anandi gets toppled off with the black bishop stuck on h7 in this type of variation
So we'll figure out what's happening, but you're right
We're at prediction time at knight a6 and this is extremely rare now
It's extremely rare and that means that Fabi wants a big fight right now.
He doesn't go for main theory.
This is quite offbeat already.
9-8-6 and I'm expecting Pratt to go into a bit of a tank in this moment.
Definitely not expected by him.
Now I will say that Slav is considered to be such a solid opening by Black.
So to choose this line 9-8-6 with the idea to jump on to B4 coming with a big fork
on that C2 square, things are going to get pretty fun because even the points
that you made with F3, E4, that does in a lot of lines
lead the D4 pawn tender for white very early on,
which can start becoming a target
once the rook lines up against it.
I am very excited to see 9-A6 on the board, David.
Wow, and Tanya, this is fascinating
because like we said, the position up to 9-D7,
if I just go back one move,
9-D7, thousands of games,
literally thousands and thousands, deeply analyzed.
I remember looking at some lines to move 30,
move 40 in these forcing sharp variations and here like white has many moves
queen to g4, knight to e3, bishop to g2, like there's so much choice here for white
and Fabi might well get surprised himself but knight to a6 in this position
it's only been played I believe a handful of times and Tanya I'm gonna put
you on the spot guess who of the candidates has played this twice with
black. He is the expert in this line. It's someone who isn't playing this game. It's
one of the other players.
With the black pieces.
Mm-hmm.
Is it...
It looks like...
Is it the center off?
No. No, no.
96 is such a new off-beat line and I'm just wondering who that could be. All right, let
me take one more guess, David.
I don't think it's Hikaru. I haven't seen Hikaru play this.
I don't believe it is Matias Blugom. It doesn't feel like a Matias opening to me at all.
Night is sick. Oh my God, is it him? I don't think, I don't believe it.
It's the great sweeper himself. It's Matias Blugom.
He played this over 10 years ago. He played it in 2015 for the first time.
I think it was almost a novelty at that point. It had also been played by famous
Slav expert, English Grandmaster Nick Pert, former World Junior Champion, but Matthias Blubowm
was one of the highest rated players to pick it up and he's played it twice. He played it in 2015
and 2020, this night A6 move. So Fabi's been doing his research. Wow. But one thing's for sure,
that this is not something that Pragninanda was expecting to be on the board. And while Matthias,
I think we've seen him employ the Slav defense several times, night A6 was not on my radar
because it just feels so much more combative as a move, taking the fight to the edge of
the board, the flank of the board rather than the central fight with that e pawn moving forward
if the knight would have landed to d7.
Now I think in this position if you're faced and you haven't prepped, you know Nb4 is
coming as a threat, is it fair to say that f3 e4 is the most logical human response
as well to that idea that's being set up?
Yeah, 100% agree that like it deals with the threat. It's a common idea in other kind of very similar positions in this in this whole opening
The one thing I would say Tanya psychologically if it's the most logical move
Also, Prague will know that Fabi has looked at that and spent most of his time focusing on F3
So it's kind of mixed. It's mixed feelings. It's like F3 looks not logical looks best
but your opponent studied it with Stockfish with
with probably super computers, it's scary psychologically to walk further and know that your opponent's
going to blitz it out. So you might be looking to surprise Fabi back, but if not F3, then
what else?
That's a fantastic point because very often when you're faced with such a dilemma about
how to respond when you walk into your opponent's prep is the first thing you want to do
is get them out of their notes. The first thing you want is just even if you think
objectively, not the best move in the position. At least leave your opponent on their own to
think and work it out. And that sort of compensates for not making the best move. If it's not f3e4,
the only other idea I see David trying to fight this point is if Proud decides to get the bishop
out. I don't know what's the right square. Is it d2 or is it g5? One of the two. And then
plant the rook on c1 taking control of the c2 square and you say you haven't weakened any of
the pawns on the king side. Yeah I like this one as well and Bishop g5 has been played
before I believe and it was actually in the first blue-bound game I mentioned against
Igor Kovlenko very strong Ukrainian grandmaster and just to play through a few moves there
Bishop g5 was met by knight to e4 from blue-bound and okay we saw some crazy stuff Tanya.
White didn't take it white just moved the bishop back now the knight came into b4 and
already. Actually, Bluebaum had something even stronger here, but in that position, apparently
black is already quite a lot better by playing the move g5 and chasing the bishop around the board.
So, I mean, this is this is crazy stuff. I also noticed just before we kind of leave
Pratt to think that g3 allows a crazy move Tanya that gives black the advantage. And this
has also happened in a, well, actually, this has been analyzed, but I don't think it's
it's happened in the game black would play the pawn sacrifice e5 and I'm struggling to
understand it Tanya it just looks like a huge initiative I guess the idea is to block bishop
to f4 but when I get control of the mask and e5 with the knight coming to b4 and this
is going to become crazy. Very interesting so not rushing with the knight jump to b4
because the white bishop develops with tempo hitting the black queen from that f4 square
and then the rook lines up to c1.
So g3 would be a very interesting take here,
but e5 by Fabian, considering that he's prepared this,
I think he will know that pawn sacrificed words.
And I'll also add, g3 is a natural move in this position.
It's an idea that you want to play to get your bishop out.
So, Prague needs to be just a little careful
and to demonstrate that line,
you've taken away a bishop f4,
and after pawn takes pawn, how would that continue?
Because knight takes pawn, I guess, knight b4,
and you're super happy.
Now Nb4 and a check is almost unstoppable and that's white damages his own pawn structure
by going back to d3 and I mean this is so ugly, pawn up, but is that a pawn really?
And as you say Tanya, the whole point is that Nb4 immediately is met by Bf4 hitting the
black queen and then your Rc1 move covering all the c2s so e5 is just a blunt that
diagonal and pawn takes pawn, rook to d8. I don't think, yeah, mkb4 as well next. I don't
think I would want to be white in this position especially knowing that Fabi is well prepared.
Oh, so first big question by Fabiano Caruana in this game and to me David Knight a6 just
screams tournament situation. It's mind-boggling to even imagine that a player at 4 out of
six at the candidates, which by the way was exactly Gokesh's score in 2024 in Toronto.
He went on to lose round seven and end at the halfway mark with four out of seven.
Fabio at four out of six is nowhere close to the leader.
Yes, he's chasing.
He's at second position with a point and a half differentiating him and Cinderó at
this point, which means that, you know, we spoke about this at the start with
John that at this point, you can't play the waiting game anymore.
You can't wait for the opportunities.
come for you, to come to you. You have to kind of create them on the board. And 906, going for this
opening by Fabi, I think is a reflection of exactly that. He wants a game, it's with the black pieces,
but he knows that a draw will probably not solve him well in this one.
Yeah, and I fully agree. Normally four out of six would be a fantastic score in the candidates,
but it's all relative. And if someone's running away with it, it feels like you're lagging
behind but here we see Fabi make some moves and leave the board again. That tends to be what
happens when the top players are well prepared and Tanya we saw the F3 E4 enter building.
This is getting incredibly fun right now. F3 E4 the move of choice. Fabi blitzing it out,
putting the pressure on Prague and I want to get John back with us. John we spoke about this
at the start but yes it's all eyes on cinder off the headliner but this one a key defining
game and it's lighting up early on. Oh it absolutely is this is fantastic stuff guys we have seen the
start of some incredibly tense lines on the board and I cannot wait to see how this game
continues if your heart rate is getting as high as mine when the action kicks off you're going to
need a little bit of a reset so before you grab your tea or coffee take a look at the new plushie
collection that we show you on your screen right now that one on the dog's head is exactly
the level of peace. I'm attempting to achieve today. I should point out I'm not doing a very good
job of it so far, but we can but try. Go to go.chess.com forward slash plush toy or type
exclamation mark plush toy in the chat to choose your favorite piece. Love that Karana
Prague is now starting to light up. We continue with that game straight after this.
Did you play any secret matches in classical time control just to again retain that feeling
of what it's like to play a slow-time control?
No, I didn't.
But if they were secret, you can't really
trust my answer, can you?
Well said.
Most players have you pegged as one of the favorites.
Have you been following any of the other competitors'
tier lists?
No, not their tier lists.
I think there's also a succession of tier lists
in everything.
I don't know if it happened if we're going back a decade
or two.
Like, every time I look, I look up basketball, tennis.
Everything's tierless now and who's the greatest of all time.
It's like some kind of global obsession with...
I don't know what it matters.
I mean, we'll find out at the end.
You can come back to me in three weeks
and I'll tell you for sure who wins the candidates.
Like, I don't see the point in...
I understand it's kind of fun, yeah, sure.
But the point in speculating...
So I don't know what people have said
in terms of who's the favorite and who isn't the favorite.
Not talking about lists, but talking about numbers.
our statisticians inside chess.com have you at 24.5% to win basically one in
four. Does that sound about right to you? I mean I won one in five before this so I
guess close enough. Hopefully I'll make it two and six. Increase the increase
on slightly. That would be great. There's been a couple of distractions
surrounding this tournament. Have they bothered you in any way? Yeah, this
of course I have kept up to date with and I was sad to see that Humphys
can ever win truth in the tournament. Although I understand I mean her reasons
you know safety is obviously a top priority like if you really don't feel
safe then that that should be that should be your priority. I don't think
that she had a good reason not to feel safe. I mean I thought about it I
understand that it's like it's a very serious conflict in the region and we
They are quite close geographically to it, but Cyprus is not involved.
And there was a drone strike, I guess it was already quite a while ago, maybe a month ago
or so, but it's like a solitary incident and Cyprus itself is neutral.
So I feel pretty safe here.
I hope the other players who decided to play are also feeling safe.
What, according to you, is the most important factor in winning a tournament like the candidates?
It's about a lot of factors together. I don't think you can name one, but pick one like never give up and
Yeah, believing in yourself till the end. I think at some point usually what happens is
Like things can go a little wrong and sometimes you try to push harder and can backfire and all these things
But you just have to play your best till the end and
And the chances will come your way
Is there anything you did to prepare for this candidates differently than Toronto?
Yeah, they have more experience.
I think I'm a better player than two years back.
Yeah, so things, the way I look at things now
is much different than what I did last two years back.
From an outsider's perspective,
when we hear you say you're a better player,
we mostly look at your rating compared to two years ago.
But obviously getting better is a lot more than rating.
So how have you improved?
What aspect of your game?
Yeah, it's probably less than what I was two years back.
And I need to check with the, I could be,
I mean, I don't think that really says what happened in the last two years.
So, yeah, I've had some good performances, which has given me a lot of confidence
of one of the tournaments.
I think I've had more experience playing all these players in the last two years.
And that has helped me to grow as a player.
Yeah, I think I just feel like I'm more experienced than a better player.
That's good to hear.
Now, of course, you're the only family where there's another candidate's
player at home.
How has Vaishali's participation in this candidates
and the preparation for it helped you prepare?
We have had some training camps,
but we have had like different teams
and everything different.
So it's not really affecting each other's,
but sometimes you can steal an idea.
That's one of the ways to,
really, you can help.
But in general, I think to have someone
who's playing at the ISO level,
at your home to discuss certain areas,
I think we both understand what,
what we are going through and you know always have each other's backs so that's that helps
both of us.
That's kind of a funny situation. Has there been a time at home where you're looking at
a position or your sister is and you have to turn to the other one and say don't steal
this idea?
No, I think it happens. It happens a lot. And especially like don't play it in some
play-to-taste games that's, they'll be the most funnest one. But we do share
lot of ideas, I mean not just about openings, but in general we will discuss a lot about
chess and I think that does help both of us.
7 of the FIDE Candidates 2026 as promised before the break, Prague Fabiano is really
starting to heat up and we have a couple more moves on the board as well.
This position went from, okay, let's see what's going on to, oh goodness, this is getting
real interesting really quick.
Tanya, let's have the update.
What's going on?
Well, a lot has happened pretty much from the start, you know, John with a Fabi's
choice of going for the Slav and it just felt like, what's the idea with this?
opening theory has been started to the teachers maximized everywhere when Faby
throws out a Knight to a6 on the edge of the board forcing Prague into a think
pretty much every single move but so far Prague has been able to navigate the
waters but that means he needs to be precise because David his choice of
moves is the kind where you get space in the center but still undeveloped on
the king side d4 under fire Knight b4 still an option there are also threats
of grabbing that knight on c4 at the center of the board and Fabi throwing in an e5, taking advantage of that pain.
I think critical decisions, pretty much every move of the opening of pregnant on this one.
Yeah, so a fascinating position because this knight in particular has already done a lot of work.
It's already moved out to f3, e5, c4. It's made three of the nine moves so far for white.
But paradoxically here, Tanya, I've been looking a bit in the break, and it needs to be a novelty now from Pregnananda if he wants to fight for an opening advantage.
And that all revolves around moving the knight for a fourth time. So breaking all the opening principles, I would say the most natural move maybe is to develop the bishop, defend the center.
You mentioned that that pawn is a bit weak, a bit tender and that would be kind of if you gave me 10 seconds
That would be my move. Maybe Prague is also looking at that one
But by process of elimination
He needs to realize that that last threat you mentioned Bishop takes knight and then breaking out with e5
Is actually going to solve all of black's problems. For example, if the bishop does come out
We would see a capture take-take and the e5 boom
not only at expanding the center, but the bishop will develop maybe with
gain of tempo. Bishop c5 is quite a cool idea in a lot of lines, a bit of a
threat now. And Praig would be on the back foot, maybe he could still kind of
equalize here with white, but he wants more than just equalizing. He can
pawn structure and then maybe defend everything, but I don't think he wants
to play in the back foot. So moving this knight to either e5 or e3, which
Sure, I have never been seen before.
Those are the key moves right now.
95 does feel like the more natural move.
Not only is it a forward move,
it doesn't come in the way of the bishop development.
For me, knight to e3 feels extremely counterintuitive to find,
especially if you haven't prepared this at home.
Exactly, playing it over the board,
you kind of think, oh, I'm a genius.
Or you might think, oh, this looks so silly.
Like it's nothing in between.
You just think, okay,
I've just moved my knight for a fourth time.
I blocked my own bishop's development.
Where's it even going from here?
I think the answer is actually back to C2,
which is a bit of an odd one,
but yeah, this is very difficult, I think,
for Prague to find.
And Fabi might be relying, Tanya,
on Prague not finding these moves.
95 more natural maybe,
but it did just come from that square three moves ago.
So I think psychological big moment now for Prague.
And Fabi, of course, the one who's prepared this whole idea, starting with the light coming
out to A6, you know, David, this position pops up.
And if anyone's watching, really, the move they want to make is Bishop D3.
That's the one that's screaming to be played, right?
You develop, you take control of the D4 square, and you feel relaxed about it.
And the one game that you mentioned has been played.
In fact, that was the move of choice.
and kind of ended in the next three moves in a draw.
Yeah, I think this one will go longer,
if only because there are some rules in place
to prevent such a quick draw.
But yeah, basically three,
I wouldn't be shocked if it's played, Tanya,
but I think White would definitely have no advantage there
and Fabby would know what to do.
Also, Prague probably wants to surprise Fabby back
at some point, so yeah, it's a difficult moment.
I think he might find one of these two moves
just by process of elimination,
but it's already cost him a lot of time on the clock.
Yeah, two hours is what the players start with, but no increment until move 41, move
40 to be reached to get that extra 30 minutes with the bonus time.
But Prug burning the clock right now and I think it's kind of important because of course
he's surprised with Fabi's approach and that's something hard to deal with, right?
You come into the game, you know this is a crucial one, a critical fight in the
battle because Prug while he is in the chasing pack, he's two and a half points
behind, sorry, not two and a half points behind Cinderov even.
So for Proud to even get into the conversation between Sabi and Cinderov,
it's extremely important to try to win a game right now.
You know, they're kind of running out. It's eight games to go with the margin,
the lead margin that's there. They're running out of number of games to play.
And I'll point out, like at this point, nobody's just playing their own tournament.
None of these players are just by themselves playing their own tournament.
Each of them are now responding to Cinderov and his lead.
Exactly. It feels like they have to like climb over each other to get to the top, to get to Cinderov who's almost untouchable up there.
They're just scrambling already. They're getting nervous. Both sides will be playing for a win for sure.
I think in all of the games right now, which is nice to see, like, that's the upside to the runaway winner that everyone else has to go up a gear and take those risks.
risks but maybe we'll leave him to think here Tanya because a big moment for Pragan even if he
spends 30 minutes it's worth the investment if he finds one of those night moves. Let's do it and
there we go to our eight board view and while David look at that top left board our actual
marquee matchup with a five and a half out of six for Cinderov playing against Gehry who has had a
win in the tournament but the queens are already off the board and I look at what we've got
at least in our birds eye view it does appear that Cinderov he has an extra pawn from now
that night. I think we have to jump in because everything feels like it's hanging currently.
The knight on B7 hits Geary's rook on D8, the bishop on A5 is hanging. What on earth is happening?
And at some point I'm going to ask you to do an action replay as well on this one.
Yeah, I'm going to start with that Tanya. I think that's the most important thing because
I'm as confused as Geary looks right now on the camera. How did we get here? And we left
it a while ago. We left it about 20 minutes ago but all of that time was
eaten off Gehry's clock. We saw the rook come to d8 putting pressure on the IQP
on the isolated pawn. Queen e2, knight c6, rook d1, natural moves and after
bishop a5 it started getting a bit weird. I guess this is pre-emptive like you
said Tanya a3 would have come with tempo, b4 would have come with
tempo and b5 as well so he's getting out the way. Maybe a3 another
candidate move but bishop b5 was the choice. Cinder of must be in prep. The clocks tell the whole
story here. Bishop to d7 defending the knight c5 hitting this pawn. Bishop back to e8 and now boom
this is surthematic right Tanya. Isolated pawn marching forward explodes everything open and
this is how we got the queens off the board. d5 capture, queen to d7 and what do you make
of this. How nervous is Geary right now? The camera tells us quite a bit right of
what we want to know. It's head and hands for him. He has question to ask. I will
correct myself though. I thought b7 was just a pawn but of course it came after a
sacrifice on d5. So material balance has been restored but look at the
position. So many things are hanging. The white bishop on d5 undefended. The
black bishop next to it as well and the rook hanging as well. This is the
kind of endgame where you can't play on field, you have to sit down and calculate all the
lines.
You know, for Giri, first he has to work out with Sindhirao, one hour and 56 minutes
on the clock.
I mean, he's barely used any time.
You're facing a monster in Cyprus who's, you know, just demolishing the whole field
and here he comes into the halfway mark into round seven and just comes out with
another great prep.
It might still be level and it might still be within, you know, balanced territory
here for Anish Gehry but the thing is the problems are there the questions are all there and it starts
with a very direct one right now David. To me it looks like Anish might be forced to give up that
bishop on a5 maybe capture white's bishop on b5 but I have to say white has the healthy upon
structure a beautiful square on d4 for his other knight to land on let's say bishop takes bishop
Knight takes bishop. Eventually the white knight getting to d4. The white rook jumping on to
c7. A healthy upon formation. A direct target on d5. It appears at least in my head to be
a position where white is fighting for two results. And that is an ideal scenario for
Cinderhub in round 7 right now.
Yeah. Geary would love to be on the opposing side where he plays with a small advantage
risk-free positional, kind of Trump's positional edges as well.
Geary is really uncomfortable in positions where the shoe's on the other foot,
where he is the one who has to dig deep and just kind of suffer a little bit.
Probably still a draw is the most likely result, but I agree Tanya, why is the
anyone having fun? And that's why Geary looks panged right now.
This is move 19 Tanya, but incredibly, this has all been seen before.
This is not a new position. This is incredible.
That was more David Allen.
Okay.
And yeah, I don't want to go to kind of full nerd mode yet, but I have to as a big opening
theory nerd myself.
Rooksy D to BA is the only other logical move here due to the double attack on the Rook
and Bishop.
Like you said, Tanya, Bishop takes Bishop is fine as well, but after the night captures,
it's just too easy for White, I think.
It's going to be good night versus bad Bishop.
I could see, okay, not by this exact move order,
but just for an example on the board,
let's say something like this, take, take.
And I could see White having a dominant knight
versus a bad bishop outside pawn majority.
I think this is just one way traffic,
a lot of fun for White.
So Rd to b8, sorry, was played in a game
between two grandmasters, Goran Dizdar and Robert Ruck.
I think I played Robert Ruck a few years ago,
Hungarian grandmaster.
I think I was like 15 at the time, or maybe even younger, but a long time ago.
Rook d2b8 and in that game white took the bishop.
I thought that was three buts days ago for your David.
What are you talking about?
Exactly, it was just last month.
Naitik's bishop was the move and after Rook takes b5, black solved most of the problems
by throwing the pawn down the board and the b2 pawn was quite hard to protect long term
and this fizzled out towards a draw, but I do see that the computer points out a novelty if
to D to B8 happens, Tanya, and it's to play this weird looking move, Bishop to A6 defending the knight
and here playing this move Knight to D6 threatening to trap this rook in the corner
and White has a small advantage that continues.
I actually really like this for White, this line that you're pointing out.
It feels like Anish hasn't completely equalized the position, d5 weak, an immediate threat
of the rook on a8.
The double bishop pair about to be neutralized whenever white wants to do so.
The other knight jumping onto e5, in case you try to run away with that bishop, f7 will
be weak as well.
Bishop d7, 95 ideas apart from bishop d7 of course.
Sorry, bishop c6 as well runs into 95.
So definitely something that Geary needs to be careful about.
the clock situation, the fact that he's on an over seven minute think right now, Anish
has to work this out by himself on the board knowing that he's being an exceptionally
well prepared syndrome. I saw a feature chat that David Howell's saying that syndrome playing
for the memes trying to get to six out of seven, the internet will have a field day.
Well Tanya, are you going to do it or should I? It's likely, no? It's still the most
likely result here, but I don't know.
We do it when it happens, when and if it happens.
Exactly, he wants more.
Cinderov wants more.
And I just can't get over the level of preparation.
Like Cinderov's preparing super sharp stuff
as we saw against Ikara Nakamura
where Greed is good, grabbing three pawns,
cleaning on, he's preparing like huge attacking stuff
like he did against Fabiano.
I mean, here he's preparing grindy stuff
against Geary with minimal risk.
It's all sorts of different openings
and he seems to have ideas in all of them.
Whoever is in his team, whoever the seconds are,
they deserve a race, that's for sure.
Yeah.
I mean, I have to say for everyone has been wondering
who's Hikaru's second and who is on Hikaru's team
with everything that's been going on.
Who is that second who Hikaru's referring to?
But I think the real question
and the one that really matters is,
who's on Cinderella's team?
Who are these guys who are coming up
with this incredible opening prep?
Because you know it's one thing,
David, to go rating, farming, to get to the candidates,
and it's a whole different thing
to farm rating points at the candidates.
Exactly.
Cinder off, looks like he's farming
some world-class players right now,
but I mean, the most impressive thing is every opening,
he's up by move 15, move 20,
he's up by half an hour or more.
In the case of Hikaru, he's up by an hour.
Like, that's such a huge headstart,
and it can't be underestimated at this level
where everyone is so good,
that he's getting the first blow in psychologically
and objectively on the board.
It's just, yeah.
I'm running out of superlatives, Tanya.
Stop me now before I start
ranting about how incredible he is.
Keep going.
It's on everyone's mind.
I think everyone's absolutely shook.
I don't think, and it's that shocking
that if Cinderaw would be in the mix,
would be one of the leaders,
but just what he's demonstrated in the scoreline,
in the quality of play, in the range of his play,
handling different positions with his opening prep.
And even the times when he's had to be on his own,
how he's navigated everything, so far,
halfway mark, it's just been incredible to watch him do this.
It feels like a generational performance.
Sinderov said it himself that this is maybe
the tournament of his life before he added
that he has a long career ahead of him.
So the maybe is very important.
Yeah, this is gonna be an interesting one to follow.
I still think he could draw the most likely result.
I trust Giri's defensive skills.
He tends to be quite good technically,
but he's definitely not enjoying life.
And it's almost zero risk at all here for white.
I don't think Cinderov's ever going to lose this game,
maybe only two or three times out of 100.
So okay, we'll see if Giri can stop Cinderov's great sweep
as we leave him to his suffering at the board, Tanya.
Let's do it.
Let's bring up our birds out of you again
as we zoom out of Javakir Vinderov for now, Anish Giri trying to keep things under control
in that one and continue our tour right there. I think we've done a lot on the Pradh Fabi
board. We'll check in with that in just a bit. Just another move has been played.
By the way, I do see Bishikorni 3, the knight did arrive on E5, so not allowing Fabi to
break in the center of the trade. Meanwhile, for Blubom versus Ekavinakamura, now that's
game. We haven't yet checked in with but it looks quite balanced with symmetrical pawn structures for
both. So I'm expecting a blue bomb streak to continue in this one David as we go into that
position. We've got the queen out in the center but it does appear to me that this can't be all
that bad for black. You know you don't have any big weaknesses but I see the blue arrow pointing
out that knight on infight is the only one to keep the balance. Yeah that's wild. It doesn't
look like he's done much wrong Hikaru. So the fact that knight e5 is by far the best move is
slightly surprising. Maybe I can just very quickly take his back Tanya just to show the opening
because it was quite an interesting one. It was also a Queen's gambit declined. We've seen a few
of those in the last few days and in this position where Geary played the more trendy
bishop to b4. Hikaru played h6 which is known to be a bit of a winning attempt. It doesn't
look like much but it's just a way to get the game out of known waters, get a position,
stop white from playing bishop g5, bishop takes f6 like we saw Sinderov do, and after a3 mimicking
Hikaru here saying okay, no regoes in for you. Now the play transposes more into semi-slav
waters and after pawn to e4 from bluebound blowing open the center it was Hikaru who's
just in time to play the move e5. If he doesn't get this, he might be struggling for space.
e5, now at least his bishop can breathe. I wonder how much this is prep because I see the clock
time and blue balms barely spent a second on the clock, but objectively after knight to e5,
it does look dead level. I think just to show everyone at home knight e5, the fact that knight
takes f3 comes with a check, white cannot get away with taking this as the queen would drop.
It can't take with the rook either as white would lose the exchange.
So this looks like it solves everything, 95 and actually Queen to explain black might be
better Tanya.
And in between a trade that to destroy the pawn structure, what I hear you David and
I understand how powerful 95 is.
I think the bigger question in my head is why is everything else so bad?
Why is the blue arrow appearing right now?
I don't have any weaknesses if I'm black here.
Yes, I'm behind in development.
I'm trying to think of, OK, what could be an alternative move?
Maybe bring the knight to f6 to offer a queen trade is something
that comes to my mind here.
And there we see, for me, a natural move.
I want to develop my bishop, but the bar just
rises up significantly here.
Yeah, this is crazy, because it looks so innocuous.
It looks like the queens are coming off almost symmetrical.
I agree.
Like, this looks like first glance, it looks dead equal.
But white here probably keeps the queens on.
and actually has a big attack with these bishops on the diagonals. White's head in development,
bishop takes h6 is such a big threat and boom we would see blue balm stormed to victory here with
the knight coming the bishop coming more than enough attacking attacking forces here.
Yeah that came out of nowhere. The fact that queen h4 would be the strong and the time that
that Matthias has taken to get here.
He obviously understands the importance of 95, right?
This has been in the book for him.
He studied this.
So he knows 95 needs to be played,
but the clock tells a different story for Hikaru.
Hikaru needs to work that out on his own.
It's, you know, always these night moves
at the center of the board for Hikaru
that he needs to find for some reason, David.
94 when he's white, 95 when he's black.
What do you think, Tanya?
Is this one even on his radar,
or is it too difficult?
Just like 94 was the other day.
Depends if Castle was in the files, right?
Exactly.
Oh, those seconds.
I mean, he's now down 40, what is it, 43 minutes on the clock, Kikaru?
And I don't think those seconds are getting a raise in this case.
Like, I mean, knight e5 is fine, but Tanya, I think he's psychologically as well.
Blue balm is risking nothing.
Like, he'll probably have to knight e5, put his queen on e4, let's say something
like this threatening checkmate and I mean this type of position just looks dead level.
I think Hikaru won't be happy here like the maximum he's going to get is a draw.
It just feels like Bluebomb is using the fact that he's the underdog to provoke his opponents
to try and frustrate them and that's why Hikaru is spending so long now.
I do think that Hikaru finds Nae5 in this position.
Very important to be played otherwise Bluebomb goes on the hunt in this one you know
we saw the line with the queen sliding over,
and it just becomes any other move for black,
it becomes incredibly hard to finish development.
I think Icaro finds 95, it's a very direct line
with the trades that you pointed out,
you have that check on F3,
that NIDON E5 cannot be captured
because the queen on D4 is hanging.
And I would also say that it's easier to spot 95
than it was to spot 94
because it's sort of very direct trades
and tactics on the board.
It feels like you're solving all your problems.
The question is, how quickly Hikaru finds this?
We know he went into a massive 67 minute think,
last time and then chose H4.
So hopefully this time, it will be sooner than that
because the clock does play a role.
And as you said, after Queen slides over,
there's no trade, the game goes on.
So you still need time on the clock.
Still need time on the clock.
And I think you'll get there just process of elimination
because Knight F6 looked clearly bad
after the white Queen stays on the board,
Queen H4, big attack.
Maybe the only other logical move, well, maybe two would be bishop to b6 attacking the white queen.
Now at least the white queen can't use h4, but apparently this is super bad after bishop to b6
because of white just dropping back and the bishop now comes out. White will maybe play b4, c5,
lots of space. Yeah, I think he'll play knight e5, but Tanya, just like in the other game,
there's nothing new under the sun and this position has actually been reached between two
Indian players, Aradya and Ghosh. I don't know from France.
But E5 was played in that game as well.
Yeah, both quite strong players. Aradya Garg and there are a couple of Ghosh, so I don't know which ones you're talking about, but all of them are Grandmaster level.
So I think one thing I do feel though is that Hikaru isn't aware of those games, because if he was then I think the move would have been played sooner, especially considering the difference that there is.
that this is a new position for him look at the clock that tells you the whole story. So Hikaru
on the thinking this one chat will he find 95 and will he equalize the position on the spot or will
he go on the defense and have to suffer for a while. David should we leave Hikaru to navigate
his way through this one and bring up our bird's eye eight board view one more time as we continue
going around the horn there's one game remaining in the open that we haven't checked out but
David, I'm going to ask you to take us to Asip Anko, worst is Wei Yi, before we move
on to the women's boards.
Yeah, let's do that, because this round has so far been all about brand new opening ideas
or at least very rare opening ideas, and in that final game we haven't touched on.
I've studied the Petroff for far too long in my life to be proud of, Tanya, but
if we show what happened, Night F3, Night F6, the Petroff defence, this is a Chinese
speciality or the top grandmasters in China seem to play it other than ding
interestingly but d4, knight takes e4 and I've never ever seen the move
queen to e2 here. d takes e5 is a move, bishop d3, knight takes e5 they're all well known but queen to e2
given a miss already by the computer and evaluation says well just dead level already
but the queen just seems to get in the way and knight takes e5
playing for some kind of beginner tricks like if the black knight ever moves
then there's always this knight c6 type of idea this happens in some other variations
one of the first tactics I ever learned in chess but bishop to e7 instead much more logical
f3 kicking the knight back and to catch up with the live position the queen moves again
out of the way defends this pawn, bishop f4 we're going to see opposites like castling maybe
but first Nc6 hits in the center and okay it just looks like a very tense position.
It really does right because we undoubtedly are heading towards kings on the opposite flanks and
it also looks like d4 under pressure so right now probably going long castle I don't know if
there are tactics there with d5 and the knight on d4 being on the same file maybe it's still
possible because David, if you need to defend that pawn, I'm not finding a happy way to do it.
Knight b5 might be a move here on the darking c7 and also protecting d4.
Yeah, I like it. There's only two ways to defend the pawn, all kind of happy ways. Knight e2 looks
passive, defensive, but knight b5 is interesting and this is probably the only thing he wants to
play but the bar drops Tanya that's mysterious. Yeah 92 completely missed my
radar as a move it just felt like I'm putting my knight in front of the Bishop
but I do see the point of it a6 you're pointing out so you're just allowing the
c7 pawn to fall and the idea is that if I take with the Bishop the queen moves
to d7 I lose a piece on the spot too many hanging pieces in this one and if
I take it with the knight and as we're analyzing this 92 has been the
move of choice by Asip Enko so he finds the right square for the night and suddenly the
night on C7 would have found a nowhere home yeah and that's just gonna take that piece
off the board and get two pieces for a Rook even G5 might be a threat to destabilize the
night and the nights travel too far from home so like you said night to E2 once you
see it maybe it's the safer of the two but instant move from where he knighted
before he wants to release some tension trade-offs and pieces.
And so, we're here at 2 out of 6 alongside Andhra Asipyankov,
currently at the bottom of the table right now, David.
I think for both these players, the big question
is how motivated they are at this point.
But they completely understand and realize
that for any real chances, this one
has to be a decisive game.
If this ends in a draw, and both of them
land at 2 and 1 half, then you're
just looking at playing spoilers for the rest
of the tournament.
There's pretty much no hope left, no hope left for either one.
Exactly, like even if Cinderov has a total nightmare
of a second half of the tournament,
like they still have to catch up to likes of Fabiano,
maybe Prague, maybe others.
Yeah, I think a draw suits neither of them.
And unfortunately for them, Tanya,
it looks like a very drawish position,
especially if White just takes the knight,
takes these off, let's say White blocks,
push it back to D6, and I don't think this game
goes on that much longer. It's so symmetrical. No pawn breaks. Oh, I think this is the worst
scenario for both. And Knight takes Knight. It just looks totally...
You know, David Howe, I am not going to be... I'm going to be more optimistic about the
fireworks in this one. Weird until White goes long castle eventually. Black pushes the
B pawn with B5, B4. Thank you for giving me a hook and C3. White goes G4, G5 on
the other side. I believe fund remains to be had here.
Okay, I hope you're right, Tanya. I've never wanted so badly to be
wrong myself. I want this to be a fight. I want both or at least
one of the players to feel like they have a fighting chance in
the second half of the event. But yeah, it feels very, very
close to dead equality right now.
Alright, so in the balance so far, more minor pieces about
to come off the board. Let's bring up our bird's eye view
and do a roundup of our women boards next. Anna Musichik with a one-point lead ahead of five
players chasing her. She's playing against Beveshara Asubhaiva. That's the red board on the bottom row,
the second to left here. And it's already a fun one. That started with 1-E4 is what I want to
say and I'm struggling to understand which opening Black chose. In that David it's been
a mix of openings. I see the bar remains level pretty much across our four boards in the
women especially in the first three. Meanwhile, Vaishali versus Tanzonghi. For Vaishali and
Divya, it was their first win yesterday. So they're trying to find that momentum to take
it forward. Vaishali against Tanzonghi, but it's Tanzonghi who has a slight edge in that,
at least if the bar is to be believed. Meanwhile, Gorya Shkinazhu Jinnah. David, I just want
to talk about one thing here. You know, we've been mentioning the great blue-bombs
streak. I think it's time to talk about the great Gorya Shkinazh streak. It's
been six out of six draws for her so far.
Exactly. And I think she's the only one we can say that for
across the two sections right now. She's the only one who's
drawn all of her games. Everyone else is either one one lost
one. And yeah, maybe she'll do what Geary managed to achieve
all those years ago back in 2014, I believe. And okay,
we check in on that one just to just to kind of get it out
the way, Tanya. It's not the most thrilling of positions, but maybe that's where we start
the roundup of the women's boards.
Let's do it. Then we can work our way up to more fun stuff. And there we have it. A lot
of pieces have gotten off the ball. It's six versus six when it comes to the pawns
as well. David playing against Jujin and Arjuna lost again yesterday. She's on a 50% score
right now. But I think with the black pieces going into the halfway mark, this wouldn't
be an absolute disastrous result for the world number two. For Gora China though,
Is there anything to fight for?
There's one imbalance on the board
that I see apart from the pawn formation
that's a knight versus bishop dynamic.
What are you picking if you have to take this position,
the queen and the knight combo
or the queen and the bishop combo?
Yeah, I think I'm just very biased
by what I was taught as a youngster,
that queen and knight work so well together,
like they complement each other,
they do totally different roles.
I think especially here, Tanja,
just because the white knight has potential,
if you could move forward two squares
without having to turn as a knight.
Then if you could plant yourself on the c5 square,
that would be beautiful, dominate the bishop.
Black's bishop doesn't really have much to do.
So I think I would take the queen of knight,
but that being said, black doesn't have too many weaknesses.
Black probably gets rid of the isolated pawn
at some point by playing a4.
And maybe it's just not enough material,
99.9% accuracy I see for Zuzhina after the opening.
So there we go, oh, 99.8, pardon me, she's slacking.
How about you, Tanya? Can you see anything other than a draw?
I'm going to be honest. I completely agree with the Valbar and I have to say,
I think this one does end in a draw and Gourge will get a 7 out of 7.
So perfect streak at the first half of the tournament.
David, this one in the balance, the Queen and the Knight, I don't see combining for a massive
attack here. Let's go back to our bird's eye view as we continue our tour because exciting
stuff is happening all around, what catches your eye next?
A few things. I should also mention that Zuzhine, she still had the one and a half
hours that she was given at the start of the game.
She still had it on move 22 in that position, so great preparation.
But talking of great preparation, it does look like Tan Zhongyi, you mentioned that game,
she's the only one with an objective advantage, and it would be great for her to
get off the kind of break the curse win her first game of the event and yeah let's let's just trace
it back Tanya because only nine moves in but I have to be slightly critical if I charlie's last
move so e4 d6 this is a must win game Tanya Rong Yi feels therefore she plays the pitts defense
the pitt and okay bd3 all I know about this line is that after knight to d7 if white plays
knight f3 there are sometimes ideas of black breaking out with d5 and he goes into very
concrete lines so white drops the bishop back by shali well prepared but b6 I've nearly never
seen this before to fiancetto on the queen side before the king side in the pick defense
knight to e2 and a few moves down the line we see by shali doing by shali things and
Tanya I have to I have to say this is a very by Charlie move
But probably not the right moment for it while white's minor pieces are so passive no reason to go on the attack when black hasn't done much wrong
Did you frame that perfectly right a very very shali move? I think she's always looking for ways very direct lines
You know something that she believes poses immediate challenges to her opponent
F4, it's given a question mark as well, though I have to say from a practical perspective,
David, I'm not really sure why it's so bad because I do feel it comes with the idea of
pushing that F pawn further with F5.
I would be tempted to go with it straight away, to go F5 and try to create some weaknesses
on the king side.
I see it's a bad move but I'm going to ask you to break it down because it's
also one that I think a lot of us would be tempted to play.
I've castled if I'm white, my pieces are out, I'm looking for those opening
diagonals. F4 would be on most of our a-dots. Yeah I can see the logic behind it but I just
think her pieces aren't quite ready. Like if you could put the white knights, if you give
white two moves I'm going to make that happen like B8 and let's say black does nothing. If
you put the white knights on more active squares then I could definitely see like F5
and some kind of attack brewing. I'm not sure what we'd take on E5 first before F5 but
F5 bring the bishop out and great chances but in the current position I think she's a bit
slow e4 is a bit of a target for the black pieces and if she does start with f5 I do think that black
firstly the first move that comes to my mind maybe there's something stronger but d5
she can blow open the center and flank attacks really work when the center is so fluid like this so
if the whole center disappears I think black is for choice the two bishops
fiend katoad are going to be better than white's bishops the black knight's more active than
the white knights and yeah I think sorry if we go back to the live position same if for example
white takes first and then f5 which is quite tempting I think she's just not quite in time the black
knights mobilize e4 is now an overwhelming target and knight to d3 is coming it just feels like
she's not quite in time to launch that attack so I think right idea maybe just slightly
permittural here Tonya. Yeah and I think that's been the storyline for Vaishali across not just
this candidate but even in Toronto as well where she's just rushed in with these direct approaches
trying to get that aggressive play into the game but not fully being prepared as far as the pieces
are concerned. So we'll see if this one becomes fun and who is the player who's having more fun
as we get our feature tax saying that this will be an interesting prep battle. I think
the only one in prep has got to be Tanzongi. Look at the clocks as well Vaishali has
has also suffered on the timer throughout,
so she needs to be careful with that.
Meanwhile, we see that Divya versus Lagnaudavid,
this remains in the balance.
I want to check with our tournament leader,
Anna Muzichuk, against Asobaiva,
because I see the jeep on has moved forward.
Yes, the queens are off the board,
the kings in the center.
Is this also very much in the balance,
or do you think White, having that more space,
the Knight jumping onto F5,
might give something to Anna Muzichuk to play for
before we circle back to our opening?
Yeah, very interesting position.
Like there are imbalances, like you said,
the pawn structure, white with a bit more space,
white with the extra central pawn on the light squares.
Black has the bishop pair.
And I wonder whether that survives.
Like taking on g6 is never very desirable, I would say.
Like if black forces the decision
before the black bishop saves itself,
if white ever takes and the h file opens
and there's a bit of a backward pawn here,
unclear who this favors.
I don't know. Normally I like the pawn center. I like having extra support in the center.
The levers here all belong to white. F4, d4, she can choose one to break. But it just feels
like black is zero weaknesses. I think it's just objectively balanced here. If you gave
me this with white with black, I would say I don't mind just happy to play any end
game once the queen is around.
Yeah, I think the one suffering will be on the other side,
whether playing with the white pieces or the black against you.
David, you'll be grinding down this one for the next 150 moves.
Not going to be fun for your opponent.
All right, this one is strategic end game fight.
We'll come back to it, but let's go to our open section,
because so much has happened on our two Maki matchups
in that one.
As you can see, those are the top two boards on our top
row, sorry, even.
And it looks like Anish Kiri has managed
to navigate his way.
More pieces have been off the boat since we left it last.
And a lot of the same has happened
between Frog and Fabi.
What do we check out first?
Oh, it's tough.
They both look very, very juicy right now.
The Cinderov against Geary game has gone roughly down
some lines that we mentioned earlier.
Although Cinderov didn't play that concept
that we mentioned of the Bishop to A6.
So we've actually seen this position,
I think, in earlier analysis.
We will dive a bit deeper later,
But I think the most important thing
is Cinderov is finally thinking.
Giri's 40 minutes down, but at least he's
got Cinderov out of the book finally.
But it does look like fireworks on the Preg
against Fabi board, Tanya,
because there is a material imbalance
if I'm counting correctly, at least for now,
just for this one moment.
Preg has sacrificed a pawn
and Fabi just took it willingly, quickly,
only spent eight minutes on this clock
and we're currently on move 17.
Should we do a quick backtrack?
Let's do it, Devan Haal.
Let's do it.
Let's take it from where we left it, because it
felt like Fabio was coming out with all the prep,
and it looks like he's still on it.
He's gotten up and left his chair every single move.
So he did move the knight to e5.
He spoke about how that's the more natural choice
than retreating the knight to e3.
And unlike Hikara Nakamura, he
keeps finding these knight moves, centralized knight moves.
Actually, Hikara did find knight e5 himself, to be fair.
So knight e5 is the key move of the round.
And knight to b4, white bishop came out, very natural.
Black pawn cements the knight on a nice outpost.
Bishop c4, okay, interesting.
Exchanging pieces when black is slightly cramped
feels a bit counterintuitive,
but clearly he feels that his own development
is important, Prague.
So knight to d7 from Fabi.
He was the one who initiated this.
Like he could easily just take off the bishops,
play like e6, develop and gain goes on,
but he wants the fire, 97. Bishop takes, I mean, it's still so scary for both sides and
now really cool move from Prague. Like his bishop is hanging. He can't take the black
knight because he's pinned. And the first brilliant move of the round, I believe Tanya,
sacrifice. He castles double x-glam.
Whoa!
Bishop, he's giving up a bishop for free. Also it seems bishop f4 is a mighty pin
though winning back the knight next move and knight to d3 only move Fabian
prep queen takes knight and the pin winning back the piece but Rook is d4 I
don't even know where to start unpacking this Tanya but visually it looks
quite nice for white due to these ugly double black pawns yeah and the bishop
the bishop stuck behind it and for Fabi that means the rook on h8 isn't
coming into play at any moment soon I want to just backtrack to that moment
short castle because what a move that was. You know it needs to be just looked
into a little bit. Here you've got the knight and e5 which is hanging but the d4
pawn has been, the bishop on e6 hanging as well and I think the reason
Prague chose short castle in my head David and you can correct me if I'm
wrong is that if the bishop was to move if you get your bishop to safety
knight d3 check seems incredibly powerful and you're not only losing the b2
pawn but your king you got no right to castle for the rest of the game.
And on the other hand, I think the move bishop f4 also doesn't work as you're demonstrating
This would get start getting ugly for white very very quickly and instead of the bishop retreat if you start with bishop f4
It's the same problem, right?
So what prog essentially did was he sidestep this check for all these lines and he allowed Fabi to capture on e6
Knowing that the next move he can pin and win the knight on e5 and he kind of regains material
But with some positional interest on it
Yeah, it goes a very, very impressive calculation from Prague, as we used to.
He's great at that, but the one downside for Prague is now he's still down on the clock,
nearly one hour down compared to Fabi, and he knows the preparation continues,
and he's a pawn down. Probably win a5 back, but b2 will drop, and if Black gets two moves
in place like g6, bishop g7, Tanya, suddenly the Black bishop actually becomes quite a
decent piece on this diagonal and Black's knight on d3 is hard to evict, looks super strong.
I could see this going wrong as Prague isn't accurate in the next five-six moves.
I will point out a counter idea that if you were to take on a5, David, at least you're
relying on challenging that long diagonal once the knight from c3 moves and then the bishop
occupies it. So trying to fight that sianket of bishop of Black landing on g7, 92,
and then you just fall back with your bishop and I'm not allowing that development sequence
that you were earlier highlighting for black. Also after bishop takes pawn, I just realized that
maybe knight takes pawn isn't the easiest to execute because white's rook lines up against the
knight and the pawn on b7 is weak and as I say that I see you also have knight c4 attacking
the bishop so maybe the line goes on. Yeah this is probably what he's calculating it's the
most forcing line. Bishop takes pawn regains the material puts the pressure on black to
justify what he's done to his own structure. The white bishop I guess has to move, not many squares.
And visually again, it looks fantastic for white, but the bar is just staunchly in the center.
So I kind of trust Fabi's prep, but I don't know, my eyes, I don't know how much they deceive me,
Tanya. It just feels so easy and nice for white to play. So I think if Prague is careful and
chooses the right order, takes his pawn at the right time, I don't know, root b1, root b1,
whatever at the right time then of course white shouldn't be in trouble but
yeah it's psychologically tough being an hour down on the clock. Want to see a
fun tactic here? I like your move rook to d1 because suddenly David it looks like
you're pinning the knight but hey what about g6 bishop g7 that actually
comes with a nice idea because g6 now runs into a super strong bishop e5
please pick up that bishop lose your rook and d4 because you're about to
lose a rook anyway. So this would be absolutely disastrous for Black.
I didn't even mean that tactic, Tanya. But thank you for pointing it out, made me look
like I was creating some luck there. But yeah, Rook d1, it just comes to mind as a natural
move. It's like a pin, right? And e5, you can take it as well. Yeah, game continues.
But yeah, I think Rook d1 and Bishop takes a5 are the most natural moves to my eyes.
I don't really see what else you don't give it. I know you're a bit of a pawn grabber yourself in the spirit of
Sarvan, but I have to say that even in this position
You if you had to take a color you would want to be white here
It just feels like more than enough compensation with most of Fabi's army still stuck in the corner. Sorry
Yeah, Fabi's army
Yeah, I think I would 100% take white if you said
I'm dropping both you and your opponent into this, neither of you know anything, this is
just what you see is what you get, but if I was facing Fabby, that's one thing, and
if I'm facing Fabby armed with a super computer and all his seconds, and I know he's still
in prep and I'm an hour down on the clock, then I might not want white anymore, but
Fabby I guess I'll take the pawn.
It is because then you're like, I'll take the pawn and at least I have something
to show for the suffering that I'm going through in this position.
Exactly. You've got to suffer for something, but we'll see how this plays out. It looks
like the fireworks, they were fun, but now it becomes a bit more, still some calculation
to be done, but a bit more technical for Prague.
All right, so we will see if Prague goes for either the Rook move or grabs on A5 as
he navigates the calculations, trying to make sure that Fabi's development isn't
easy enough in this end game giving Prague something maybe to play for here.
Let's backtrack as Prague is still thinking Fabian and our over an hour and
50 minutes on the clock is barely spent any time.
That's got to be also a pressure point for pregnant and I hear.
But as we go back to our bird's eye view, David, I want to point out that in
fact, Hikaru did find the line that we were talking about.
So you mentioned 95 over there.
It had an interesting sequence to it.
I really want to go to the cinder or board though, because we see that
there's tension on the Queen side.
A lot of the pieces have gone off the board.
It looks like a fun end game, but neutralizing.
It feels like all of the left side
is going to be out very soon.
So beat three, the last move by Javakir.
Yeah, now I'm more confident about the six, seven
becoming reality.
Tanya, he's got rid of one of his isolated pawns
and very quick action replay.
I am a bit surprised.
I was praising Gavokir's team, still impressive opening preparation, but after rook d to b8,
which has been played before, the most logical move to try and get the rook active on the
b-file, he didn't play bishop to a6, Nx a5 is fine as well, but he did spend 22 minutes
himself, or 20-something minutes himself, Gavokir, actually I'm looking at the wrong
column, he spent a bit of time.
He took the bishop on the edge of the board and after knight to b3, I think he's run out
of time to stop Black's counter play on the b-file and that's why we saw what happened
transpire Rook to b2.
And yeah, if b3 is forced, I just don't think it's enough, Tanya, like one beautiful knight,
but yeah, Black's Rooks look supremely active now and White has a weakness of his
own.
Ananisha's rooks are beautifully doubled down on that weakness making sure that the knight
on d4 stays true to that spot so there's really no access to that d5 weakness that you have.
It feels quite balanced because the knight on d4 is strong at making sure that b3 remains
under control meanwhile for white very hard to create targets of his own right now.
In fact I do see that there are plans for Anish to even improve his own knight either
heading to f4 via g6 and I almost blundered into saying heading to d6 via c8 but you don't want to
do that. I think that's just a bad idea. Although maybe possible, knight c8, but it doesn't look
like a happy move. I want e4 or f4 for my knight so I'd be looking at the knight moves for Anish.
Fully agree. I think maybe still slightly on the unpleasant side for Anish, at least
short-term like what to do with the bishop, probably king of fates, useful move at some
point. But I don't really see why it's planned to win. Maybe white eventually is going to
infiltrate with the rooks. Oops, got the hiccups. And once the white king starts moving over
to the center, maybe one set of rooks off and then it becomes easier to push the pawn.
So Indian folklore has it that when you do get the hiccups, it means that somebody
is thinking about you or remembering you, David Howell, any name that comes to mind,
that could be the case here?
I don't know, but I'm honored that someone in the world is thinking about me right now.
All right, well, I hope they're watching this broadcast, then.
And David, fun.
You know, I had the feeling that Night See It, Night D6, although it would be a dream
to get your night on E4, but there was this feeling in the sense that that's not the
way to do it.
It can't be the right move.
And I want to show a backlash line to that.
I think Night See It would actually allow the white knight to jump on to F5, exactly
the tempo that you're looking for and hoping for.
attacking v5 and then back says you know what I'll grab b3 and chat this one so
your rook takes pawn white to play. Oh fork town gonna take me to fork town
Tanya I hope our viewers will give everyone a second to spot this I hope our
viewers are always looking for forcing moves captures checks threats and you
can explain it Tanya break it down why is this a blunder? I'm also looking at
I think we're getting a lot of a lot of people finding the tactics
They've all done their puzzle rush in the morning as I can tell and David folk town is in fact my favorite town in the world as well
So you get rid of the defender rook takes night boom comes in
Rook takes to a land with a check on e7 and you win the rook and the game
Yeah, white emerges with an extra piece and that's why going passive and allowing night jumps even in end games can come back fire
So, maybe I'm expecting Anish just to get out of any checks, just kind of safe move,
King f8 in the near future, followed by deciding where his knight goes.
I was skeptical.
I just, I feel like this should be a draw, but Anish isn't too happy.
There's still the cinder off effect.
White still risking precisely zero.
So yeah, definitely easier to be on the white side.
And this is just absolutely ideal for Cinderov, right, going into that halfway mark again with
a score of six out of seven, which has actually never been seen at the candidates.
It's never been done before at the candidates reaching this pivotal moment with such a massive
scoreline there.
You know, I think it was once again, it was Yanap Amnishi, Madrid 22, and I think
he was the only one to score five and a half out of seven at the halfway mark.
In fact, in 24, Dukesh lost the seventh game to Alireza and was at four out of seven.
The amount of wins that Cinderov has had in this first half, it gives him such a beautiful,
comfortable buffer for the rest of the tournament.
Exactly.
Imagine the last candidates winner who won it outright, Dukesh.
He was on plus one only at halfway and Cinderov is going to be on plus five, maybe plus
six if you can squeeze something out from this position. It is another level and I think just
before we leave this board Tanya Anish, I did mention it earlier but he doesn't want to be on
the black side of this. He would love to be in white shoes, zero risk, probably still a draw but
he's the one putting pressure. He's the one asking the questions and now he's the one
instead finding himself being interviewed in such a big game from the black side. Not a lot of fun.
It comes down to how much Cinderov wants to push here as well, although I don't see really
big ways for him to do so, but David, as we were seeing that Knight C8 falls into trouble,
it's also how easy is it for Black to find moves in this position.
You simply shuffle around your rook on the B-file, that would allow rook to C7.
Some more questions to be answered.
So Cinderov, the Knight is about to jump to E5.
It just feels like easier to play like you're saying if you're white, you know, you're
threatening a rook infiltration, you're threatening a Knight jump.
The Rook from D2 can improve itself to E2 or C2 doubling up.
There is hope for White to improve pieces, but not so easy for Anish to do that for his
own set.
So we'll leave Anish just now as he's still in the tank, now about six minutes on this
move for him, and go right back David to our bird's eye view because I really want
us to check in with Mathias Bluebomb against Fikaru Nakamura as we see that.
By the way, also, Asip Panko now on the back foot,
apparently, against Wei Yi, is what the bar is telling us
on the bottom row there.
We see that Wei Yi has lined up his queen
against the pinned knight there,
so this might be starting to get fun as well.
The women's votes somewhat remain in the balance
pretty much where we left them last.
David, where do we go first?
Do we check in with Asip Panko or with Blue Balm?
We see Blue Balm on the camera.
We see him thinking for the first time in the game.
So let's go to that one,
because we have to praise Hikaru
for finding some central knight moves
and finding all the best moves actually,
despite the clock situation.
It's not as bad as the other day, Tanya,
where he spent 67 minutes on one move.
Here he spent a lot of time over the course of two, three moves.
He spent 33 minutes earlier
on the retreating bishop to C7,
then he spent 20 minutes on the knight to E5.
We said that was a critical one and we'll go back there
because he did get brilliant for that.
It was a sacrifice, technically,
but can't be captured due to the tension between the queens, as we said,
it's a queenie for threatening mate in one, sneaky.
And I just wanted to point out this moment, Tanya, because after Knight takes f3,
it wasn't an immediate recapture, which was the only one played before.
I think in that game between the two Indian players, it was actually king to H1.
And this is stingy.
I think that deserves a double exclamation mark.
It's not taking back a piece.
It is still threatening a mate so the piece can't run away.
like g5, bishop takes g5 and white's still going to get in into h7 soon.
So king h1 doesn't get any brilliance, brilliancees, doesn't get any exfams, but g6 does which
feels unfair, giving back the knight.
It had to be done, had to be blocking this diagonal end.
This is really clever preparation for bluebound because he's actually weakened the black
king side, like h6 is hanging.
Ikaru defends that, threatens his own mate. This is a game of bishops and h3.
And really interesting that bishop to d7 is the only move. I guess queen takes c4, just too greedy here, Tanya.
That's some reason. I think I got it. Chat.
Ooh, more tactics, David Howell. Love it. So here's David's question for you. Queen takes
spawn and maybe a lot of black to get just a little bit more greedy in that you know you
do hit the bishop so let's see if chat finds this but Hikaru did find it and he did play
the best move.
Yeah he did play the best move and yeah I'll give chat five more seconds what should white
play here should white react to the bishop being hit.
Alright let me let me pull up our chat David and give you an update on that yes I do see
I do see them finding it.
I told you that super sharp chat today
with our candidates on.
And David, you've got to tell us the idea
as I see a few in our chat have spotted it as well.
Yeah, I'm a porn grabber.
So let's grab that porn.
Whoops, we hung our bishop.
And initially I was a bit confused.
I was like, wait, if we take the Rook,
we're material down.
Black gets two bishops for a Rook.
But of course, who needs the Rook?
Checkmate ends the game.
Queen to F6 and infiltration on G7.
because of death, guaranteed, the black king will die.
So, okay, Hikaru, unsurprisingly found the best move,
didn't get greedy, but bishop to d7.
I think it's important to use that square, Tanya,
because bishop to e6 could fall foul
of some tactics a bit later due to,
like bishop takes g6 ideas, the bishop might be loose.
Maybe it also just gets a bit in the way of the e-file
that black wants to challenge.
So, bishop to d7, best move.
Bluebaum develops his bishop and here we've seen him play a couple more moves.
He attacks this black bishop and this is the live position.
Very interesting. The last move by Hikaru, like you said, the first time we've got Mothias thinking
and that has me wondering, is he considering taking what is often the poison pawn on a7?
Bishop takes pawn. I don't see an immediate refutation to it, David, because Bishop takes
pawn, you usually are careful because of your bishop getting trapped with b6, right? But
here, let's say rook takes rook, rook takes rook, and even if you get b6, white has the
resource of c5, and then running away with the bishop, I think queen c4, you don't have
the time because pawn takes pawn, hits the bishop and c7 as well. Also, there's
bishop b3 with bf7 being super soft in the position. You might just lose on the
spot. Queen of 7, rookie 7, checkmate. That is very, very nice. And yeah, we just want to finish that. I
might have walked into a checkmate on white as well in that line. You don't have to go rookie 7
all the way because there might be backrank problems in that. But let's show it. Queen takes
pawn, queen of 7. And you think rookie 7 wins you the game, but you just see the bar do its
think chat because it's black first to the party with queen c1.
Oops, mate gets mated and that would be a sad end to the game but I think you're right.
Same idea, just different order Tanya and first a check and then the e7 as you mentioned
and this costs black, the queen and the game. So yeah, tactics very tempting to go for them
now. Bishop takes pawn. The question would be whether black can grab on c4 now and it's
It's the same idea with a skewer on the back.
Oh, and Queen at 4th.
Oh, there's tactics and counter tactics.
Queen takes Queen, Bishop takes Queen, and you think you're winning?
David, why to play?
Why to play here?
But it doesn't work though.
Wait, something works.
Oh, wow.
Rook takes Rook.
Rook takes Rook.
Rook takes Rook.
Not this one.
This would be mate again.
But first, lift, give the king some air, and it's a double attack, hitting the two bishops.
But very important, and the tactics here are crazy.
He's played bishop takes a seven by the way, Tanya, so this isn't a fantasy, this is reality.
But I think the key detail is queen takes queen, black flicks in, rook takes rook, check,
and only then takes the queen back and looking very level.
Although you have to work out that rook e7, I guess there's bishop to e6 with
some back-rent ideas, and the tactics continue.
Yeah, and for some reason, the bar still remains level
when it looks like white should be completely
lost with the bishop hanging.
It probably means you bishop, you just sidestep the attack
on the bishop with a move like bishop to c2, or to a4.
c2 does look safer here.
But still, look at that.
And the bar says rook d2, and it starts getting very tricky.
So even with such few pieces on the board,
you need to be very careful.
Tanya, if we go back to the live position, Bishop takes a7, played, what do we think?
Is this going to be the first game to finish, at least in the open candidates, if Queen takes
c4, if Fikaru calculates everything right here, takes the pawn and goes back to f4,
this could fizzle out towards the draw if it's just bishops and level material.
I mean, it's Matias bluebombs, so not surprised if we do get a draw in this one.
Hikaru. And I think it might be under money that this might be our first result of the day,
though I do have my eye out on the other boards as well. Yeah, David, it feels like this might be
the first to wrap up, but it's not a happy score. It's not a happy score, but it's not also a happy
end to this game, especially for Hikaru, right, who if he wants any chances at all in
this candidates needs to go on a hot streak of his own. Exactly. He'll need the best
second half of candidates history to have any chance of launching a comeback. I guess they say
like you can't you can't win the candidates in the first half but you can you can definitely lose
it in the first half and if you throw away all of your chances all of your games it feels like he's
still kind of in the mix if he gets the win today but unfortunately it does look unlikely.
It's yeah it's gonna be a tough day for him now. All right so blue bomb going for the most
combated Bishop takes one and Hikaru reaches out to make his move and then decides to have a second
think on that. He can go for Queen to expand, the tactics do work out for Black at the end,
neutralizing White's extra material here. But we'll see if Hikaru finds that. Let's pull up our
bird's eye view, our eight board view. Of course some big matchups are the first two there
on the top row as we do go to our full board scenario there. Cinder off playing against
Anish Giri and a few moves have happened but not much has changed there with Giri making some
squares for his own team to come out with f6 controls that 95 jump that we were earlier
referring to also freeze up his own bishop I like that approach by black meanwhile Prague and
Fabiano Caruana David I think that's the one where I would like to go to and unless there's
something else that you want to bring up before that a few moves have happened since
we checked in last on that bishop the black bishop has arrived in G7 exactly the game
is developing quite quickly. I think Prague just this very second made a move. It looked like
it was the move bishop to c3. There we go. Oh, okay. We're getting a glimpse into a few days
move broadcast here. We see the bishop disappear. Very quick action replay though, Tanya, because
after we left the game last, we were talking about bishop takes pawn, rook d1. It looked like
a 50-50. Rook to d1 was indeed the move played. Back rook retreated, hitting the bishop. Now
the pawn was captured, now g6. Just wondering, or feels too greedy, but Nx4 and I guess that
would have been, RxRxb1 and this pawn is going to hang with the check, although eval
bar still says level. Fabi instead still in prep, played g6, getting his bishop out, prioritizing
development, NxE2 and this is something you pointed out earlier, the bishop's being
challenged and just the speed at which Fabi's playing means he's got it all worked out,
Who would you pick here, Tanya?
You know that extra pawn, now that I'm looking at it, if Fabi is able to get his king out of the way and land that rook on the 8,
he's got that... oh, I said extra pawn, but a5 has fallen, so there is no extra pawn. I'll take that right back.
But I want to just add to that the points
I was about to make anyway that that knight on d3 and a full control on the d-line,
but I should still give Fabi some chances in this position if he's able to get the next two moves.
moves. Once the bishop is captured, get the king to f7, rook to d8. Do you have enough
time to do that? And then the knight and b3 becomes quite scary, controlling so many squares
for white, b2 hanging as well. Despite the e7, e6 situation that Fabi has to deal with,
I'm kind of liking black right now.
I'm really liking his clock time, Fabi. The confidence he's been playing with.
I love the preparation. We talked about that Knight A6 move ages ago, like as an almost novelty
inspired, of course, by BlueBound. Fabiano probably had been researching BlueBound's
games, stumbled across this idea, and that was on move seven. And now we're on move 22.
Fabby's still barely paused. So I just love that Knight on D3. I love the ease of that
plan you mentioned, Tanya. And yeah, he's not out of the woods, Prag. Probably a draw,
the most likely result, but I could definitely see this turning if White's not careful.
Alright so Pragyananda needs to be careful and David how we need to be careful about
our prediction games because so far there's only been John who's been getting it right.
Let's bring up our bird's eye view and get him in at this point before we get our first
results. Everywhere we've been looking at we've seen the bar as well. Pretty much
in the balance so far. John what do you make of the action and how many decisive
results. Are we picking today team? Oh, I see the tactic. I appreciate that, Tanya.
But if you allow me to pick first, then you you're going to have one less choice. Are
you sure you want to do that? I do. I want to get this right at least once. So I need
to break it down in my head before I throw out a number. You want to get it right
at least once, but there are only 14 rounds in this tournament, Tanya. I'm not sure
we have enough time, but we'll give it a go today.
The Trash Talk game by John Sagan is at a whole different level today.
Today, I'm actually feeling pretty relaxed about things.
I love that the psychological pressure is being put on, for example, in the Carerada Prague
game.
I feel like that both players have a pretty good understanding of what's going on over
the board, and Fabi is trying to use clock pressure to try and maybe cause Prague
to misremember or have a little bit of a mistake. But broadly, I think things are, the players
have the measure of each other today and they're looking forward to the other rest day. I'm going
with two decisive games today, which I know is unusually low for me, but I'm feeling
a lull going into the second rest day.
David, you want to go next?
No, Tanya, after you. I'll pick whatever's left.
David, you could have picked three in traps, Tanja, on four.
Three would have been my answer, but no pressure, Tanja. You can take three if you want.
That's the one thing, but John's already picked my answer for the day. He's gone for two,
and that's what I was going to go for. So I will not steal your answer, David. How
you can stick with three. I'm going to go with looking at the positions what we have.
I think we get one decisive result today. So I'm playing it very cautious going into a rest
I think it's going to be a relaxed day of chess, guys.
I'm going for one.
Sticking with three, David?
Yes, three it is.
I believe they may all come in the women's section today.
Wow, okay.
A further sort of side game sort of prediction.
I'm not going to get into betting there with David, but interesting.
So on the panel today, we have one, two and three decisive results as our bets.
What do you think in chat? We'll get the mods to put a poll up and this time we'll have zero as an option
There was no point having one up yesterday. I think we all know that but is it zero one two three or more than three
We'll get that poll up in just a bit in the meantime. We're going for a quick break when we come back folks
It's more action from round seven of the 2026 fide candidates
Hey, this is Candidates Trivia with Divya.
Which player famously beat both Magnus Carlson and Vladimir Kromnik at the 2013 Candidates
tournament?
Well, I need to know the rest of the participants maybe give me a hint. I'll take a pic your hint
Is that he has had one of the longest careers in chess?
He's still an active player and he lives for the game of chess probably
Which player has played the most hand that it's tournaments since 2013
Absolutely right five tournaments
Who has the record for most draws in a candidates tournament?
Was that a guess or did you know?
Yes, it was a good guess all 14 draws in 2000 quick
Next question. What is the highest score of player has achieved in the candidates tournament since 2013?
Who finished in second place in the 2018 Candidates Tournament?
Who did the challenge?
Who did the winner challenge?
2018 was Fabiano who won the tournament in Berlin and went on to play in London.
Yeah, so who got second place in that same tournament?
Who would have played if Fabiano had declined?
Let's say...
Deng.
Chakli and Mamadiya.
Okay, next one.
You're gonna get this one.
In which city was the 2013 candidates' tournament held?
How can I get this one?
I think it was maybe in the next one.
I was one sixth.
Oh my god, you just accidentally did six seven which you said you hate
Okay, let me dig around and guess Europe. Yes
Okay
Can I know the country United Kingdom London
I did it.
Okay, here comes your trick question.
I think you're going to get even more than the men.
Which player had a wild candidates in Toronto losing four games in a row?
That's hotty.
Just to give Vaishali some credit, coming back to win five in a row.
Just make sure I can give her credit.
Okay, two more questions.
At the 2014 candidates tournament,
Which player finished in the last place despite being one of the ratings favorites?
Somebody else said Levan too. It was actually Topal Law, but he was only minus two. It's a very close tournament.
He finished with six out of fourteen and the last one was gonna be tough.
You have ten seconds to name as many players as you can from the
2020 slash
21 and that it's tournament the one that was split up into two different segments because of code
If you have chance, I'm gonna give you five extra seconds of thinking time. I
remember one player that's it
And
Go
We don't count, right?
He didn't play anyway, so we're definitely not counting.
Yes, I know, but that's the only name I remember.
Okay, I'm very happy to report that you got one.
Thank you, that was my best.
You got Fabiano, so he's still your friend. The rest are not gonna give you a Christmas card this year.
It's okay, we didn't celebrate Christmas in India.
There you go, you're gonna get zero Christmas cards, okay?
But those not coming to your Diwali celebration.
We'll be Napaum Nishi MBL, Geary, Dean Grishik, Alex Yankee, and Wang Hao.
That's okay. I should have probably prepared for the trivia. I can only prepare for the jazz game. Sorry, my bad.
Welcome back everybody, we are deep into the middle games of round 7 of the FIDE Candidates
2026.
And we have a couple of fun moves we could be going to next.
This is one of the contenders, and this is the other one, funnily enough, we've had both
cameras already.
We've had a very interesting King D1 played in Yesupenko against Wei Yi, and we also,
I would say have an equally interesting bishop b6 played in blue balm Nakamura.
Although that one seems to be progressing a lot faster at the moment.
I will leave you guys to decide where we want to go first,
but a couple of really cool moves to break down here.
David, Tanya back to you.
Let's jump right in.
Thank you, John.
We have indeed seen some cool moves.
Blue balms, maybe most flashy tactic of his tournament so far.
We're always impressed by blue balm,
But the position we left it at, Tanya, before we go to that King d1 from yes,
the PENCO, that was more out of necessity than anything.
But this one wasn't necessarily this trick, but he spotted it fantastic
awareness, Bishop to b6 in this position.
We were only looking at Bishop b3 with the skewer, but Black can keep everything
guarded because the Bishop keeps the Queen safe on f4 blocking the f-file.
And he saw a deflection tactic, Bishop b6 first.
How impressive is this?
Super impressive, I mean that had to be a bit of a shocker for Hikaru, right?
A move out of nowhere, Bishop to B6.
And the whole idea of just deflecting that Bishop so that when you arrive with Bishop to
B3, now suddenly black has no way to defend against Queen to Expawn and you end up getting
checkmated.
There's no Queen at 4 anymore.
An incredibly creative way to solve this problem of the Bishop on A7, the Bishop
hanging.
Of course Hikaru must have been shocked but he did realize he can't capture that
bishop I think he would have just lost if he did that. Instead he takes the other
bishop David and now the queen takes thirsty David check I believe with
rook takes rook even and then went on to pick up the bishop on c2 white picks up
the bishop on c7 I have to say that bishop to b6 very cool move. Yeah very
cool and I'm not sure how effective it will be this should still be a draw
now. Although, blue bounds on the happier side of the draw, Rook to e8 is going to
remove the rooks and Tane it. If the queens disappear as well, it's pure
opposite color bishops. We can see a handshake but Black does have some weak
dark squares around the king. So, what do you think? Can bluebound keep the
game alive for a little bit longer? He just plays risk-free, right? Even what
you're talking about right now, you take the rook on e8 to just
demonstrate the idea of an opposite color bishop, but one being stronger
than the other. Now, bishop comes back to e5. I'm not only guarding the
pawn and b2 but I'm also threatening queen f6 game over on this spot and suddenly you just
have to compare the characteristics of the two bishop. That bishop on e8 for hikaru
feels like a dead piece at least for now till it's able to go c5 and open itself up. The
problems to be solved yes you can go queen f5 and try to aim for that pure end game
but I think bluebomb just keeps the queens on the board. He's not going to give in so easily
you know ideas like queen e3, bishop c3, queen d4, a6 hanging in some of the lines,
David, it's not completely equal.
You know, yes, it's level and the bar,
the computer might say 0.0,
but I think it's more 0.0 for white than it is for black.
Exactly.
It should be 0.01 or 0.02.
Just to show that BlueBound is the one
who's on the better side of the draw
and Hikaru's the one who has to prove it.
It should be fine.
Like, I guess the Black King should be relatively safe,
but as you say, Tanja,
still some threats hitting the bishop,
threatening especially on the dark squares
and not much joy here for Ikaru.
I'm struggling to think, has Ikaru had one
single position where he's had an advantage?
I guess against Wei Yi, just that end game,
but other than that, like, I mean,
even the drawers he's making,
he's on the worst side of it.
Yes, Ipenko, he was on the worst side.
I mean, today he's gonna be slightly on the back foot,
even if he's defended very well.
Yeah, it's tough when you don't get many chances. How are you going to win a tournament?
You know, that has been surprising and for me equally surprising has been David.
I haven't really seen a very high level of prep or a big opening idea by Hikaru so far in the candidates,
which we all know is a big part of this tournament.
Are the ideas that you come up on the board when you start asking your opponent's questions
and I haven't seen that from him in a single game yet.
Yeah, I struggle to think other than maybe a three-four move stretch against where he of any
moment where he's been able to outplay his opponents, Hikaru, and usually he's got quite
good feel, he stabilizes, and then he starts to outmaneuver them, but it feels like he's being
a bit too direct initiating exchanges on the opponent's terms a bit too much.
Yeah, this one I still believe fully that Hikaru is going to hold,
but unfortunately it might be too late. A winless first half.
No, I completely agree. I think Hikaru holds this, but I can't imagine him
winning this position with the black pieces. In fact, if he was on the white side,
I'd say that there are still some chances here to try to push for that edge. It might even
have been the best position he's had all candidates to play risk-free, but right now
it looks like he's on the wrong side of that 0.0 with the black pieces if we do see that.
I will add one thing though David that you know when the candidates started and pretty much till
till it became a bit of a disaster for Hikaru I would have loved to see him in the race till the
very end you know I think about candidates 2024 when there were four players in the race
Fabiano Karawana, Liana Pomnishi, Hikaru Nakamura and Gukesh and in the last round as
Kaisa would have it they were all playing against each other in the last two rounds the last
It was just so incredibly entertaining but also that crazy finish nobody knew who's challenging
for the World Championship title and it ended with Gukesh eventually winning it with a draw
in the last round against Hikaru and then we all know what happened with Fabi and Yann
in that game but I would love to see Hikaru and Fabi or would have loved to see them
sort of in the race in the mix till the very end and yes we've got this fantastic
performance by Cenderov which is blowing our mind and just to be able to witness this is one thing
but I really hope that it does become a closer fight. I don't think Hikaru, I can't see Hikaru
being in the mix but whether it's Fabi, whether it's Prague or somebody else catching up,
I really hope that the fight goes on till the end that there's no door shut of the candidates
by Cenderov. Yeah I agree two years ago that final round of the candidates, I mean it had so
many people, hundreds of thousands of people watching. Everyone was on the edge of their seats.
Nobody knew that final twist. We thought for so long it would be playoffs between Goukesh and
Karawana. I think for Hikaru, like it's a tale of missed chances, like the candidates before that
as well. Yeah, I mean, who knew that Magnus was stepping away, not many, but it turns out he
had that chance if he just held against Ding. And then the last round playing Goukesh,
Fait in his own hands. Hikaru couldn't produce any real advantage. Didn't really have any
winning chances. But yeah, here we go. Arms crossed. Tanya, I was trying to work out what
happens. Rook takes Rook here. Bishop takes and Q3. Suddenly caught my eye as a double
attack. And it's a bit scary for Black.
Let's show that because if I try to defend my bishop with bishop to d7, maybe I've
got some better moves with Queen giving a check and coming into the defense I'm
not sure but I want to just highlight one line here Bishop d7 Queen takes 8 6
and even this might be okay with Queen takes b2 because I'm not allowing Bishop
e5. Yeah maybe this is okay covering the long
diagonal is very important maybe even f2 is fine as well but yeah just because
Bishop e5 impossible due to Queen to e1 check. It is hanging by a thread
some of these lines. And I was more scared in this position of, for example, something
along the lines of Queen to E7 just to break in. And I just smell checkmate. I don't know
if it's a reality. Maybe I'm smelling something that's not quite there, but does still ask
Ikaris some questions, this type of line.
It's not over. I mean, you know, and also you get into this sense of laziness with
opposite color bishop how careful you really need to be but they can be so
poisonous these positions because your color complex really matters here right
you're never going to be able to fight for the dark squares which is why I love
how you're demonstrating placing the queen whether it's e3 or e7 and your
eyes are just instinctively drawn to those dark squares you know you're not
trying to get to them via any light square out in this position and that's
very instructive you always try to attack the color which your opponent
can not control here. As long as queens are alive, I think deep blue bomb will be in a
deep thing to try to make his chances here. And I'd say Hikaru will sweat a little bit
to completely equalize this position.
Yeah. Let's leave Blue Balm to try and figure out how to test Hikaru to the maximum. Body
language does show that Blue Balm is quite locked in. I still think he believes that
he can cause some trouble. But maybe it is the moment to see a player who's in real trouble
and that is Yesif Enko, who's king has not been too happy over the last few moves. Anya,
I'm going to jump straight over to that game because it feels like a bit of a mix between
freestyle chess and someone who's just forgotten the rules of castling.
That is fascinating. I mean, last time we checked in and we were thinking, you know,
what this is. This has been a petrof, not much to talk about here. And David, I said,
we're going to have some fun in this one, David Howell. It's going to happen. Wait for
it. And I have to say, I think that has happened, but the only one having fun has got to be
really big is, if you just backtrack and actually see how White Ski got to see one,
it's pretty insane. What just happened starting about now.
Exactly. And it all started with a very ambitious move, but it is one that breaks
opening convention, like, White has already moved the queen twice, White has already moved
the knight twice, the bishops moved once, like, you're basically told, move one piece
once, each piece once until you're done with development, and then stop maneuvering. So
he should have castled something you said actually earlier, Tanya, the most natural
move was also the best one, and then we could have seen some fun. But he wanted
to keep bishops on the board as well, which, yeah, I struggle to understand. I guess
He's arguing that the black bishop gets in the way of a square the knight wants to use.
But if we compare the pieces, white's bishop is still much more passive than its counterparts.
So keeping it on the board was wrong.
But where you came up with a cool refutation, or at least a cool move to remind white that
getting away with breaking the rules that many times isn't always going to happen.
Queen to e8, pinning the white knight.
White can have a castle king side, too slow, and the queen is coming this direction.
And in the break, Tanya, I actually blundered my rook to Jon
because I was discussing castles, Queen to A4,
and I was saying how difficult it is to defend A2.
And I was like, King B1,
and I remember looking at this before the break,
I was like, I remember it was impossible,
but wait, what was it, why?
Like, is it something to do
with the bishop landing on the square?
Jon pointed out, nope, just some rook hanging.
Oops.
We'll also see if he's sharp with his predictions of the number of wins right now.
Thankfully for us at Penko, he didn't fall into that, but I have to say David, even the
way it continues, the problems still are there, because in your line, he loses the rook physically.
But in what we have on our line board, that rook isn't playing regardless.
Yeah.
I mean, credit to Yesapenko.
He actually found the best move.
I was shocked when in the break I turned on the computer, I was like, okay, I understand
why it's in trouble, but what's the best move in King D1?
I just thought never going to happen.
Like, you need to swallow your pride.
You need to understand that you're definitely not playing for anything ambitious anymore.
But he found it, yes, he found the best move in Queen check.
He could also block, but that allows the Black Queen even further into King C1.
And Tanya, how do you see Wei Yi continuing?
He needs to attack somehow while the white pieces are totally discombobulated like this.
I want to just add to that point that you just made here, David, that I think when he
retreated with his bishop to D2, yes, Panko, his idea was to go long castle.
Just like you thought that you could just go King B1 and everything safe, it's very
possible that could have been a blind spot for him.
It's hard to believe that King D1, King C1 was part of the master plan in this
situation.
When arriving at the situation he figured out that long castle runs into queen f4 and
then found the best move king to d1 but this isn't any grand opening prep or any over the
board inspired idea it was a necessity.
And here he is.
How does black continue with an attack?
Well it has got to be something about trying to get c5 in.
So to my mind the most natural way would be bring the bishop out, put the rook on
c8 and go c5.
So yes Panko it's going to be about whether he can get g4 in quickly, drive the knight
back, create some counter play, but we can go a little deeper into this line
because I just spotted a really interesting idea. For example, G4 and
then maybe I'm completely crazy, but looking at the position, do you think we
can actually just ignore that threat? You think pawn takes knight is not really a
threat or am I losing my mind? Let's say I make, I continue with my plan, okay, I
go rook c8, I'm threatening c5. Alright, I can breathe. Pawn takes knight and
bishop takes pawn. There's a checkmate in one being threatened. I don't see
any other way except b3 and if queen a3, queen b2 isn't winning for black, nothing's winning.
It's almost Bodin's mate right. If the white rook was on d1 as I wanted it to be when I was
blundering that rook then the king would be trapped by its own pieces. It can run but as you say,
queen b2 sneaking in and it does look very terminal. I don't see the immediate knockout
I don't think it's checkmate on the spot, but Black's attack is so big, like Rook on
the 8 will prevent the white king from ever running, Qx4, Qx4, check, I mean such passive
pieces it's no surprise that Black has a decisive advantage.
Yeah and then that brings us to the question, right?
If g4 is not really a threat, Black can just continue with the plan of trying to get
c5 open lines inroads towards the white king.
Yeah, and I think he's going to be looking in that direction, especially if he doesn't find any alternative to this plan of c5.
Once you said it, it makes so much sense, but it does take a bit of self-control to just calmly play bishop d7 when his last move was so aggressive to take a different gear and play like a building up move takes time.
I was looking as well at moving the knight maybe, but I don't really see where like back willingly dropping back before white plays g4 feels a bit odd.
but just this idea of getting the bishop on this diagonal,
it's such a killer.
But I wonder after 97, why can actually now fight
because you have to stop bishop at five.
Maybe you'll be forced to play g4,
even though it doesn't come with a tempo, right?
Mm-hmm.
Wow, and look at that.
Just like that, it's a blunder.
Wow.
And I had other ideas behind 97.
I thought maybe I come round this way.
Just take a long, long time though.
I don't know if black has three moves
And I mean, either way, well, either way, Yi,
it should be very, very powerful for Black now.
All right, so Wei Yi with a big advantage
out of the opening in this one against Esa Penko
and the Wei Yi as well on two out of six.
He's on the hunt for his first win of the candidates
and this might be his golden opportunity
to at least start dreaming about trying to be
in the mix in the second half, David.
Let's zoom out of here and bring up our bird's eye view as
we continue to ponder whether he goes for the idea of C5
or the knight maneuver or maybe finds another way forward.
Meanwhile we see on our top row everything is in the balance.
You know two boards playing without the queen those are our two marky
matchups and you're off Geary still on you can't offer a draw until move 41
only three pawns remaining and I think the players are slowly
navigating towards that peaceful result. The clash between the two chasers, Pragananda,
Fabiano-Caruana, took my eyes. That ending still has something left to play for, a lot
more than the Cinderov board, David. Yeah, the Cinderov board, it feels like
it's not going in the right direction for the leader. Like, he's not really making
any headway against Geary's defences. And I agree, Pragananda against Caruana.
15 moves to go before the time control.
Craig has 30 minutes left, so no panic yet.
But just to explain what you meant there,
Tanya, it's got a bit of juice left because the black knight is still alive,
still super strong. B2 under some pressure,
maybe from the rook tonight.
Maybe black can start advancing the pawns.
It's weird because normally I'm a stickler for good pawn structure.
Black's e pawns are a bit ugly here,
but I think it's just activity of the knight
that gives me a little bit of optimism for Fabiana Karawana.
Also fascinating how both Prajnananda and Anish Kiri are so much behind on the clock.
Fabian Jabakir-Cinderov today picking up on that opening preg, bringing it on and putting the pressure on the clock.
But is there enough left in the position, is the big question to be able to make something of that
almost an hour advantage for both these players right now.
David, I believe Fabi did go for the plan that we mentioned, get the king out of the
way, double up on the D line and try to play for something with the knight on D3.
But again, is it enough with the C6 weakness as well?
Fabi's last move, Rook D6, does defend that, knight takes pawn is a threat.
Do you have the time to put your rook on D2?
I'm eyeing ideas like knight C5, controlling the D line as well in the air.
The rook on D2 starts feeling a bit loose.
still holds the position. Yeah, I think he still holds and it's not anything immediate, but I could
see some world where even if some of the rucks came off, the Black Kings could start running,
it's got a clear path in. Black has this minority attack, typical idea, especially with such a
strong Knights and white Knights just can't really jump. I could see this being a bit of a
long grind and Black could also cure his pawn structure issue, I don't think right now,
But for example night to be for he could eventually think of ways of mobilizing his central pawns, but
He would have to reckon with some checks
From the seventh rank. So there's options and the fact that Fabi has the options and Prague is
Maybe struggling to find any activity
I'm putting my grinding hat on and I'm thinking this is unpleasant. This is not a nice position for white
Like you said three boards actually had one side with an hour advantage like blue balm up an hour
Fabi up an hour, Sinderov up an hour, but maybe I'm the most optimistic about this one even with the reduced material
Do you have a physical hat that says grind like a Grandmaster?
I have a full outfit, Tanya. It's what I wear every day. It's how I live my life. It's a lifestyle eat, breathe, sleep, grinding
We need to see that on one of our broadcast days than David Howard, you know
but it didn't happen till we didn't see it.
So you need to put that on.
But yeah, this looks like a full blown now.
Fabi Grine is what this is going to be,
because there's really everything to fight for
at this tournament situation.
I also think that he's playing against
Prague's clock in a big way.
You know, a risk-free position so far.
All the ideas on the D line, the knight jumping,
the king coming forward.
You kind of put pressure on the clock.
If Prague's safety reaches move 41,
then maybe we can say we're really close
to the draw off as well.
But it's not just the position,
but the fact that Prague is running out of time as well.
And I do believe that he actually has less time
than what we have in front of us right now,
around 27 minutes currently.
27 minutes to make 15 moves.
The next few might be key.
And I fully agree with the feature chat here.
Prague doesn't have many easy moves actually.
And just turning on the computer,
the top move apparently is a pawn sacrifice,
pawn to H4, just totally ignoring the B2 pawn.
That is difficult.
I was actually gonna say, Tanya,
It's all about the f-pawn as well. If we could put the f-pawn back on f2, the white king would feel much safer
White could play like g3, king g2, super safe king
But with the pawn already on f3, g3 will totally weaken the second rank
And if black ever gets in on that second rank, then the white king is gonna be really uncomfortable
Oh, we placed the best move though
Great move from pride
You know you say it's the best move David, I'll be honest
This wasn't in my top three candidate moves.
I was only looking at the B2 pawn hanging.
And I see that there are tactics,
and you're going to show exactly what that is.
But the eyes are completely focused on the left flank.
And then Prud goes for the offense on the other side.
Is it with the idea to further destroy
Fabi's pawn structure given the opportunity with H5?
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a multi-purpose move.
I think it's actually preemptive.
Like you said, there are some tactics.
But he just wanted to stop black from starting
push them pawns and going for the white king. He's also created a nice escape for his own king
so no backrank checks. The white king might actually feel quite safe on g3 surrounded by all of its
pawns and I think the tactics he mentioned, Nxb2 after Rxr, I wonder whether the c-pawn survives
much longer after the move e5. I think the back rook is just forced away and everything
holds together for white. Maybe d2 is a better square but now the knight has e4 and actually
this could easily go in white's favor if the knight's ever able to travel a bit further.
And I don't think black has the time to get super risky or super greedy with rook to d4 trying
to eye that pawn that has just moved forward. Let's say instead of d3 I put my rook in d4.
I don't know if 94 is a possibility directly but rook takes pawn is what I want to check.
That's black actually has the time because it just feels like I'm disconnecting my rook
from the knight and even a move like knight e4 here the knight on b2 feels like it's a little bit
iffy check coming e6 falling things start looking you know there's a move like rook c3 that comes
to mind after 8-6 just killing the black knight. That is nice that's a classy touch.
And Tanya you could try and kill the black rook soon too without the g3 maybe g4
leave that piece embarrassed on the edge of the board. Yeah this doesn't feel like a
significant winning attempt for black so that's really clever Pryk has spotted
that Knight takes b2 not actually as scary a threat as we thought and he stopped
black gaining space he's created a nice square for his king now multi-purpose
move now I'm not scared for him that was that might have been the key
David Howell super impressed with Prague's h4 here calculating and I will
say that Prague, I think when we speak about actually the entire this golden
generation of Indian youngsters in the chess world, calculation is truly one of
their biggest trends. It's sort of been the big focus in the Ramesh school of
chess or the Westbridge Arnand Chess Academy as well, where there's so much
focus on just working on your calculation skills from a really young
age and not, you know, it's not about the situation, it's not about feel yes
those factors are really important but I've seen these these youngsters David when we're out as well
they're playing blind chess they're solving positions calculating without a board in front
pretty much 24-7 and so this feels like H4 feels like the use of that you know realizing that
knight takes pawn working the variation out and perhaps neutralizing very very soon so we're
expecting a draw here or is it still too soon to call a result in this one? Yeah I think it's
still too soon I think Fabi will try but you can see that suddenly he's feeling a bit less
optimistic suddenly not blitzing. I think this idea as well of like at some point e5 getting
the knight to this beautiful outpost on e4 that might be the key. I think Fabi at some point might
occupy that square with a pawn just in case just to rule out any e5 from white maybe he'll just
improve his king maybe we'll still see him push some pawns but yeah now up to this last move
yeah I'm going to eat my words the grinding might not be forever
unfortunately.
Well you know one player who is continuing the grind is Mathias Blubom against Hikaru
Nakamura.
We'll take a pause from this one and pull up our birds eye view David because the queens
do remain on the board and Hikaru still has to fight to completely neutralize this
game.
You know from when we left at last Mathias has planted his bishop on e5.
Everything's playing on the dark squares.
He even placed his king on the dark square right now on h2 making sure that there
are no checks at all that he has to face.
And this last move, it's more poisonous than it appears at first.
There is a threat on the board.
If your careless is black, White just plants the bishop on h8 and it's actually no good
way to defend against Queen to g7 checkmate.
You'll be forced to give up material, b5, let's show that, bishop h8 and I'm surprised
that the bar doesn't go even higher than that but this starts to look scary for Black.
Super scary and Black has to part with the pawn either with f6 when White will take
the bishop, not the queen. Keep the queens on. Or it has to start running with the king,
but then, like you said, winning material for white. And it only starts here. This is endless
suffering now for black. Although, Qd6. Hecaru has lost two opposite-colour-bishop end games
in this tournament, Tsyndorov and Karawana. So, yeah, I don't know if he'd fancy his chances
here. I guess white can also go for the pawn here with the queen. Maybe a queen check is
is the safer of the two. And yeah, I think the point remains, Tanya, Pshueh 8, the first
threat and unlikely to be the last one.
And the same story on the clock as well, right? Where Hikaru is not only suffering on the
board but the time he's down to about 30 minutes right now. I do expect him to try
to chase the white queen. The dream for black is to get those queens off the board.
So either with queen d5, I think that just feels more natural than the move queen
to d7. I like Qd5 and I could bet my house, you know, the one that I don't own that Matias
Lubam will not trade the queens.
Yeah, there's one sample line like Qd5, the white queen comes across dual threats. h6
sometimes hanging but Qf6 is the bigger of the two, trying to get in again and this
is just so unpleasant. As you say, Tanya, like the queen might have to go back to
stop Queen to F6 the white bishop will save itself and now this pawn hanging
Queen coming kind of he's rearranged the pieces the right way around to create
mating ideas and a car is not got that much time on the clock he's under half
an hour still got 11 moves to make and he's really into the board I don't
think you'll get an inch closer than that and then just as I say says I got
this with that head nod the head buffing he's gonna push a corn I think he's five maybe
looks like he's reaching
whoa okay we wait for Hikaru but I believe Jon's joining us with some big big news Jon what
happened what's going on that's right folks we're not on that game at the moment it's been looking
a little bit level for a while now, we have our first decisive result in the women's candidates.
Moosichuk Bibi-Sara has just ended in a draw. Back to you.
Okay, and that was a game tenure that we saw a bit earlier. I was saying I'd be happy to be white,
I'd be happy to be black. It looked like a Queenless middle game that would go on for a
long time, but ultimately the players decided that realistic winning chances just went there.
So probably a decent result for both Anna because she will go into the rest day as the leader that's guaranteed
But also Bibisara has stopped the bleeding after two consecutive losses. I
Completely agree. I think with that sentiment for Bibisara. It's a reset
She gets a rest day looking for that bounce back in the second half and for Anna
Mozic who's got all the reasons to be pleased with the performance
She hasn't lost a single game so far and continues going into that second half at pole position
Alright, so David should be for now, as I see that Hikaru was almost ready to make his decision,
but then he decided to think a bit longer, still head in hands. And the thing is right,
it's also you're dealing with everything that's happened in the past in the tournament. You know
that this position has to be holdable. You're playing against the absolute underdog of the
tournament. You know the world is watching you. To be Hikaru Nakamura comes with its
own set of pressures as well. You're dealing with all these thoughts. You've got to
block out that noise as well.
Mm-hmm, exactly.
I mean, he puts pressure on himself
because he has such high standards.
That's why he's such a legend already, Hikaru.
But yeah, it's not easy.
And he knows it's big.
Like it's the biggest tournament, of course,
of the year for him.
But also this game in itself, if he loses,
we can definitely write Hikaru off.
I think no chance he's going to qualify from this event.
draw tiny chances, minimal almost, but he just cannot afford to lose. That's the main thing.
And he's going to play G5, but in decision, maybe caused by that lack of confidence that
we've seen throughout the event, Tanya. When you talk of Cinderov and we talk about
the right high on that confidence, it is exactly the other end of that spectrum for Hikaru.
Just the decisions that he's taken, falling into so much trouble out of the opening,
struggling and looking for that win but failing to find it in the tournament so
far for Hikaru. It's not something that we were used to seeing him being so
hesitant with his moves. Again you know of course there's all that
conversation to be had about practice at elite level chess and how much of a
big role that plays as well coming into the candidates and Hikaru does
go for the decision of pushing that G pawn eventually. I'd say it's quite
the middle David you know these pawn moves you'd be so incredibly
be careful of. It does come with the idea of the queen protecting that h pawn. So at
least after bishop h8 you could start running away with the king. Any check on g7 won't
be lethal for h6 anymore. That's the only idea that I can come up with. And as I say
that I also realize bishop h8, queen g6 could be possible.
He defended everything. Everything is protected now for black. Like he said the h6 pawn
was the only kind of vulnerable spot. So he's defended just to show that bishop h8, black
has to deal with the mate. So two good ways. Qg6 I'm slightly less attracted to because
after bishop to f6 it feels like the queen may be caught in a bit of a box. But okay
the val bar not too fast. So this is totally fine. But a bit scary. But I think that
that other option you mentioned king to f8 is the key. And now check the king can
move again and no issues here. So it does make sense to control some dark squares putting
pawns on dark squares because that's where white controls everything so he's kind of
covering some stuff but he's no kind of he's no nearer simplification here he's no nearer
getting the queens of Tanya he's still got a lot of suffering ahead I think white might
start pushing the a pawn b pawn just sitting on the position maybe white would just
push f3 maybe h4 a little nudge to a little tickle later and this might go on
for a while. I think it will and I think Mattias is it does realize that this is
his opportunity to push for more against Hikaru so he's going to play this on I
really like the idea of Bishop H8 regardless even if the king was to
run you could move your queen and then bring the bishop back and regroup the
pieces with the idea that we were earlier discussing exactly how you're
showing it David Queenie 7 would be a massive blunder to try to trade the
queens at this position. Bishop G7 check thank you very much that
doesn't work at all anymore. So Hikaru losing out on the opportunity to offer that queen
trade and if instead of this you fall back with your king to where it came from the bishop
slides all the way back an idea that we've been talking about again threatening queen to d4 just
beautifully demonstrating the power of the dark squares that white will be playing on for the
rest of the game. Exactly and yeah it's going to be a bit of suffering ahead. I think yeah I
still trust Hikaru I think this will be a draw but Bluebaum he's shown ambition otherwise
he would have taken the queens off earlier and credit to him and now he just has to find another
way to set some traps, create some threats and note how there he actually moved his pen, Tanya,
to look at the score sheet. That's a typical sign that when you know you want to pressure your
opponent on the clock, you're like, oh, wait, Kairos only got 26 minutes, but he's only got 10
moves to make or 11 moves to make now before the time control might not win on time after all.
I think that was exactly the stream of thought in Matias' head right now, as you put it David.
But he leans in and says, you know what, I'll still try.
I'm still going to find a way to make this hard for him.
Probably a good moment to check out of this one and look into some of the other action
that's on David as we bring up our beautiful bird's eye.
We do see a decision by Matias on the camera.
That's the third board from the top.
he does take the bishop all the way to H8.
There was a case of that checkmate on G7 being threatened.
Hikaru goes with the line that we were talking about,
runs with the king to F8,
a threat like the safer option right now.
And Matias on the think as Hikaru was ready
with his response.
Yeah, big moments there, big threats.
And I wanna talk about big moments in our Marquis matchup
because we haven't been there for a while, but Tanya,
I believe Anish might have just blundered upon,
Maybe it's a sacrifice, maybe it's not a pure blunder,
but just a very quick action replay of the last few moves
because it's been a while since we were here.
We normally super locked in on Cinderob's games,
but it's been a quieter one, a different pace,
and we left it here, what was it?
Half a dozen moves ago, so f6, covering some squares,
I quite like that, pawns on dart squares,
bishop on light squares, stops the white knight
from jumping forward.
Cinderob takes space, we saw how important
that was in the Prague game,
stopping the opponent kind of advancing,
taking squares. H5, getting pawns off the board, getting closer to a draw, makes a lot of sense
as well. Very logical play. The knight wants to come to c5, take on g4, capture, Ng6, pawn
to f3, and Sndrav's doing it the slow and steady way, covering everything. And now after
g5, knight to d3. Initially I wasn't so impressed but after Bd7, Sndrav's reaching for a piece
and can he just go Rc5 and pick off the d5 pawn? I can't see any way to defend
Oh wow. I had an eye on the camera. To me it felt like he was not reaching out for the
rook. But the moment you point out Rc5, I am struggling to find the next move that keeps
the material balance. All the squares controlled by the knight, the bishop isn't coming to
c6 or e6. Geary on the camera though, I think he's realized. I think he realized
now that, okay, still not the end of the world but he has made maybe a bit of a misstep.
He moved the bishop from E8, I mean that bishop was ready to step on to F7 to defend that
d5 pawn. David, the feeling is that he's got to have something in response to Rook c5.
And we have a decision by the way. I think he stretched his hand out, Sinderov, and
He did a very cinder of thing teasing the opponent.
Hand out withdraws the hand.
He's like, okay, maybe that move or maybe not that move.
He changes his mind a lot.
There we go.
Still the clock is on his side so he hasn't decided.
It looked like he was reaching for a knight though or maybe his king.
It felt like the king to me.
So with Rc5, does that really give him something to play for?
I'm going to...
It's the best move, David.
It's the best move.
He's about to make a move.
He's about to make a decision.
I just did a check.
c5 has to be played and syndrome will be on the hunt for another win. If he finds it, it's the king
he steps up a missed opportunity. Wow. And this is a natural move. He improves things. I think he's
got sneaky ideas of trying to go to the h file, but this is a second lease of life for Anish now
who will try and somehow release the pressure. Maybe he didn't go for the d5 pawn because
he thought the black bishop would come back round to f7 and snipe on the b3 pawn. Since
it's the B3 pawn diagonal open, might be vulnerable,
but I think tactics were working in white favor.
That was a big moment, Tanya, potentially.
And I wonder how much of this has to do
with Sinderov, another narrative that we've been seeing,
and of course, nobody can complain about it
because it's worked in perfection for him,
has been making fast moves
when his opponent is on the time pressure,
or he feels time pressure is approaching as well.
It's 23 minutes for Anish Giri,
and still seven moves to be made to make time control here.
And Cinderov is posing questions with his last move,
King G3, not objectively best, but practically still
troublesome for Black.
Rukic to Rukic, one-year pointing out.
Though I do have to say Ruksi5 is looking
incredibly powerful.
You win a pawn, and you're just
pushing on the clock and the board.
Exactly.
I'm not sure whether it was missed by Cinderov,
or maybe he just thought, OK, why
already attention to deep on maybe it's actually better black having the deep
one since it's so well-blockaded just gets in the way of black's bishop maybe
just figured greed is not good here rook end games if all the minor pieces come
off maybe still a draw without the the deep one playing for the attack with
queens off if he is indeed going for like double
rooks on the h file i mean that would be genius if it comes out and it
looks like it works i still well i still think a draw is most likely but
Anish, he's not comfortable at all Tanya. You mentioned the clock earlier and it wasn't that relevant then, but now it's becoming more and more relevant the longer this game goes on.
And if you're black, if you're an issue right now, you really want to find all the ways to try to get those rucks off the board, right? Rucks here, it will be the first move that I would be looking at in this position as an issue. You're looking at your clock on
on the right side where you're sitting and you're looking at the rooks lining up on the right flank of the board here and
Then you just want to get rid of pieces. He starts with taking the knight out. I wonder if after rook takes knight
We'll also see rook c8 and then if
Jabaki believes in the chances of this position. I think he's going to decide to keep both pairs of rooks on the board
Agree
Now though it is pure good night versus bad bishop. Black's best minor piece was the one on e5
I don't like that decision like in general terms black now and really needs the king on d6 somehow
He needs to cover all the holes with his king and he's reaching for his own rook
But okay, he's hoping to meet root c5 with his rook going super passive on d6 to save that pawn
This is gonna be a lot of suffering. It's good night versus bad bishop Tanya for the rest of this game
It is nobody's challenging that night. There's a d5 weakness the open lines for white rook
It would be absolutely genius and of course we can only speculate this.
If Cinderhav saw that line where he's winning a pawn, but the position becomes lighter for black.
You find those open diagonals, you find ways to make moves, and he just decided that given the clock situation,
this is where Anish will have bigger problems.
And again, these are a lot of ifs and maybe if you get an interview, Mike might ask him this question later on,
that did he see Rooksy 5?
And if he came to the conclusion and it all works out then,
I mean that would just be next-level stuff David to refuse picking up a pawn because you realize that you want that
It's better on the board rather than off it for you
Exactly next-level stuff. That's the perfect way of describing cinder of tournaments so far his play
I was questioning some of his clock usage yesterday when he kind of let a very promising position slip just for one move
But he was justified just the speed tips his opponent off the edge
So I've learned not to question Cinder off blitzing out still with 75 minutes on the clock
And we already at moves 33. That's yeah here. I'm expecting a few things Tanya
Like you said keeping the rips on the board is the most important one
And interestingly enough the moment you're referencing to also had a pawn in play in that entire storyline where?
We were advocating for Cinder off to hang on to an extra pawn by bringing his piece back
Instead he made a rook move giving that up and it wasn't objectively the best but pretty much one in the game in the next three moves
So it you know in in hindsight
It just made all the sense to continue playing fast and asking these practical problems
But how can he continue that momentum in this position where there are no queens on the board?
Rook p6 has been the move of choice
Is this the moment that you jump in with your rook to c5 or do you think that there are better files?
everything looks beautiful but where do you improve on this if you're white?
Exactly and that's the big question and he'll be thinking about it for the next
few minutes. I would like to start at least tickling the black position just
saying okay root C5 how are you gonna deal with that? You get some information
either black goes passive and you smile because that black rook is not
great anymore or maybe black comes up with another creative solution maybe
the bishop goes round and okay at least then you know where you fix
your opponent's bishop. This Rook on D3, I think it's the one that can be improved,
maybe that seeks an open file or maybe the H file, maybe the A file, it can come round.
Lots and lots of choice, but yeah, first you have to decide which direction you're going,
you need to know where your opponent's going and only then will the plans become clear.
Now he's settling in for a longer think, Tanya. You know earlier on I said that it looks like
by the Fabi Pro end game has more juice
than the center of Anishwan
and I'm gonna be taking my words back.
I think this has just gotten a lot of fun.
And when we speak of fun,
I think we need John joining us as well right now.
John, suddenly the top board, the most important one
and it's center of on the hunt one more time.
I mean, this guy, is there anyone made to stop him here?
That's a really good question, Tanya.
I feel like I have as a viewer and as a fan,
I'm getting some flashbacks here and that seems a bit odd to say, but when I think about
players who there aren't that many pieces on the board, the position's looking pretty
drawn.
Why are they still playing?
Should they not just agree a draw and then 80 moves later, they grind out a win?
I'm hearing echoes of Magnus in the back of my mind and I feel like Javakir here,
he's got something to latch on to.
No, it's not a winning position, but he's got something to play for, he's got
something to grind and there's a chance we see him maybe produce a little bit of
that magic here it's a long way to go I don't know if he'll do it but it's
certainly looking like it's possible one things for sure I'm not gonna be able to
work out exactly what he's gonna be doing here but I'm sure he has plenty
of time to think with an extra 50 minutes on the clock as well so while
we settle in for another thing from Anish as his clock continues to
window down. We're going to give you the opportunity to recharge your caffeinated beverage of choice.
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Play chess today on the board of tomorrow.
Now most chess openings are already named, but if you could rename a chess opening after yourself, which one would you pick?
I don't think it's necessary, and if this will be like dessert, I think some other people will do it instead of me.
14 rounds is about the longest tournament that anybody ever plays in so do you think that that benefits you like as far as like physical stamina and your ability to focus for a long period?
It's hard to say, I think it depends how it goes because all players will be well prepared, chess wise, physically and the beginning is important but we also know some cases when the beginning didn't go well
well and then the second part changed drastically everything in the tournament cross table so
it's just important to you know not to collapse if things suddenly goes wrong for one or even two
games just to try to do your best until the very end so I think this is like really the most
because if you stop fighting and it's a super long tournament then it goes
forward. And one final question about your mentality some players would look at
this tournament as what we would call a free roll like you got into the last
minute and however well you do is great but some players would say well I
really have to take advantage of this opportunity because it was a true gift I
wasn't expecting so where is your mentality? My mentality we will see in
the end of the tournament, I think this will kind of clarify if it's good or it's bad.
But, okay, it's already, anyway, it's already good because I got the chance, which I didn't
have, so now it's just a question like how I will use it.
All right, everybody, welcome back to the FIDE Candidates 2026.
We were asking you the question earlier about how many games today are going to be a decisive
8000 of you answered the call and as chat is a democracy we can only conclude
that chat has said two games will be decisive today I'm so sorry I'm so sorry
that doesn't mean we're gonna be right that doesn't mean we're gonna be right
and it's also the first time chats agreed with me even if I've been correct so
far in this tournament Tanya. I just want to point out if it's any consolation, chat has
slapped me down day after day after day even when I was right until now.
Well done, Farron Square don, you get this one Farron Square but now that I'm seeing
my poll the results of it, David I do see 33% for John, I'll take the L in this one,
I still get 31%, what do you have to say about your prediction landing only 16% David
I'm a bit triggered by that chat. Where's the loyalty? I've only been one game off the
last two days. Someone's going to believe, but only 16%. I still think three. I'm going
to win and I'm going to be so smug about it later.
I think it's entirely possible still. We've got several games that are not only hanging
in the balance from an eval bar point of view, but a very finely poisoned really sharp
And it's quite tricky the road that the this tightrope even that some of these players have to walk on so it is far from
Concluded even the cinder off Geary game when you take a look at how central the eval bar is
But then you take account the psychological factors the clock the fact that there's something to play on and you can keep grinding
You have no idea how many of these could be decisive
It's possible we get more than three for all I know but anyway chat has spoken we let democracy run its course
We now need to find out which of these games actually do and decisively. We've only had the one draw so far
So Tanya David back to you to decide where we go next
And I have to say David
I think John might have made a really good point because it's such a different narrative from the positions when we did make that prediction
Right suddenly it's fire across the board. Look at the women's section as well
You've got one draw. Yes, but they've got against log no
Divya looking at her second win in a row with a crushing advantage against her. I see that
extra material that she's got right now. A lot of pieces falling as well. Both bishops under attack.
I think that's the most exciting game and probably the one that you want to take us to next.
Meanwhile in Goryachkina Jujina, that one remains in the balance and Tanzangi also
pushing for a win against Vaishali. Should we start with Divya's board?
Yeah, let's do it. We'll jump into that one in a second. I just want to point out,
For my prediction, if Divya wins, if Wei Yi wins from his advantage position as well,
there only needs to be one more. Whether it's Tan Zhong Yi, whether it's Cinderov grinding it out,
we feel like we might get there. I still believe, I still believe. It's also worth pointing out
that Goyachikina against Zuzhi Nair is actually almost the exact same pawn structure as Cinderov
just with Queens in the mix as well.
But who wishes Mike?
I can see.
I can see the 16% really hurt you, David.
I can see it.
I can feel it.
You know me so well.
Like, it's on my mind.
Yeah, I just don't like being wrong.
Don't like losing.
Well, if it's any consolation, I mean,
we all know in the chess world, usually your prediction,
Dave, you're the one who's always getting them right.
Well, John's taking it away for now,
We will check in with those predictions once we're at the end of the day right now
David as we try to pull up that game
Let's also do a quick round up of our top board right there
We've got Cinder off Gary
He's spoken so much about it
Rejava case Cinder off is again on the push with a slight advantage in this end game playing against that d5 pawn
Beautiful night on d4 as well
Pravnan now finding a stunning h4 which really impressed you a lot as well David
and then it looks like he's found the way to equalizing this one although Karwana keeps putting the pressure now on the B line on that B2 soft pawn.
And it is Blue Bomb on the push against Hikaru Nakamura playing on all those dark squares.
We see one side of pawns has been traded off but now Blue Bomb is on that pawn on 8-6 with both his Queen and the Bishop lined up.
Esupenko really still remains a struggle for Esupenko.
Exactly. And we will go to that, Yesapenko, against where you gave him a bit later, more fireworks look like they might be likely.
Yesapenko did forget to castle, and castles wasn't in his notes either, as his king is looking very uncomfortable on C1.
But first we will go to the women's as promised, and it is Divya that we'll begin with, where we try and figure out how she can convert her decisive advantage.
she is a pawn up against Katarina Lagnau and we'll just show maybe a few moves
ago where a position, well the position exploded. I'll go back to this one because
it was Lagnau who started with the risk she gave up a pawn here Tanya. We've seen
a lot of isolated Queen's pawns today in this game, Zuzhinae's game, Weiyi,
Yesipenko, they have mutual isolated d-pawns and also the Geary game
isolated pawns here and she just gave it up. I don't think she needed to. She
could have maybe defended or found other ways but she pinned the white knight
understandable. Knight takes pawn now. Knight takes d5. She wants to set up double
threats hitting the knight and threatening to take on f3 with a mate on
the diagonal. Knight f4 therefore to block and now she missed the key move
but Tanya this does look like a difficult one Knight g5.
you know once you spot 9g5 you feel like the only one who's going to have a
difficult time it's got to be white right you're really doubling down on that
f3 knight there are tactics to be found in this position I think you know yes
bishop takes pawn I don't think works because you simply recapture with the
knight so you're feeling quite safe about that maybe you can even take it
with your king and you're fine because knight takes knight comes with it you
can't take it with your king sorry I just finished that part knight takes
knight does come with a check and it's white who wins at the end of this
line but if he go back Ng5 felt like it would have given her full compensation
and I'm slightly surprised going for this pawn sacrifice of d5. Korya China
did not play Ng5 at this moment. No Ng5 maybe maybe with black she
wanted to kind of save it for a bit later. I think the idea would be if
the white bishop retreated to break the pin that now she could maybe go
for similar to what she did or maybe just take the queens off and the
game goes on, there's going to be some tactics on the e-file,
tactics with all of these pieces being traded off.
Sorry, David.
Yeah, I was going to ask you, what are the chances
that she did see 925?
But what she didn't like about it
was the queen sacrifice line.
Is that something that could be on a player's radar
right now?
Because you do win a bunch of pieces and pawns
along the way, right?
Exactly, David.
And break this one down for us.
Wow.
It wasn't even on my radar.
Good work, Tanya, that I'm so materialistic sometimes.
I didn't think about sacrificing the queen,
but after bishop takes,
I don't know if white flicks in a check first
or whether it's needed.
Now, you could also just take the bishop,
but let's say, for example, bishop takes pawn check.
King has to go to f8.
Can't go to h8 for fear of a fork.
So king f8 and rook takes bishop.
Material count is two minor pieces.
So bishop and knight plus two pawns for a queen.
So it's actually technically only one point down,
but this does look a bit scary.
I think you're right.
I think this must be the reason she rejected
the best move in the position.
I mean, there's bishop a3 check coming in next as well.
You might be only left with one square for your queen
trying to hide that.
And this can, when you look at this,
start to appear as quite dangerous for black.
When you don't have the eval bar at your convenience
to understand that you're still doing fine,
I think it's actually quite scary with your king stuck
f8 and all of the miners are in it. I think this might be the key like she
could have got to this position and not seen queen b4 and or not realized that
she's okay still looks super scary because I just realized I know some cool
tactics of queen e7 keeping the bishop a3 check under under guard white can win
here I think in a few ways but I just wanted to show this one knight
check the king is smothered queen takes the knight takes and f takes is
also a knight check and white will be two pawns up with an attack at the end of the line.
I think very human to get scared in a line like this.
And I think that explains why she didn't go from knight to g5 because it's just such
a natural move when you want to double down on this piece but evaluating something very
understandable again to not want to get into this dynamic of being upper queen but
almost down a position right now.
Goryashkina chooses to move Queen to 8-6 after knight to f4, coming up with more
threats in the position though. Queen at 6, the knight on f4 got on the fire and we
saw some trades happen here. David and things started getting pretty murky.
Bishop takes knight, rook takes bishop. And just h3 now, very calm from
Divya attacking the bishop and it turns out that black just doesn't
have enough time or compensation for the pawn. Not great squares to
retreat this bishop to no sacrifices work so she actually took the knight and now this
bishop was captured. Bishop now forced to retreat goes back to d6 and this is the live position
Tanya where lagna is a pawn down. She's running out of steam maybe with the attack but I guess
she's hitting g4. Cam save itself though the black queen has to protect her bishop
and so many tempting moves the white queen can enter the center. If there's no attack
then it just looks like free material for Divya.
Yeah.
I do see the compensation that Katharina has been making here though with the bishop lined up on d6.
If only you can get rid of that knight on f3 as a defender right now.
And let's also point out that in the previous move with the bishop under attack,
if we come up to our live board,
going back with the bishop to d6,
G5 hasn't been played yet. Rook takes pawn is threatened. I think that's a move that Divya will go for.
I don't really see another way to actually defend that pawn right now.
And after G5, let's say you move the queen away, either to G6 or to E6 connected to that bishop.
David, yes you're up a pawn, but how trivial is this with white?
I mean, are you not afraid of any tactics on the h-line?
Any ideas on that h2 square?
Probably not with the rook on c8 stuck as well behind the black knight and no Nd5 possible.
Yeah, it's definitely not trivial as you say.
It's definitely not easy.
White doesn't have any concrete threats yet but I don't know, I believe in material.
Like you said, pawn graver by nature.
And if white can somehow move the queen, I'm not sure exactly where, and then get
the rook into play.
I think all of white's pieces are centralised enough, they have enough control and black,
I mean, yes, there's makings of an attack, but Black's pieces can't coordinate to create threats yet.
Like, even if White just plays, I don't know, a nice safe move, I don't really see exactly how Black gets rid of the key defender.
Like you said, the Knight F3 is pretty much there for life.
And with the Knight there, I don't think there's any checkmates.
Wow. All right, so Divya Deshmukh on the hunt for her second win in a row in this one against none other than the multiple time women world
Blitz champion, Katharina Ladno right now.
She's up upon and for now at least everything
on the king side is defended.
She needs to find G5.
I wonder if that's the only move
or she might even have other resources.
Although I'm not really finding it.
I want to hang on to that extra pawn.
I think G5, the most natural of the lot.
Don't see the tactics here for black either.
David, anything more to add to this one
before we bring up our bird's eye view?
Can we wrap this up saying that
Katharina Ladno in trouble here?
Yeah I think that's a perfect way to wrap it up. G5 is definitely the best way to
start saving a pawn and getting the black queen off the H file but I think
Divya just needs to realize she's done the hard work she's won a pawn. G5 then
just focus on development and yeah the win should be there but still a long
way to go. All right and with that we go back to our eight board view. One
game done the first definition of the day. Anna-Mazichuk, Bevisara, Asobaeva
ending in a draw the one next to that they were pushing for a win against
Lagnos. Meanwhile Goratskina Jyugina game that we thought would end very very soon
and fell completely in the balance now suddenly feels like there's life to the
position we see an imbalance black has a deep bar so white has got two versus one
on the left flank the bar says it's still within level territory but with
the white king so exposed I'm expecting this one to go on for a while.
Yep. Very likely it continues.
It's just fascinating it's going to be good night versus bad bishop on this board as well,
just like the Cinder of Geary game and, I don't know, Queen and Knight combo.
I still believe in White's chances. I think in practical terms, yes, the King is weak,
but it can hide next to its knight.
I can hide it around its knight as long as she keeps control over the light squares,
Goryaachikina.
And just to double-check, there's a move 39, so the time situation not critical.
Yeah, this might be a key moment. If Zushina doesn't find anything to stop the idea of Nd4 blocking and killing the black bishop and then taking this pawn, then it could easily turn in white saver.
And because that idea looks so incredibly scary and a very thematic way to fight against is to actually, David, very often in this position, you just give up that pawn voluntarily.
entirely. You're saying good knight versus bad bishop, I don't want that bad
bishop anymore. Not just that, I'm going to point out a sneaky idea with d4. If you
take that pawn with your knight, suddenly Queen g4 check, maybe it doesn't work,
maybe it does, it's only a check for now. I think the king just hides in the
c6 bishops hanging. But you have to be careful about these dynamics as well.
But what I really wanted to demonstrate was you take that pawn, I put my
bishop on d5 and at least I'm fighting for counter play in this
position and I'm saying I'm not going to suffer with a bad bishop. I'd rather suffer down upon
but looking for activity. Exactly. This is very instructive and now your point is very
important Tanya. If white continues being greedy now, Qingxi for boom, even stronger. And this check
picks up the night next move and black would suddenly be winning. So there would be kind of
fear in the position suddenly for Goyek. Maybe she puts her king on a dark square and just
just hopes to hide and black's compensation is more long-term than anything.
But I think it's an instructive moment,
like a move like a for keeping that pawn alive and just feels like she's going to
be suffering for a long, long time. And maybe it's okay still.
You've Alvarsus level, but I would hate to play with the bishop like this.
I completely agree. I mean, even if objectively this is good for black,
I feel so much more comfortable when I know I don't have a dead bishop on
the board. And again,
This is an idea that we see in so many openings
where you want to give up that pawn in front of the bishop.
That's it, it's out of the menace in the position.
And long-term becomes just a lot of suffering
to fight against Queen landing on F6,
the B pawn starting to push up as well.
So a big moment here as Eugene is on the thing.
Also knowing her style of play,
how much peace activity matters to her
from what I've started in her games.
I think D4 is a move that she is seriously considering here.
And the fact that she's been thinking for four minutes, if it's not d4, it's nearly
definitely a4, just to keep the pawn alive, not to be a pawn down.
So just the fact that she's been thinking means it's on her radar.
And it's funny, Tanya, because earlier I was saying, Sinderov, it was also a knight
versus a bishop, and it was also this d-pawn.
And we were saying, go Rc5, take the pawn, but it would, I guess, liberate the bishop
a bit.
So maybe it's the same situation.
Sunderov didn't go for that pawn with Rc5. There it's Rooks not Queens, but maybe it's
the same principle.
And because the echoes are so strong, I think let's bring up our birds eye view and do just
that. Just the simple dynamics in this position of trying to fight it and why we're advocating
the d4 move to actually go in with the pawn's sacrifice simply to activate the bishop
and that's the top left board for Javakir Sunderov. You can see the d5 pawn, it's
but it's really killed Anish's light-squared bishop.
Meanwhile, the knight on D4 is very strong
and now Javakir has also turned his attention
to the right flank with the other rook landing on the H line.
So things brewing in that one,
I think Javakir is definitely
playing the board and Anish's clock as well.
Kragnananda Karwana remains in the balance.
Blue bomb, still trying to push
in that opposite color bishop,
but to me it looks like Hekaru has stabilized his position
and hasn't lost a pawn along the way in that.
as a panko suffering.
David, should we do a little deep dive
into the Cinderhub end game?
I would love to, Tanya, but just before we go back
to the open, maybe just for completeness,
we finish the last board of the women's section,
purely because I'm getting very optimistic
about my prediction now.
This is another game that could end decisively.
It looks like two big, big advantages
in the women's section.
That would only need one therefore in the open section
for three decisive results.
chat, recount, back me, promise.
I promise it'll be worth it, but this one looks huge.
And then we talked about isolated deep ones, Tanya,
but this deep one has leveled up.
It's evolved into a big beast on D3.
Yeah, and while from my heart,
I'm so grateful for that 31% picking one decisive game
out of eight today.
Chat, just looking at these last two games,
this one, Divya's board,
and as well as what is happening on the other women board with the, sorry,
the Charlie's board and looking at the girls board.
I don't think it's going to be just one decisive day, but stay with me.
We get it right one day. Uh, you know,
they had another similarity that I see between this and the open queen on F2.
Here, why does suffering of a Charlie suffering and the same dynamic for
Yassi Panko as well?
His queen on F2 been stuck there as well on the back foot.
more of the story. Don't put your queen on f2 if she remains passive. The last move, just
to show like the last move going back d3, maybe it was necessary, but I actually quite
like having the pawn here just to stop white's bishop from coming out. That's how she did
push it and she can grab a pawn in a lot of these positions just go a pawn up at
least temporarily or it feels like also the time maybe for the rook to get into
battle. I'm not sure where like Rb8 looks super tempting and something that Fabiano
was doing in his game. Rxe8 putting pressure on the bishop. The knight at some point is
going to come into one of these squares. It feels like the deep one is going to be crowned
the queen later on but how much hard work do you think he needed here?
One second. 13 moves and under a minute for my Charlie? Is that correct?
This is move 27. Yeah she's still got 13 moves to make with no time but luckily
they do get an increment in the women's tanya so it's it's going to be very but
survivable maybe yes they do have the 90 minute plus 30 seconds but i'll still say in this position
with 30 moves to go and under a minute it's not going to be an easy task and david i just want
to point out i did an action replay in my view right now and it's been quite a game you know you
said it first that that f4 decision in the opening by vashali was a questionable one and
And actually it's been a series of very awkward decisions ever since then.
Yeah, and maybe just a very quick action replay about what not to do in chess.
Tanya, as you point out, because she didn't need to play F4.
The reason the white king is weak is because she played F4.
And I mean, it's not really in the attacking move.
We saw in the live board on the bottom right there,
Black's king is super safe once it castles.
So F4 only damages the white king, its own shelter, its own safety castles.
And in terms of awkward moves that you're hinting at there, Tanya, Bishop a6 hitting the rook, maybe not the best move, but rook f3, that is such an awkward one to play.
Such a weird square for a rook, it's not as if she's rook lifting and mating anytime soon.
And after some captures, e5 try to blow up.
It gets weirder, look where the rook lands up next David.
Oh wow, rook a3 is actually the best move Tanya.
So greedy trying to win a pawn but that's guarded the bishop is protected and
Wow exchange sacrifice that rook
What a journey just to give itself up and
Wow, Rook b8. You're right Tanya. This was definitely worth playing through
I thought the knight would just move and also knight to b4 and the material balance would be restored
But sacrifice from Tanjong Yi to trap the bishop
a4 queen a5 making use of the pin on the a file and the bishop takes a pawn but
Black is now the exchange up. At least temporarily gave it back
for this big deep one that we see and this is how we got here
That's just what a crazy series of moves right?
This has been from both players to land up in this position and now even though there's material balance
We see that b2 is is big time tender for white with the bishop and the queen lined up
Black can even get the rook into the game
You got ideas like rookie at night C4 jumping in to start attacking the bishop on E3
Tan zombie with 33 minutes in the clock has enough time to figure this one out
I think she takes this David which is gonna be heartbreaking for the Indian fans here because you know where shall he just look like she found her rhythm
Getting that first win in yesterday a big one for her and then this
Game with the white pieces right before the rest day if she goes down in this one
I think it's gonna be a tough second half for Vashali
Yeah, definitely not out of it, but not what you want just before rest day to end the first half of the tournament losing with white. And especially in a game where she's maybe struggled, made some provocative decisions and they have all backfired so far.
But so she's tactically very strong. Maybe she can find a way to get back into this game. Let's zoom out, Tanya, and we'll update everyone if the clock comes back to haunt by Charlie a bit later.
later. Or maybe it's haunting her already but as we go to our bird's eye view David we see that
in fact Divya has gone for a different approach. She didn't push the cheap one. She got her queen
to the center of the board but she's still on the advantage there. Gauriashvina Zhuzina remains in
the balance not the pawn push that we were looking at but maybe we'll have a long end game with
a good knight and the bad bishop but let's head up to our open section there and start
with Javakir Sinderov against Anish Giribhudev.
Javakir is continuing to put the pressure on here.
We see both his rooks on opposite flanks but open lines.
D5 pawn attacked that knight from D4, hasn't moved and will not move.
If needed, the king can come to E3 to consolidate it at the center of the board.
Meanwhile, Pragyananda Karwana remains in the balance.
David, is it time to head over to Javakir?
Let's do it. Your wish is my command, Tanya.
And a big, big game, of course, for the standings.
And I think big coupler moves ahead for Anishgiri.
He's got four minutes, but only two moves
to get to the time control.
It's going to be crazy, Tanya.
Javuk is still got over an hour.
And he's about to get more time at move 40.
He is a man in a hurry.
He wants to get places.
He wants to face Gukesh.
And I've got to say, this is so unpleasant for Black.
Black can barely move.
It's almost Zunfeng.
And you know, David Howell, because you bring it up
and not I.
And with us from tomorrow, unfortunately, tomorrow is a rest day, but from game eight, I will not be joining you for commentary.
I will be enjoying it from the sidelines. I think this is the moment that I want to ask you this question at my early days, and I know all of that.
Did you mention a potential Jabba Kheer versus Gukesh World Championship match?
Sinderov really does feel like he's in a hurry, not just on the clock in this game, but with his scoreline as well, trying to get to that match.
How to assess that world championship?
Oh, it's difficult. It depends which Goukesh turns up, whether it's 2024 Goukesh, who was
on fire, defeating everyone, looked so smooth, looked so convincing, or whether it's maybe
the Goukesh who hasn't quite clicked into top gear. It also depends which Cyndorov.
If it's this Cyndorov, like, who's going to stop him? I mean, you put Magnus in classical,
I still think it's going to be quite a close match against this version of Cyndorov.
I think the strengths versus weaknesses line up slightly in Cindorov's favor.
The clock, Cindorov puts so much pressure on time, very rarely in time trouble.
Goukesh has, especially in the last year or so, been susceptible to some time trouble issues.
So I think that helps.
Preparation, of course, will be so key.
But I don't know, anything can happen.
They're both so young.
It could just be decided that the first decisive results could see someone spiral.
How about you, Tanya?
Would you back India in that India versus Uzbekistan clash?
You know where my heart is in this conversation.
I mean, there is no question about that.
But I think the performance that Senderov's put up
and what he's been showing all of 25,
and on the other end of that, like you mentioned,
for Gokesh, it's been just a really difficult year.
To the point where actually he's also withdrawn
from the grand chess store, and will only be playing,
I believe, the rapid and the Blitz event.
And actually, his spot has been taken by Senderov.
So it's been interesting to see that narrative
being played out as well.
It will be a fantastic fight.
And I think just like in the ding match as well,
we get a lot of decisive games in the classical portion
and maybe even in the first part of that match as well,
both extremely young.
I'm just hoping that that one really does go down
to the wire.
We get an extreme fight.
I think it would be a 50-50,
but Gukesh needs to find his form back for it
to be a 50-50.
I think given where it is right now,
what we're seeing of Cinderhub
and what we're seeing of Gukesh,
So, you know, if I put my bias aside, yes, Indra would be a favorite then.
Yeah, it's just funny, like who would have thought it back in 2022 in Chennai,
at the Olympiad, Tanya with Uzbekistan winning there, that it would just generate this
immediate rivalry. I thought it would still take a few years, but suddenly India, Uzbekistan,
are rising to the top. They've got such depth, so many strong players, also young,
and just the chess schools that are developing there, just incredible.
I want to add to that, I think it will be very fitting right where the India-Zbekistan rivalry
is not only seen at the world championship level but also at the upcoming Olympiad.
I think for both these two teams, especially in the open section I want to add, I think
in the open section a lot of people consider India and Uzbekistan to be the two top favourite.
I mean right now we've got Nadebek Abdul Satra who's also having a crazy run who's
gone up to, I believe, world number four. And Sindharov in the live ratings, God knows
how many more points he's going to farm in these candidates. But he's gone up to world
number five. And then, of course, in India, you've got the big three, right? You've got
Prague, you've got Gukesh, you've got Arjun. And then the next two spots was yet to be
seen who gets those. So two incredibly strong teams. And as you're pointing out, this
national rivalry between India and Uzbekistan with this generation is fascinating to
watch unfold. And I think you're going to see that over the next decade at every
elite level of tournament? Yeah it's something I don't think anyone would have predicted 20 years ago
but two new world superpowers and yeah it's no longer Russia, USA, it's no longer just concentrated
in one or two countries so many strong players emerging around the world, Turkey maybe the next
up and coming emerging power there. In the meantime it looks like this is the
the live position, Tanya, move 40 has just been reached. Again, the fide broadcast seems
to be lagging with the moves, so I'm just going to put them on the board. King to e3 defending
the knight and Anish has played rook to b6. And is he really going to give up the exchange
and try to capture this pawn? I don't really see any other justification. He's definitely
sacrificing d5 now. Big moment. Rook takes d5. I think he has to. I think it's going to
be Rook takes pawn check. Otherwise he's just a pawn down for nothing. And Tanya, what do
you make of this? The eval bar is stuck in the center despite the fact that white
is up Rook for bishop. This is not an easy judgment call to make for Sinderov. He should
be spending some time, but impressive from Geary to understand this.
It almost feels like the kind of end game where you either know that this is a draw and
this structure you hold is black or if it's over the board, it's an extremely hard evaluation
to pull out.
So if Geary has somewhere studied this and he knows that two versus two, same side,
you know a Bishop and Rook combo, you end up trading pawns and you'll only be left
with one and the pawns are placed as well, this ends in a draw and I think
we might see it. But the question is, I wonder if Sinderov also knows it and wants to find
a way to not even allow Rook to expound because Rook takes d5 like you're pointing out. His
last move was actually Rook to be 6, right? He's voluntarily walked into this line. What
else could that mean? It has to be Rook to expound coming with a check in response to
that d5 pawn being taken.
Exactly. And I think especially if the d5 pawn is taken there in that exact position
takes takes. It would be nice for white to run away and keep some pieces on the board.
If you can keep both rooks, you're probably just winning because you'll be able to generate
an attack against the black king, combine the rooks together. But after king f2, for example,
there are already tactics. If it's c6, and it is an annoying skewer on the lightsaber diagonal,
you can't save the f3 pawn. So that would all be forced. Cinderov, huge moment. He needs to
spend some of that one and a half hours, Tanya, to maybe convince himself not to get greedy here.
But I wonder what is the alternative?
If that's white, you want to keep the game going.
And again, such an instructive moment
that the d5 pawn alive serves white more than off the board
right now.
You're simply playing more against the bishop
than trying to be up an extra pawn
with a line that bishop to get active.
How else are you actually keeping this advantage?
Because the bar seems to say that Cinderov
is doing well in this position.
And let's say if I was to make a non-drift-takes pawn
move.
So help me out, David.
let's just make a let's play king to d3 try to get that king close and no I want to keep my rook
active and as rook takes pawn still a powerful resource that black has is my question.
Oh this is a very good question because now the tactics are different rook takes pawn
it might be the last opportunity Geary gets to play that move because king c3 will totally shut
the door kick the rook away protect the knight everything covered so rook takes pawn take
capture check and now where do you want to go forward or back? Not to e2. I'll tell you the
one square I don't want to go to. No e2, no d2. Yeah, luckily you've got 50-50. You've got d4c2,
they're fine. d2e2, not fine. We go forward, David Hall. Okay, forward and that comes with a
trap. Rook takes pawn and the bishop gets skewed or pinned. Either way the bishop is lost.
So, this is what I meant earlier, like with two rooks on the board, I'm far less comfortable
with black.
I don't really know what to do, like, does black put the bishop back on f7s, try to keep
it safe?
Does black go passive with the rook, rook b7, but I don't like this so much, let's
say rook b7.
I'm not so clear.
Okay, and it looks like a big decision, but Tanya, I think in practical terms, I would
just want to play Rk3.
I know it's minimalist approach, but Rk3 then maybe bring the king over to c3.
Oh, that is passive, but then the white rook will finally come back to a5 or a7.
Yeah, for me, I just find the spot for the rook on a3 is just a hard move to
make right now.
You know, I like that it's eyeing AAD 5, I like the activity of it, but looking at the
situation, by the way, time control has been made so the players get an additional 30 minutes on
the clock, which means that Javakir has jumped up to an hour and 26 minutes. He has all the
time in the world to work out whether he wants to take deep dive, bring the route back, how to
keep the game going. And good to see him invest it. There is a curse, right Tanya,
of the move 41. I think the starkest example was Tan Zhongyi earlier in the tournament against
Lagna. She was totally winning. Piece up. Could have won in maybe 10 different ways.
She had, I mean, she still had loads of time left from the first time control, but on move 41,
given an extra half hour, she didn't pause within a minute or so. She blundered and then
blundered again on the next move and went on to lose. So it's nice to see that the players
are aware of this move 41 41 you stop you take stock use your extra time here he has an ocean of time
and yeah he tries just try to avoid that that famous curse the 41 curse and yeah he'll be thinking
about maybe king d3 I think he'll definitely calculate for a 25 first then maybe realize it's
not acceptable not what he wants and then he'll look for solutions but so it looks like a lot of
of fans now in the chat, Tanya, a lot of people willing him to go on and keep the street going.
Five and a half out of six. I think everyone wants to see a six and a half out of seven.
The only time that comes in my mind that's been done is the top of 2005, San Luis, Argentina,
a different format back then. It was the world championship, but I believe an eight-player
one even then. And then in the second half of the tournament, in that format, it was
the world championship, not the candidates, but a similar double round robin after
scoring six and a half out of seven and we've got a big decision here he does go
for Rook takes Pawn, Cinder off. What? You're shocked, you're shocked. That oh
wow he's just given Girian golden opportunity to make a draw and Girian
has to find it. Girian's just given up a Pawn sorry to cut in there Tanya but
this is a huge moment and that was Cinder off rushing that was what we
saw yesterday against Wei Yi where he gave half a chance, Wei Yi didn't take
it. Sinderov has so much time and this is just a total misjudgment. We see the evaluation bar,
like we have that kind of cheat code there, we get the hint, but Sinderov was given the hint by
Girry. Girry gave away this point. He was like, please take it, please take it. He said, take it
for the last 10 moves. But Sinderov finally has taken it in the worst possible moment.
Wow, and look at Anish Giridhar. He's calming himself down. He knows he's about to give the
exchange and go into the defense but he believes in that fortress. He believes in that position
down in exchange to be able to hold this. Anish will spot the draw. He will spot the
draw because he set that up himself. And Rukh takes on and Sinderov had so many ways
to just keep the game going. Again, the idea of Rukh takes on only works in this
scenario. If Cinderov played this move is the only one where there will be a
rook trade otherwise giving up the exchange with both the rooks on the
board that would have cost Anish big time. And now he leans in David I think he
spots it he's probably already spotted it he wills himself to play it and goes
on the defense in this one. Exactly like I just don't understand this at all
Cinderov's been so calm so measured so constructed with the way he's been
building up, slowly putting his rooks on the H and A files, totally open files, stretching
the black defences. He's put his knight on d4, perfectly maneuvered his king around to
the perfect spot. And that d-pawn, he avoided taking it for so long. And like I said, and
like our future chatter says there, move 41 curses real. Like he didn't stop for long
enough. He spent seven minutes, but if he spent 40 minutes, it would have been
totally fine there. He just needed to work out this end game. There's no way in
seven minutes you get to the truth and he doesn't know the truth he still thinks he's winning Cinder
off but this is a huge huge mistake blowing the advantage and Tanya the worst thing is after your
king d3 which was fantastic by the way he could have gone into the same game with a set of extra
rooks on the board he could have traded rooks off later if he wanted he could have got the same
thing just a way better version with so much more flexibility so it makes zero sense to take
on d5 first. I'm actually checking the engine right now instead of rook they spawn he could
He could have pretty much done anything and kept a major chunk of his advantage.
Your move Rk3, the sliding of the rook from h2 to c2, just simply taking away the c6 square
for the bishop eventually and still attacking the d5 pawn would have kept all his chances
there.
Still continuing to put pressure on Girish.
David, how much of this is psychology as well here, right?
Because Sinderov knows that he is never in a million years losing that position.
Yes, most likely to end in a draw.
But he also probably feels.
He looks at Fabi's board, really close by right there, and sees that the chances of
Fabi winning that against Prague barely exist.
It feels like Prague has everything under control.
Going into the rest day with still a point and a half leading in seven rounds remaining,
maybe there is a psychological pull to go into a safety first scenario and just saying
you know what, let's wrap this up, let's go into the rest day, seven games, even
if I was to draw all of them, maybe you can even afford to lose one, but even if I draw
all of them, I get to the world championship. And do you think that has affected this approach
of going Rook to expand?
I think maybe, I think it's, he's not even thinking about the results. He's so professional
in that regard. He's focused on the moment, but I think he just got overexcited. I think
he believes this endgame is winning. And we'll have to dig a bit deeper in a second,
just to understand what he might have missed. But I think he just got overexcited yesterday
against where he also had an hour on his clock and could have just won in totally controlled
fashion instead. He's trying to force the issue and that's totally fine. And I think I'm just,
I'm affected here, Tanya, because I wanted this game, this up till this move, I wanted
it to be the headline game of Grind Like a Grandmaster 2, my next book. But he's
just blown it with one move and now I can't use it. Now it's going to be a cautionary
detail.
Well, maybe you can use it and use your analysis
to show how it's really done.
And then send the copy to Javakir Sinderov,
if that ever does come out, David.
But I just want to point out in this situation right now.
And by the way, looking at Anish on the camera,
it's almost like he's willing himself.
He's telling himself that he needs to go into this line
and believe that it holds.
Because there are some other attractive options,
but Black needs to be careful.
Now, Bishop to E6 is a move that comes to mind.
You hit the Rook on D5 and you're X-ring the B3 pawn.
If Knight takes bishop, Rook takes bishop, Rook takes knight and that's the best version.
You pick up the B3 pawn, handshakes, game over.
But what I want to show you here David is that White actually has a really tricky idea.
You go Rook to D8, watch out that Black King on G7 which can come into many amazing
nets right now.
Let's say Giri doesn't want to give up his exchange.
He doesn't want to sacrifice the rook and wants to play it super safe and say his bishop
takes pawn as an option.
I think you're just getting checkmated.
You're just getting checkmated, David Howell, 9-F5 check.
Well, in this case, not you but Anish.
The 9-F5 check, King slides in, it doesn't even matter where you're going.
Rook steps up, gives a check, King F7, rook 8-7.
King G7 runs into rook G7, King E6 runs into rook E7 and that's just game over.
So actually, Anish Keri has to give up material at this point to draw this game.
Yeah, I think this is it, Tanya.
Maybe you've just stumbled on the reason Sibarov is so excited right now.
Maybe he's not even seriously considered rook takes b3.
He was just thinking, okay, bishop e6 is what Anish wants.
Now I have this cool rook d8 move and yeah, if bishop takes b3,
it's impossible. Black has to take any way with the rook.
Just the white knight is way too strong, all those mating nets.
and it's a better version for white.
But yeah, he's just underestimated this move,
which Geary did kind of broadcast
with his last two moves, Rp4, Rp6.
Should we delve deeper into this one?
Let's do it.
Let's see what happens,
and if Sunderov has any chances being up in exchange,
and from a human perspective,
from a human evaluation point,
if you how easy or trivial of a hold this is,
so you give a check,
I don't want to give up my F3 pawn.
For example, if I move my king to D4,
move like bishop c6 hitting that rook and I end up losing f3 as well.
Yeah that looks like it should be pretty safe unless white can get some
miracle checkmate attack against the black king again.
Don't really see it like coming around with a rook
bishop takes pawn and trying to give a check but I mean even if black walks
forward I don't think there's a mating that because this pawn will
disappear and the black king will have air to breathe.
So this, I agree, feels wrong in this position to give up the f-pawn and does that just give you,
I mean definitely don't want to play king d2 again, although still a draw because the bishop is hanging.
But does that only give you one choice, Tanya, Rook d3?
Feels like that, right? Because you can't go to the second rank with a check coming in.
You want to stay connected to the f3 pawn. So let's say the rooks get off the board
because that's what you want. You don't want to keep, I think if you move the rook away,
that gives real chances for white to fight for a win, not to mention that D7 Bishop was
hanging. And again, I think this is the kind of position which is hard to analyze except
a forcing move F5. I think that's the most attractive move that you want to look at.
Get rid of as many pawns. A pure rook versus bishop is handshakes, it's draw on the spot.
And David, this position, pawn takes pawn, bishop takes pawn. You're looking at this
if you're a niche gearing. How are you evaluating this? And again, how trivial
is this to hold at this level? Yeah it's it's difficult like I would need a lot of time like I
would not be sure like I've studied similar positions but it's always different wherever the
pawn is like it's only ever a draw if the pawn is on a dark square the bishop's on a light square
just to stop the the enemy king coming in here it's maybe especially good because there's
chances of exchanging off the pawns and rook versus bishop is an easy draw but yeah I would
would need time to like work out how black sets up like is the king is just
sitting on f6 forever what happens if the white king tries to sneak in what
happens if the white king tries to go the whole way around like round the back
and try to get in like you need so much time and that's why I'm maybe a bit
harsh but maybe a bit disappointed as well at cinder off and not spending
that time trying to be a hundred a thousand percent sure that this
position is winning for white because it isn't and you know I think it is
based on the fact that black will play G4 when white is busy trying to make progress around the other side.
And I want to backtrack a little bit because you mentioned that white should try to keep
a repair on the board, right? Now Rook D3 feels like for real winning, oh by the way Anish has
taken, no not Anish, but Mati has blue bomb is where we go to before we go right back to
that and this one's about to finish in a draw. This is an opposite color bishop end game
And David, I think the moment away, Hikaru's managed to survive, he's managed to get the queens off the board.
I think there'll be eye contact soon enough and the players' handshake's there.
This one ends peacefully and I think for Hikaru, that is the frustration continues.
Yeah, it was actually a very well played game from both players, especially Hikaru to defend.
It's just the results, unfortunately at this point.
He's going to take no consolation in the fact that he played almost 99% accuracy with Black
because he was on the defensive, he didn't get the first win that he wanted that he needed
and there was some final words from the players
but yeah disappointment. Most players you get to get that first win of the event.
I don't think Mathias Blubomb is as disappointed right now you know he's
continuing his streak and I have a feeling that Hikaru's recap video might have the
title something to do with the Blubomb streak continuing. We'll find out that's a story
for later the story is on now oh my god he's reaching for the bishop he I saw him
Anish Keri yes he can take that pawn even after bishop to e6 but Rook takes
pawn would be the precise move here also David I would at some point like to
check if white wanted to go back with the king there after the checking on b3
giving that up in my attempt to try to save both rooks you know I don't know
on the another maybe we can just show it quickly right now Rook takes pawn
Knight takes Rook. Okay, he's going for it. David, Bishop e6 on the board. He hasn't gone for Rook takes pawn.
The game still lives.
The game still lives. Maybe Rook takes pawn is going to be a key idea a bit later.
This isn't a bad move at all from Geary.
And this is why maybe Sinderov, underestimating or getting overexcited,
didn't realize that Black actually has other moves.
But Tanya, you wanted to mention King to d3 this line?
Sorry, not this line. But after Rook takes pawn,
I am obsessed with the idea of keeping both my Rooks alive
or at least trying to rook takes pawn, knight takes rook, rook takes knight, and I come back
to f2. And I'm saying that if you go rook b2 check, I go king g3 and you don't have time
to trade. Yeah, rook takes rook, rook takes check and the rook will drop off. By the way
David, I think we have to stick to the live position because huge moment here, rook
d8 has arrived and there it is, Anish Kheri sacrifices the exchange. He believes in this,
he holds this position that it is indeed going to be a fortress we see the moves coming in fast
and quick right here rook will come back to d3 but in this scenario as you pointed out it is possible
for white to keep both rooks on the board okay but is it how can he do that because rook to b2
check will meet any king retreat king e4 there will be a rook check on b4 I think he's found
on the same idea, just a different order.
Right.
Yeah, you're right.
There is no way for White to survive this with both rooks
on the board.
And with one of them gone, this looks
like Anishgari confidently went into this line.
Do you think this is the moment that Cinderov realizes
that maybe it's not an easy break
and he let go of an opportunity?
I think, yeah, I think this might
be it where it starts to sink in that he should have
at least spent more than seven minutes debating
this ensuing position.
I think even the likes of Magnus, the greatest end game
playable time, would need 20, 30 minutes minimum
to evaluate what we are just going into now.
We get the evaluation bar.
It says it's a draw, Tanya, but yeah, I don't think.
Maybe Cinderella's just calculating.
That's how big kids do it these days.
They just calculate, calculate.
They don't take a step back and be like, OK, actually,
risk-free, I could have played on in a different way.
Now it's either a draw or it's not.
There's no more slow maneuvering about it.
it's absolute that they're dealing with.
And yeah, it's not going to be easy.
I really like Gary's decision here.
And the pause by Javakir just confirms everything, right?
He will make his move because process of elimination,
you realize whether you come back,
you're anyway going to trade the Rook.
You don't want to go to E2.
E2 you still can, but you definitely want to go to D2,
losing that Rook on H2 to a check.
But regardless of anywhere else,
you either lose the F3 pawn
or trade off the last remaining pair of rooks here.
So for Sinderov, he probably knows now, David,
and look at that, you can kind of see it on him.
He's taking his time, but this is the time
that he had to take a couple of moves earlier
on that move, 41, to keep the pressure on.
And he's reaching for his king.
It looked like he was moving up the board.
Well, king e4 doesn't really help the cause.
You've got those checks coming in anyway.
Maybe he'll try and block with his rook on the d4 square, block some checks.
Ultimately, rooks are coming off the board, black is going to get f5 in.
And I think we will get that end game we were talking about, Tanya.
I think it's almost guaranteed, just a slightly different move order.
Yeah, that's pretty. When the king moves up, you give a check, the block f5 might still work immediately with that.
Wow.
And just to show F5 is still an idea in the current position, first I thought this was
impossible because after a rook trade, suddenly Black doesn't get what he wants, F5 loses
to king to E5 double attack.
But like you said Tanya, really important detail that here Black gets F5 in, check
with tempo, takes takes, and we'll get the same end game that we were talking about.
And this should be a draw.
You know, you can see it in Senorov, really.
I mean, he's just looking everywhere except the board
is where he was looking.
And meanwhile, a swinging, Anish Giri,
I think he knows all the swings in this game are over,
and he safely navigated it to holding it.
And David, something catches your attention.
What happened?
What is it?
This is the most drama, but we're just past move 40.
I've just seen a huge blunder by Tanjong Yi
against Vaishali.
Vi-Charlie is now winning on the spot.
What?
She has risen from the dead.
I'm sorry to take us away from this marquee match,
but let's go over to that game,
because we see head-in-hands Tan Zhongyi,
the worst blunder I've seen at candidates level in a while.
She's also blundered a few days ago
against Katja and Aligno, but Rook takes F6,
taking a bishop, and she's just walked into a double attack.
That is...
back up and see how this happened. Tan Zongi set this up for herself. Rook to a1, she played.
She could have done anything else. Rook to a3. She's already lost some of the advantage
but still great winning chances for black with the past a pawn. But Rook a1, she played
it in just a minute or so. She's been playing against Vaishali's clock. She rushed Rook
a1 and blundered. Rook takes f6 and game over. Rook f1 check, king e2.
This is just unbelievable. She took a minute and 18 seconds to make that move and she had
about 15 minutes on the clock. Tanzangi, when she walked into this one move, Blunder,
literally gifting a key point to Veshali and now you can see it. It's the kind of Blunder
that you can't even fight back from. It's just completely lost. And Tanzangi was the
winner of the 2024 Toronto Candidates. She went on to fight for the World Championship
not only that she's won the work championship in 2017 and at this crucial stage after a winning position
letting go of all that advantage, holding on with still that A-pond being the only one to fight for
a win in this position with an extra A-pond and here as you play Roke 1 this has to be heartbreaking
unbelievable gift for Vaishali today. And Vaishali is going to be moving up to four points
She's going to be on a plus score, and she's going to fancy her chances in the second half.
She's survived so many bad positions, Tanya, in the first half of the event that she might
believe luck is on her side, fate is on her side, and yeah, I mean, I've got a feel for Tantrangi.
We've all blundered stuff like this at some point. It's just the worst feeling when it
happens in the biggest tournament of the year, and especially after playing such a good game
as well. Hot breaking stuff.
And the point is that it was in a position where you're up upon David and
you're really pushing to win this one. You've been pushing it from the start
and Rook to A1, you know. I don't even know at this level,
you know, with Tanzongi, her strength, everything put together just
it's unbelievable that this lunder just happened right now
after a nil flawless game by her.
Yeah, nearly flawless, but unfortunately one big flaw at the end and even GMs are humans,
exactly as our featured chat says, unbelievable. But that's what these things happen at
candidates level, Tanya, because of the kind of importance of the event, right? The pressure they
put on themselves and there's so much emotion just riding on every game, like always thinking,
Okay, there's nothing I need more than a win right now. Tan Zhong Yi's had such a tough time promising positions disappearing
hasn't won a single game yet and
Yeah, she's gonna be feeling that it's not gonna be her event after after this blunder
but maybe we leave her to it because this is
This is tough to watch. Maybe we go back to the birds I've used for the last few moves of the time scramble
Let's do it David for the Charlie looking now at her second win in a row. What a rollercoaster of a game
That one has been we've had to draw so far between Anna Mozichuk, Vivisara, Aasir Bhaiyava
the first to finish of the day and then Ekaru Nakamura holding Mathias Bluebomb to a draw
in a slightly difficult opposite color bishop end game. Meanwhile, Yasipenko continues to struggle
David that Rukane one hasn't moved at all. That's the bottom left board and maybe that's
the one we go to next because Javaki is under of Anish Kiri. I believe we'll go on for a
while where Javaki will push, will try to put some pressure but Anish Kiri should be
up to the task of holding this Bishop versus Rook. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana, Pragrinanda
has been in the balance for a while. A change in dynamics there where we see that the knight
from D4 has been pushed away. The isolated Queen's pawn doesn't exist anymore. And we'll
go to that. But first, let's look at the way he bought, as way he just feels like he's on fire
today. Look at this position on the traffic jam that we have on that A6 F1 diagonal
right now. Let's rush over to that board as Yasip Anko is in a think. And he is really
hanging. It's a very cool position. I'm yeah, I have to be grateful here to John Sargent
for pointing me in the direction of this one because there's been a lot of punctuation
as he puts it in the last few moves. And I'll take it back to this position because
in the near future, well, we saw some tactics already, but the C file becomes
all important but in the near future here, question marks, exclamation marks, dubious
signs, everything starts happening Tanya and I think it began after this move, Rook to see for
he's only human way, every human wants to be an artist, exchange sacrifice, thematic stuff,
given a question mark that feels super harsh because if the Rook's captured I think Black is
totally winning since the White King is going to be super vulnerable on the light squares
and yeah rook sacrifice but who I mean who cares about rooks when your opponent's rook looks like that
on anyone as you're saying so rook c4 knight e2 given an exclamation mark resisting the temptation
now double x slam finally from black I think this is based on the fact that bishop takes rook now
it's going to be even stronger for black due to some checks so knight e7 g4 and yeah exclamation
Mark's galore but question marks galore as well as b4 just insisting now that even self pinning
and bishop to b5 this is the live position. Crazy stuff Tanya.
It's really amazing I mean this whole position in the game the way it's played out
with the black rook and c4 and no one even caring about picking it up I think pawn takes
trick I'd be also very tempted to pick it back up with the pawn I think that was your first
instinct as well. But now it looks like you're changing your mind and I have to see that, I
have to say that the bar things pawn takes pawn isn't accurate, but David I think everyone
would play this move. You're looking at C3 coming in, at C2 coming in and you still keep
a big advantage. Yeah, huge advantage. There's checkmate threats.
The White King actually wishes the rook anywhere else and can't escape into the corner.
It's a full rook sacrifice. So I was very impressed by this move B4, just allowing
the pin. But yeah, I think as I was about to show you that Bishop takes is just as strong,
which is counterintuitive, but this position is just almost guaranteed. Mates now. It's
going to be check or check or everything's falling.
Yeah, Rook c1 runs into Qd3 check. Otherwise, Qc2 comes in. This is just pure devastation.
I love Bishop to b5. And if you don't pick up that rook right now, that rook is not
threatening to move back and getting rid of a key defender in White's position, even
even if you go back to our live board, if you make any other move except Pontex Rook,
the Rook goes back to the C6 or C7, Rook C1 check also in certain positions, a big threat,
but let's say White was to avoid that, but just simply trading of the LightSquad Bishop
will mean game over for the White King. And it's all come down to that Rook and A1,
right? I like that you're showing this line, Queen takes Bishop. Now the Rook lining
on to C2, also ideas of A5, A4. White just never got started on the right flank
it all and Wei Yi has just been steam rolling on the other side essentially playing upper
rook for the whole game.
Alpha Wei Yi trapping the opponent's rook and just making things look simple and oh,
form takes for it played.
Got a lift by the sword, die by the sword and I think Yasipenko realized like he was
lost anyway just to show one final variation like if he ignored things completely h5,
rook c1 check is mate in a few moves.
I just want to show you the beauty here and Rook takes, for example, there's this checkmate
Queen A3 delivering the killer blow and after Rook C1, if Knight takes, it's not much better
if it takes and this would have been game over next move.
So okay, I can't blame him, Tanya, for wanting to die in style at least or wanting to force
Wei Yi to prove it.
All right, and Wei Yi needs to prove it, right, because taking pawn takes pawn like
we saw still keeps wide in the game but today we is an absolute beast right now. He does
pick it up with the bishop. It was always the idea of getting rid of this defender,
the light-squared bishop right now. Threats of B3 coming in. You can't even move the
bishop to C2, David. Amongst other things, the knight on E2 is hanging as well but
probably there are other ways but I would just grab that knight and keep all my advantage
on the board. And I'd do that and lose a chunk of it.
Nah, it's still way, way, way good enough, Tanya. This is still easily winning, Bcd3.
White's never going to survive with a rook on a1 like that, but like you said, probably
there's better, probably where you will be calculating moves like Bd3, just going for
the immediate checkmate. I haven't seen it yet after white defends, but maybe it's
just rook, oh it's just rook takes, isn't it?
C4 or Queen A4? Yeah, mate, you can pre-move this actually. Checkmate. Nothing white can
do. Actually, it's really funny because if you put that Queen on C4, you can still survive
by putting something in the middle. You know, Queen A4, there's no hiding. There's no running
away from it. So pretty combination in that one. David, this might be our first decisive
result of the day. I think we might be moments away from handshake in this one.
down a rope we're about to go up a king. It's likely to be the first decisive
result but not the last. I'm just saying for the predictions I'm more optimistic.
Yeah I know I shouldn't be thankful to Tan Zhongyi but her piece Blunder has made it
more likely that there might be three decisive results in this round.
Cinderoff had put me off the off the track there allowing this kind of drawing idea from
from Geary, but it looks like this one at least is almost guaranteed now, Tanya.
I think it's just pretty much forced mate.
It really looks like that.
I don't even see a way to survive over the next five moves right now.
There's so much attack and all of White's pieces on the right flank, the Queen, the
Rook, the Knight, not being able to come to the rescue of the White King.
And again, the Rook on A1, it's not really a playing down a Rook, you're taking
away a key escape square from your King.
So every attacking line just works.
You're boxing up your own King.
I have to say, this has been one of Wei Yi's masterpieces,
you know, the attacking masterpieces that he's so famously known for.
And the big question will be, did it come too late in the candidates?
Or will this see him get back into the run with still seven games to go?
Will he start finding his momentum in the second half?
Yeah, he's a dangerous customer,
where he often plays his best when provoked,
when people really go at him or take risks.
Like Yesapenko did today with this kind of early novelty against the Petrov,
then this weird bishop d2 retreat after that never really got a chance back in.
So I wouldn't be surprised if Wei Yi plays a bit of a spoiler role in the second half,
even if it's a bit unlikely he's going to win the whole event now.
Should we zoom out Tanya, just assuming that this is going to end with a checkmate?
Let's do it. And it would be exactly the way Wei Yi would want to end before the rest.
They're getting his first win off the candidates. And this is where we are at Anish Kiri,
finding the right sequence of moves to get a position that he believes he holds.
David so far F5 hasn't happened so at least there are two sets of pawns although I don't see that
being the case for too long right now and meanwhile on the other board as a top leader
seems to be headed towards a draw a 6 out of 7 is how most likely he goes into the rest day.
It's Pragya Nanda versus Taviyano Karwana and I wonder is all right let's start with the
the Chravakir board and then check in with Fabi's board because that also looks like there is there's still blood left there
There's still something left to play for in that end game
Mm-hmm. Let's do it. Let's do it in that order of scores and
we'll start with
Sinderov
Trying to break down a fortress from Anish Giri. I will get that them up on the camera in a second
But Tanya, like, f5 was convincing, I think it was good enough just getting more pieces
off the board closer to Rbbb and a very well-known draw, but he doesn't need it.
And this is actually what I was leading to earlier, like, the only fortresses with level
pawns from Rbbb are when the pawns are in dark squares and the bishops are on light
squares, they just complement each other so well.
And this is crazy, it might actually just be a fortress, like, Black's king will
always move if checked and I mean the bishop is going to keep the white king honest but
even if it doesn't I wonder whether allowing the white king in is still a draw because
here you have enough squares to wait on the diagonal and the white king can just never
cross onto the e-file. This is textbook fortress.
And the winning plan for white has to revolve around that right combining the king and
the rook to get to the f-point but every time you are checked on the a-thrand you
simply move king to f7 and not allowing the white king any entry onto e7, keeping that
not an option.
So what we are finding out about this position David is that Anish doesn't even need to change
the characteristic of it.
He can just sit as is and whites to try to push might have to go f4 at some point to
trade upon and then try and get something out of it.
I don't see if that helps.
And he's very confident in making moves quickly now.
Yeah, he's also realized he can just
wait with the king, king f8, king e8.
He's got two safe squares for the king.
His bishop has enough squares on the diagonal.
I don't think there's ever going to be any Zugi here.
There's no Zugs one.
It's just, yeah, I think fantastic evaluation
by Giri to set all of this up, first of all,
and to go for it.
But I think this is going to be a bit of a lesson
for Sinderov.
He did everything perfectly just when
maximized the pressure, was getting a proper advantage, he let it all slip.
Yeah, and for Javakir, while it's absolutely not even close to a disastrous result in any
way at all, he probably could have had more going into that rest day right now, David.
Trying to get that King in won't be successful and I think in his mind he knows that Geary
has the fortress set up.
And while we say it's been flawless by Anish, I do see that Tania is mentioning that actually
on move 44 there was something stronger that Anish had which would have finished the game
on the spot.
And I see you're finding it very amusing, so I'm going to leave it to you to break
that down for us, David.
King to FD was the move of choice here.
And here we saw the rook trade happen eventually.
And it felt like the right path.
What could be stronger than that?
Wow, Tanya, this is study-like, and we have to thank our good friend today for pointing
us in this direction.
I would never contemplate this, like maybe in classical if I had an hour on the clock,
but I would never otherwise contemplate this, but bishop takes g4.
And I also have to give credit to one of our featured chapters earlier, who even, like
three or four moves before this position arose, said, I hope Anish finds the bishop
takes g4 line.
I was like wait what and I was trying to figure out like with Rooks off the board when Bishop
takes g4 ever works. Bishop takes g4 is incredible. Bishop sacrifice and White can't avoid perpetual
check while saving his Rook. That is insane. Oh my gosh. That is crazy. I'm still taking
this in. It doesn't matter where you go. You just keep checking on the b-line. That's
you can't go to F1, you can never get to F3, you can never run away on the left side because
the rook will be hanging and the black rook just keeps checking and indeed I would have
been a draw on the spot. This is stunning stuff.
Okay, we can't blame Anish for not spotting this. It's difficult. It's so rare this pattern.
It actually reminds me of a study you showed me when I was in India, when I was in Delhi
in 2019 with lots of checks from the side. But yeah, I wish it takes G4, that was
tough and Tanya I'm still recovering from that but if we catch up with the live
position he's still making it less flashy way you know I haven't seen a
motive like that actually happen in a live game where you sacrifice the
bishop and you're basically just checking and chasing the Viking and
there's no way to run with two rooks on the board and that simply comes down
to because one of the rook is on the edge file on the edge file on the
edge of the board and you can't escape it that was stunning that was
actually really nice okay this position is gonna go on for a while but just to
show it one more time I can't resist now do it that would have been the move of
the tournament like well especially if it was the only move but one of the one of
the moves of the tournament if it had been played so picturesque just and
check nowhere to hide for the white king while saving the group and and there
and the point is right you have to take the Bishop because even F3 Pawn is
hanging. There's really no way to keep both your pawns safe. So there's nothing you can fight for.
You need to take the bishop. It's the only move. This would have been one of the most stunning
draws of 2026. Yeah, just incredible. Rp3, Rp2, Rp1, all the checks and we cannot escape. Okay,
that is not an optional illusion. It's actually a draw. And if we go back to the live position,
Yeah, not much progress.
Geary is going to wait on this dive.
But in the meantime, Tanya,
I'm being told this is breaking news,
so we're going to bring in our trusty reporter,
Jon Sargent.
Yes, indeed, folks.
We did cover this game a little while ago.
There's going to be mixed emotions.
I'm not going to lie.
It's not necessarily the manner in which you always want to win,
so there'll be questions as heading into the second half,
but I can confirm if I shally goes into the rest day
with a win that game has concluded.
Tanya, that was a tough one.
That's going to be so difficult to bounce back from for Tanjirang Yi,
former women's four champion.
And yeah, of course she's won the candidates in the past,
but nobody wants to feel a bit bad.
Yeah, just out of form like that, blundering one-movers.
Yeah, very tough build to swallow, just coming out of
pretty much dominating the game with the black pieces from the opening etc.
Realizing that Vaishali has gone wrong, playing a beautiful sequence as well,
going into an endgame, you're up a pawn. It's what everyone says you're playing
for two results for the rest of the game. You know, you're in this endgame,
there's nothing to worry about, and then a one-move blunder with 15
minutes on the clock. I think for Tanzanji, it's going to be more of
fighting her own mind than the opponents that she's about to face for
the second time in this tournament. We'll see where she's been a world champion before,
she's won the candidates before, we'll see if she's able to make her bounce back,
but this has been an absolute gift for Vaishali, a free gift given on a platter wrapped in a bow.
And with that we come back here because no free gifts for Sindarov today
as Anish Kiri is finding all the right setups. Exactly and I just saw a message from John that
but it's unlike Anish to not spot an immediate draw,
like Bishop takes due for earlier,
but instead he has to play on and fight for the draw.
I think ultimately that word, the draw,
is the main thing on his mind, Anish,
he's gonna get there,
and it's just really instructive, Tanya.
I also wanna point out that his King
just happens to be in the perfect corner.
In Rook versus Bishop,
having the King in the opposite color corner
to your own Bishop is so important.
So we've kind of mentioned how black has enough squares on this diagonal to keep the bishop safe.
Can't get succumbed, worst comes worst, you can even wait with the king on these three squares, f8, e8, f7.
White's not making any progress, but just for completeness sake, I wanted to show this
because along these lines, if white is trying to break the fortress, trades off some pawns
and says, okay, I'm still not breaking through, I'm still not ever able to advance past the fifth rank,
Let's get rid of everything.
It's fortunate that the Black King is in this corner.
And I think here the Black King can also run,
but I'm going to try and arrange this.
So just for instructive purposes,
let's say White goes back and allows the King in.
This is another one that I struggled to understand
when I was young, but this is always a draw
because White cannot avoid these stalemate ideas
and the King's super safe, defended by its bishop.
Yes, very important point and I think this is a great defensive resource and any Bishop versus Rukh aim
If you're on the defensive side get your king on the opposite color of your Bishop
So we'll see if this does happen or not David for now
Let's bring up our birds eye view our eight-bowed view with three games done
We are down to five now two in the women's section remain three in our open
And I wonder how much longer is yes if I go going to survive the way on slot right now
You know we see the pawn is moving forward attacking the bishop there's pressure on the bishop on c2
Why it's Queen and Rook not being able to help the King everything's hanging the knight on e2 as well?
Yes, a canco still trying to fight. I think he's just letting his clock run out is the feeling I get because I'm running out of
moves to suggest for white in this position
Yeah, it's
It's a difficult one way he has the move and is spoiled for choice. He can take two different pieces
is just a very quick action replay since we were last here.
Bishop takes c4, White did retreat the bishop,
allowing Black in, and rather than immediately
allow any checkmates, he blocked the c-file,
but Tanya, I think firstly you can take the knight
and the attack continues, like if the White bishop moves,
you can just go back where you came from,
having removed the defender, or I think if you want
to be flashy, you can also take the bishop,
because after bishop takes d3, there's so many mates.
I was gonna point out that you could give a check
on the b-file, you could also just take the bishop,
And this is a mate in a few ways.
You can even deliver a nice blow with a bishop.
This is just...
Queen B2, queen B2.
I mean, you can count.
You can count at least five different mates
in that position, David.
This is so beyond over, exactly.
You can promote as well.
I wanted to promote with a knight,
but yeah, probably a queen is the most efficient.
Oh wait, knight is almost checkmate,
but not quite.
You need one more move to deliver the killer blow.
I do like the idea of capturing the Bishop on C3 rather than the Knight on E2.
It is simply opening up the B line as an access line to White's King there.
It just feels incredibly powerful.
Also the Knight on E2 is still hanging.
You might be calculating or in this case,
where you might be calculating what happens if Knight C1, Knight B3,
can be a resource that you have trying to block that B line.
But that's not the only trouble here, right?
Because there's also the B2 square to watch out for.
Although David, maybe we can check that out.
Knight C1, what's the fastest way to victory there?
Do you see a checkmate?
Do you see the knockout here?
Oh, that's a very good defensive idea.
I didn't see knight c1 at all, actually.
And that's why we're used calculating
rather than immediately bashing out b takes c3.
Like you said, I kind of want to give a check and go in.
But the white queen, just to show, the white queen does
defend.
So this is more tenacious than it looks.
Now bishop, wow, it's still me.
What?
I thought black and black would really.
It takes me three. That would be crazy.
Yeah, it is.
So he can even blunder the piece,
allow White's Queen to defend.
And this is still made, Tanya. Nice spot.
And it's all dependent on this check at the end.
The Bishop and Queen combo, so effective in so many lines.
Wow.
Yeah, he's just given up half of his pieces,
but all you need is a Queen Bishop.
And you know, three is the magical number in the attack.
And a pawn can add up as that third factor
in this position, a very strong one as well.
I think Wei Yi is kind of double checking this line.
We might see something spectacular
like this being played out by him.
Yeah, it's the most forcing.
Like Knight C1 is the only attempt,
throw the knight in the way as a shield,
act as the bodyguard,
but this is a check and the knight has to block.
This is a mate threat.
Bishop has to move out of the way.
Rook takes and yeah, it's all forced as you say.
Wow, Wei Yi trying to win the brilliancy prize,
even if winning the candidates might not be realistic yet.
Yeah, you probably need to, if you're way right now
and you go on three out of seven,
you know, I'll tell you one thing though, David,
if it was candidates 2024,
three out of seven would really put you in the race.
It would put you in the mix and how?
You know, let's remind everyone,
24 candidates, one by Gukesh, half way mark,
he was at four out of seven.
We're looking at something that's never been done before
the chess world where potentially we're going to reach that seventh round, go into the eighth
round with a player at six out of seven most likely. To me every time that figure comes
into mind for more reasons than one it's absolutely mind-blowing and mind-boggling
just what we've seen from Cinderella so far. I believe apart from that score five and a half
out of seven has been the highest the eventual winner has ever reached at the halfway mark.
five and a half out of seven has been the highest and it was five and a half
out of syndrome for syndrome so you can just put things together and understand
the level of performance the depth of the score that he's sitting on right now
yeah it's all about the win-to-loss ratio like the plus scores that we talk
about and I mean he's on plus five it feels like he may have had chances to
move to plus six but plus five historically Tanya is more than enough
So just coasting, throwing the rest of his games.
Especially if he's doing it from position of strength,
Cinderoff, he's going to be hard to stop.
But the fact that Fabi will be within striking distance,
if two, three results go his way,
means that Cinderoff cannot rest.
Nobody else will be closing the gap either.
I think that's the main thing
that Cinderoff will take away from today.
So we go into the second half,
but we've learned so much.
Who would have predicted all of this, Tanya?
I think this looked like the most open candidates ever.
It didn't look like it would be one player running away with it.
Not at all.
This has been just beyond anyone's imagination
the way this whole candidate has played out.
Every time I think about it, every tier list
had a mix of players at the top.
There was, yes, Fabby somewhere for most, I think,
sort of sat at that S tier, but there were always options
surrounding him.
And to think of one player to do it,
and let's bring up a bird's eye view
while I throw out another stack put together
by our amazing stats team here at chess.com as we go into our bird's eye view.
Tev, I want to talk about the total number of wins every eventual candidates winner has
had in the winning game and before I do that, there is a win for Wei to be reported.
His first of the candidates as he gets rolling with a fantastic attacking game taking down
Yesapenko.
Yesapenko saw the writing on the wall, he saw that whole variation we showed at
the end there.
to land on the board so he did eventually throw in the towel and that poor Rook on A1 actually the
two white Rooks never moved at all in that game so unfortunately it was a bit of a slip-up one
bad move it cost him and great play from Wei Yi to punish that error. All right well there's one
person who's screaming stop the count and that's John Sargent John come on in as we get our
second decisive result and this was a fantastic fantastic play of attack by Wei Yi. It absolutely
was. Look, there's no way to stop the count at this point. I don't think that's going to be the
last decisive game. Chat, thank you for putting your faith in me, but to be fair, I'd rather have
more exciting chess, and I think that's what we're going to get. Although speaking of exciting
chess, we have had another game end in a draw. You see it on your screens right now. Prague and
Fabi agreed a draw shortly, pretty much seconds before we saw the victory in that game between
Wei Yi and Yesapenko. So a lot of action now reaching its conclusion here in the candidates
and there are still two games at least, very much in the balance for a potential decisive
result. As we head into this break, we'll see if they clarify themselves and whether
we in fact get four on the board after this.
from Jeremy he will be playing in the candidates tournament soon please welcome
Matthias Blubom after the goal the games can finally start good luck and enjoy
eight years ago you played in the Challengers so Tavi how is it to be back
I mean the first time around I didn't play too well like back then I didn't really enjoy it. It's like very grey and windy
like I was playing terribly so at this time I'm going to try to get much more stuff out of it.
Matthias Bluebarne with the black pieces whilst Gouquet opens with E4. It's going to be a sharp game I predict.
Looking at the field here normally you see the big jumps being made at 18-19
and yeah for Matthias he finished his mathematics studies and now he's been focusing on chess
and to see it being rewarded, I think it's an inspiring story also and like to
e4 big mistake according to compete but is what the world champion chose. I was
very surprised I mean I was so happy to take in page six and get a special
Bambina dot at least I cannot be missed. Very nice position there for Blue
Balm as the world champion finds himself on the back foot. It just felt to me
like there should be some concrete win and I just didn't see it.
Matthias has picked up an exchange. It's another winning position for Blueburn.
We've seen him not win a couple of those but for now he's very much in the driver's seat.
And the clock is ticking down to under two minutes.
And we see resignation by Goukèche. So big victory.
Congratulations to Matthias. A man who just beat the world champion
And with the black pieces, welcome Matthias Grubam.
It's a very nice feeling to be the training world champion.
Everybody has a great player here in this tournament,
but winning against Gokrishnan is special.
Heery in big, big trouble.
The great news for Matthias Grubam is
for a super tournament outside of Germany.
Very impressive.
We have a result.
Matthias Grubam beats Anish Iyeri.
Yeah, back-to-back victory is beating to 2,700.
also means he crosses 2700 for the first time. 2701 Matthias, congratulations, how much for the win to you?
Yeah thank you, it's incredibly nice. It's not like official individualism, it's the
life rating also counts, it's very nice. Finally crosses 2700, especially with like
two wins against such some players in the candidates, the first place is the only
Resulted matches so as long as there's a chance I'm going to fight for first place
Can you try and put on this
Body right what is that? That's a good. Oh, I hate poppers
I'm gonna try to do this properly, but I'm gonna do a very very porch. I always want to hold the neck
Wait, hang on hang on if I started if I started
Just violently shoving the baby onto this hill.
Have we started?
Are we okay?
Doing this very, very slowly of course.
Oh my goodness.
What is this?
This is easier.
What am I doing?
Something wrong here apparently.
Sorry.
I don't have to say this is close enough even though I missed something during the
game.
Okay.
Pretty good stuff.
It's longer than your legs, man.
What's going on here?
this one we just want you to put the baby inside the blankets.
I'm gonna be honest with swaddling I've never really done it I've done it with
velcro ones thanks to Amazon I don't know the order baby burrito we're good
here I think I think I think I remember
Try on the order, I don't own the order.
I think I remember, and I probably don't,
but we'll give this a go.
I actually don't know how to do it,
so I'm trying to put the baby in something
that resembles something acceptable,
but it's not anywhere near appropriate.
I'm just excited like this.
It's not very good, but it'll have to do for now.
There's something you're supposed to do with the bottom
to keep it from folding back over.
However, I'm going to claim this is functional
as long as baby doesn't stand up.
Look at that.
Feedback, all positive.
Five stars.
Medic!
The final challenge, basically,
to just fold the stroller.
Push and fold?
Two, one, go.
So there are two types of prams.
One's where you push a button,
you enact violence,
and it instantly collapses and everything's good.
And there are others where it's just impossible.
Okay, the one that I have has red and green.
I have a do and a stroller.
This doesn't have like a stop.
So I didn't do this, and I don't need this.
Do you shove it in and...
Okay, that's not good.
Based on what I know, on based online,
there should be something like...
You should put this...
Yes, yes, we're getting somewhere.
Why are the wheels...
Oh!
Is that just it?
Just go forward.
Okay, let's just put it like...
Just fold like this.
Is that folded?
I think I did it, right?
I'm calling it.
All right.
and I sincerely hope my child never sees this in his life.
I'll see you in a minute.
more like that be prepared because you might actually get what you ask for in the meantime
by Shallie's game has ended and we did get an interview with her straight after all the
escapades ended on her board must be some mixed emotions for right now. Let's hear what
she had to say.
Thanks and we're here with Grand Master by shall here just one or second game in a
row. She's only half point back from first place. I know you weren't happy with your
play today. You were in this worse position and you found this trick in case she played
Now, did you think it's one of those tricks where you had nothing to play for, you had
to try something or did you think there was a real chance that a good player like her
could fall into this idea?
I mean, not at all.
Like, okay, I was hoping it's knight e4, I have this knight g3 and I'm attacking the
e2 pawn and e4 and because rook d8 is not working, I can take knight e2, that was
the point.
And not really, I think I was checking some other moves also.
I'm not sure where exactly was the win,
whether it's Bishop b2 or something.
And I was happy to see knight e4.
And even still, I was not sure.
At least it looks like some in-game
we can still try to hold on.
But yeah, she rendered this in.
It was just super lucky.
Now, I know you'd like to win a game cleanly,
but if we look over at the open section,
Javakir Sundarov's tournament began
with a worse position where he tricked his opponent
into playing Bishop takes out free.
and that really kicks out at his tournament.
So does this bit of, shall we say, fortune
kind of help you in a way of think,
hey, maybe this is my tournament?
Maybe it's nice to take this way.
Yeah, I hope to play a good game in the remaining games.
Now you probably know where I'm going next.
You've won two in a row.
You've won five in a row in Toronto.
But you got your winning streak started this time
in the first half at the tournament.
So was that the lesson learned from Toronto?
Yeah, it's nice to win games.
And yeah, it's also like, for me, the game quality is important.
So I'm not very happy.
And just from the opening, it was just bad position, bad game.
So yeah, my main focus will be to improve my game quality
and the remaining games.
And finally, your emotions when she hung the piece at the end.
I mean, she could have put a rook, I guess, various squares.
But she put it on A1, like the immediate thought process.
Or what immediate emotions when you saw Rook A1?
What were they?
I was just blank.
I just felt, okay, if I'm winning this game, okay,
what is this?
I just feel very bad for the game.
Yeah, I think as chess players, we can all relate.
So good luck trying to match your five-game winning streak.
I know that you'll do your best
and congratulations on your win.
Even though it wasn't your best game,
you got the job done.
Thank you.
Back to you guys.
Thank you very much, Mike and Vaishali.
That, yeah, true words couldn't have been said.
I think as chess players, we all relate.
Yes, we're happy to take the win.
Those kind of circumstances, it never feels that great,
but look, back-to-back wins.
When you take a look at the candidates as a whole,
when you zoom out a little bit
and see the forest for the trees,
this is a fantastic position to be in,
even if today's circumstances aren't ideal.
Let's now head back to something
that we are building over here.
We've got a fortress in Anishgiri
taking on Yavakir Sindarov.
Let's go ahead and see if any progress can be made.
guys i've jinxed one of these already into a draw from a winning position
who knows what will happen here i'm expecting it to be a draw but i'm not
predicting it anymore tanya david back to you
well i just thought by saying i think i completely agree that with you john when
it comes to the results of the candidate for west alley today it was not the
win that she wanted but it's the win that she gets and she takes it with
both her hands you know every point matters here she's on a two
two streak, two win streak right now going into a rest there and who knows you know she's been on a five
one before what she brings on after and again the women's candidate so open for anyone. This has been
a huge gift for her and yes a big blunder but she's got to be feeling happy. Mentioning this game
right now where we're at David Howell I don't know how happy Cindorov is right now he's up in
exchange you know he's sitting happy on five and a half out of six but it could have been a
lot more in this one. He could have gone in to push for that six and a half to seven for
this game.
Exactly. And it was all about that one moment where he rushed a little bit, forced Giri to
make a decision that actually turned out to be Black's saving grace. And now finally,
when it's a bit too late, he is burning time on the clock center of, he's been
thinking a lot over the last few moves. Unfortunately, there's no way, just the way that Rooks
in bishop's work. There's no way to take away three different squares on a diagonal from a bishop
with just a rook alone. It cannot control those three at the same time. Black is also able to
wait with the king, which helps. John mentioned building a fortress, Tanya. If you told me how
to build a fortress with a bishop versus a rook, the Ikea flat pack that you'd have to start
building with, it would include a bishop of one color and pawns on the opposite flank. Also,
Everything being blocked, no pass-form potential.
He's set things up perfectly, Girry.
So chance missed, maybe, for Cinderov earlier,
but as soon as Girry sacrificed the exchange,
it's been flawless defensive technique.
One thing that Cinderov can definitely be happy about
is what has happened on the Prague-Fabby board, right?
Fabby being the closest chaser to him.
Even if this one does end in a draw,
he goes into the rest.
They're keeping that point and a half for lead,
which, at this point, is huge, David.
And I think we were about to touch upon this,
but then results started coming in
and I do wanna bring this up.
It's a very cool start once again
by the Chaskam start team,
something to really think about.
It's the number of total wins
that every eventual candidates winner
has had in their campaign at this tournament
since this format of 2013.
And it's gonna blow your mind
because in 2013, Magnus Carlson had five wins
before he challenged for the World Championship
with Sianan in 2014, three wins.
Sergei Karyakin next time with four wins,
won the candidates.
Fabiano Caruana in 2018, it was five wins for him.
But Jana Pommaschi, the same number.
And Jana Pommaschi in 22 as well, five wins.
Gukesh had five wins as well.
And here's the fun part.
So five wins has been all across pretty much dominating
when it comes to the performance
of the eventual candidates winner.
And guess what?
Sindra reaching the halfway mark is already sitting on that.
He's already had five wins.
Three of them with the black pieces.
So impressive the way he's been just taking on the fight as black like provoking his opponents
Just allowing him to come at him and counter attacking. It's it's been
Superb to watch but Tanya you mentioned five being the magical number so many people who qualify having those five wins a lot of those as well
They've lost games like they've lost one in some cases to
Magnus in 2013 losing to
Sviddhila, of course, in the last round,
they've been Yandere Pomenasi even,
because he was so far ahead,
he was able to drop a defeat in one of his,
in the final round of one of his campaigns.
He's got Liwei, Sidharov, that's the thing.
Like, he's got room for error
because of how strong his performance has been so far.
And if the most I can criticise him for
is rushing slightly in a slightly better position
and instead of pushing,
having a draw from a position of strength,
I mean, if that's the most I can go for, then he's just done a fantastic job.
So yeah, it's just at this point, the praise has been so high that I guess the levels as well,
so high that he's been showing that, yeah, it's only tiny things we're talking about here
that are separating him from an even bigger score.
Yeah, especially at this stage and speaking about the losses at a tournament, you know,
this is something we've touched upon earlier as well, that every eventual winner of the
candidates has actually never lost a game in the first half until round seven.
That was the earliest that they lost the game. The most recent one being
Dukesh is lost against Ali Reza exactly at this point which is why this halfway
mark has always been so pivotal at the candidates. You know it sort of is the
moment when things start to pick up pace. Very often the candidates is about
letting the chances come to you but you've got to bring on the urgency
when you've got a player running away with five and a half out of six
And you've got a very interesting feature chat there.
If Bishop was dark squared, would it still be a draw?
And David, I think that's a great question
because you've been talking about the formation setup, right?
Where Diri has the perfect one.
Light squared Bishop pawns on the dark squares
and you just sit and hold.
You keep shuffling your King,
making sure that the white King has no entry path.
But let's switch that up.
And let's say that the black Bishop right now
was on the longest diagonal on the board.
Any square of your choice, would this still be a draw?
Oh, that's a very good question.
And first instinct says no.
Of course, those details we'd have to figure out.
I would say no because the white king
would be able to get closer.
So for example, in this position,
especially if it were white to move
with the bishop on a dart square,
the white king don't know how to set this up on the board,
but the white king would be able to cross over.
And eventually the idea would be to sacrifice
the white rook for a bishop and pawn.
So for example, to sneak in with the king,
bring the rook around,
take and even if the black bishop were able to take back, it would be a winning king of
point end game. The one difference here is like if black had a very specific setup, like
with the king on this square on g6 and the bishop on the dark squares on a1 would white
have a way through and I think maybe is the answer. I think actually yes, the white king
would be able to sneak around the back. A light square wouldn't be guarded by the
bishop and with the white king around the back, the black king on g6, white would
be able to kind of use the rook on the 7th rank. Black eventually would be able to, would
have to push the f-pawn forward, likely lose that pawn or get Zidzwang. So yeah, in general,
it takes a miracle for a bishop and pawns on the same color to be, to be a fortress
here Tanya. And maybe there are exceptions, but I think in this position it feels winning.
Although yeah, correct me if I'm wrong because these end games are tough. They
need time to, time to work out.
That's actually really well explained that Whitejust Company is playing on the light
squares in that case, checking the Black King away and finding these infiltration spots which
is now impossible with the light square bishop covering E6 in the whole diagonal.
And if you have the dark square bishop, then you probably want to push your pawns on
F7G6 and then claim that that is the position and that is the structure that you hold.
So you always want to keep your pawns and bishop in opposite color complexes.
But it's really a great question there.
And I actually now remember that in one of my Olympiads,
I have managed to win a position like that
where my opponent had the wrong square bishop.
And then you sacrifice your look
at the right time for a pawn and a bishop
and you go into a winning king pawn and game.
Yeah, it's exactly.
And definitely everyone should be checking out that game
of Tanya's from the Olympiad.
But I remember this being told this
by a 10 year old student of mine many years ago.
And I'd never thought of it at the time
but he mentioned in Fortress's opposite color bishops,
I think he was talking about that time,
but also Rook versus Bishop Fortress's,
the breakthrough always happens
on the opposite color complex to the bishop.
So here the breakthrough needs to happen on dark squares,
but black has the dark squares covered.
And if black's bishop on dark squares,
the breakthrough is on light squares
and that would be easy for white.
So yeah, very much you need to break through
in the opposite color complex to your opponent's bishop.
And here it's just impossible,
but in some circumstances, you're able to do it.
That's a great question from the chat.
I love the fact that they're thinking
kind of bigger picture philosophically.
So what about learning here,
even big tournaments like the candidates?
Yeah, really nice conceptual stuff there.
You know, to zoom out and understand
why exactly this setup is a fortress.
And the point is that at the end of it,
Jabakir's king will not have a big breakthrough
towards those black pawns,
But one player who did have his breakthrough today,
finally, Wei Yi scoring his first win of the tournament
against Yasi Panko, and he caught up with my plan.
Thanks guys for the grandmaster, Wei Yi,
who won his game today.
Now you played the Petrov, but despite that,
you got a big attack.
Do you think you're making the Petrov popular?
Yes, I think so.
Yeah, today we played Shoveley because my opponent,
He chose an interesting idea and he decided to go for some like dynamic play.
But when he missed some moves, then I had some chances to attack, so yeah, I was unhappy
that I catched the opportunity to do it again.
you did. You played some brilliant moves. In fact, you played two brilliant moves in
a row with this Rook sacrifice. And when you last played EsaPenko at the World Cup, you
played three brilliant moves to hold the draw. So is there something about playing
EsaPenko that makes you creative in your chess game?
No, but you always need to try to hold even you have a terrible position. So, yeah,
We need to catch some chances after the mistakes made by the tournament.
And finally, we know that this tournament is basically first place and then everything
else in Javakir is doing so well.
So what are your goals for the second half of the tournament?
I think after the first half part of the tournament, my chance is like 0% but still I need to play
like some high quality chess.
I hope I can play better than the first half part in the last seven games.
Well today was a great game and really, I mean the attack was very inspiring so we
hope to see more of that in the second half.
here. Thanks Mike for that and truly an inspired game of chess there by we you
know getting that first much wanted win before the reset of the rest day and
who knows what spoilers he'll play to the rest of the players are going into the
second half of the game but I don't think there is a more plot twist than
spoilers to be had in the game that we've got ahead of us David we've been
talking about the Bishop complexes we've also been talking about how
perfectly everything's worked out for Anish Kiri with the placement of the
pawns, the color of the bishop, the placement of the king to actually hold the
fortress without having to do anything. It's all of the fortress
appeared without having to create it. Exactly and I think we have to give
credit to Anish because he foresaw this, he understood long long ago when he
started trading off knights, when he started setting up that rook sacrifice
that the fortress was there, or at least the outline, but yeah I mean
Once we got into it it did feel like everything was magic and everything was so smooth and he understood the king can't cross over
The dark squares covered light squares covered everything is fine and root versus bishop. It is possible to lose it
But I think at this level
Anish he'll show he'll show the technique. I do predict this game goes on a bit longer. Tonya
Maybe Cinder of realizes, okay, he has to try at least and test an issue in a root versus bishop rather than try and break this
super solid fortress but ultimately a draw looks almost guaranteed.
You look at Javakir and you get the feeling that he perhaps overestimated his chances in this exchange sacrifice line that Anish went for.
There's absolutely no doubt that he saw it coming.
It was set up, it was screamed by Anish with the two moves he played preceding the sacrifice that he's about to go for it.
But Javakir probably just expected that it would be something where he'd be able to create his chances,
but now slowly realizing there's more time that he takes that it's very difficult, maybe impossible,
to break through the defenses that Black has set up. Look at the speed with which Anish is just shuffling,
and maybe a repetition here. As we see the rook come back, but it's come back all the way now,
so a different square, it hits the Bishop David, and this is Javakir showing his next plan.
He tried to get in with the King, realized that that's a no entry zone,
stopped on his tracks. Now he's rerouted the rook behind the pawn and he's saying,
I'm going to try it this way. Get an f4, change the structure, the characteristics of the position.
Yeah, this is very clever because tactically it is a threat. If it were white to move now, f4 would
be a big, big move. I'm not sure how I can set that up, but give me a second. If it's white
to play now, then f4. And we would see that the bar rises. It's totally winning
because black cannot touch the structure as this would be a double attack and this would be terminal and
if black therefore cannot take on f4 and has to move the king out of the way for example now
white could probably win in multiple ways but closing in the door here now the king would be
able to come now the black king will be running out of squares this is suddenly winning because
the breakthroughs happened already so Anish I don't think he'll be making this move king
f7 this would also be a bit risky since this okay apparently still a draw but
this would be a threat pawn to g5 incredible that this is also a draw
but oh hey Tanya look at this king back to f7 and this is a fortress maybe not
king back here but I guess the king waits and no way the white king ever
crosses this is mind-boggling I think I've actually seen this before but at
At least he's trying something new, Cinderella.
I mean, I'll have to ask, why is King F8 losing there?
King F8, apparently, F7, according to the computer,
Bishop takes, and now King F6.
And the problem is, concretely, wherever the Bishop goes,
it gets chased.
And there's going to be check-making threats.
I think Black's basically in Zugzwang.
Wow.
You can block the check in the end with your Bishop.
but a waiting move will win the game in that case as well.
Rook to a, bishop a, now you just simply chill
and black is forced to disconnect the king and the bishop.
Anishgiri, very alert, very careful.
He gets the bishop out of the way,
also not falling for any of these king f7 ideas
which would only complicate matters for him.
The path to draw would be incredibly narrow there.
And here now f4 is just not strong enough David
because you trade and you put your king
on the right square, you put it on g7 after that
and then claim that there's no progress to be made here.
King e7?
Yeah, still not easy, but I think now the black king
can start chasing the pawn, since the white king is so far away.
And this position, I think easier to understand
that the white g-pawn does disappear.
The rook can move and try to come around and save it,
but the black bishop will double down, and the pawns
disappear.
Wow, fantastic stuff.
And a pure bishop and rook and dame.
Again, all you need to do is get your cane
to the opposite color of your bishop
and that is the right setup that you want.
He waits, he's waiting, hoping that he's able to do that.
Trick or niche the way you tricked all of us,
David, setting that up where the black bishop
is on C4 and you strike with F4 at the right time.
I'm gonna call for a bird's eye view
so that we can do a quick roundup
of everything that's happened so far
as Cinderov's hopes rely on a niche
making a big mistake.
Meanwhile, we've had a big result
the clash of the Chasers, Pravnananda Fabiano-Caruana, it ends peacefully in a draw, which means that
Prague stays solid and it's no big setback for Fabi, but I have to add, David, that at this point
a draw just starts costing you ground if you're Fabiano-Caruana and if you've got a player
like a Cinderov running away with things. It's not a disaster for either side, but no real gain
either. That one ended in a draw as did Hikaru versus Bluebump. We've had one decisive result
so far, a classy attacking masterpiece by Wei against Yasi Penko.
Moving on to our women's action, two games have ended.
One, besides Livehashali, getting a huge win against Tan Zongi from a dead-lost position,
a one-move blunder.
And we've got some news coming in as well, or not some news.
I'm sorry, I got a little distracted by that, David.
Anna Muziechuk, Asoba Eva, also ended in a draw, it was the first one to finish.
Divya Deshmukh has been on the winning side of her game against Ladnoh for a while.
It looks like that's still the case.
Goryashkina Jujina, that has been balanced forever.
And I have to say the great Goryashkina streak
hasn't been spoken about enough yet.
Not yet.
And it does look likely that that game ends in a draw.
Although she's the one pressing, as you should mention.
I don't think Goryashkina is ever really going
to lose.
Queen and Knight combo should always set up
a perpetual check at the very minimum.
So the streak may continue.
the fans may still have a new blue balm to root for.
But Goyakchi Kena won't be happy, of course.
She will want to start motoring ahead at some point.
She'll at least take some solace if she does draw,
that she's within striking distance,
most players are, of the leader animozytric.
And yeah, what do you make of the Divya
against Lagnogame Tanya?
Because it's been a good round for India so far,
with Vaishali turning things around there.
Do you think Divya can help the Indians do the double again?
Another win to add to the belt?
That would make it a pretty good day for India.
And I have to say coming from two wins yesterday,
Versali, a very different storyline from Divya.
Divya has been controlling the game against Logno
pretty much from the start.
She's had that extra pawn which still remains.
You've got the position up in front of us,
that jeep pawn which was picked up.
But the problem here, if you have Divya,
is that they're double pawns.
You still have to create a passer.
You still have to make some progress with that four versus three
on the right side of the board.
David, I'll add to that that the bishop on B2
is an extremely strong piece.
And Divya has made sure that she's restricted the counterpart
on E7.
For Lagna, that bishop with the pawn on G5 and the pawn
on B4, it's hard to imagine it finding a way
to try to trade off these pieces.
While the miners are there, I think Divya's chances
remain alive.
If it's supposed to go into a pure rook pawn ending,
I think Lagnaud gets closer to the draw
because of the pawn structure that Devere has.
Yeah, 100% agree.
That's a really great point there.
So for example, if I try and make that happen,
okay, let's say the king moves.
Let's say the king moves.
I don't need any moves.
It's gonna be difficult,
but okay, ignore.
I'm gonna make a couple of blunders here.
I'm ignoring this g5 pawn hanging,
but let's say something like this
and ignore the fact that the white rook
can immediately infiltrate and give some checks.
But yeah, this position or this type of position,
Yvonne Baal says it's actually winning,
which is surprising that it's this strong,
but I think it's because White can push,
the Black Rook is so passive.
But I agree, like long-term,
if the Black King can somehow cross over
and the Black Rook can get active,
maybe come in behind, then great draw and chances.
Even that dream, well, Tanya,
I'm surprised that, like most chances are minimal.
If the minor pieces come in.
I was totally shocked because from a human perspective,
if you're Lagnau right now,
you're really hoping for those trades.
You're hoping to get the miners off the board.
I think a lot of it comes down to Rook activity.
Where is Lagnau's Rook place?
Where is the King place?
You put that Rook on a more active square,
get the King towards the center,
and then go for those peace trades.
It'll probably all work out.
But it's still far off because it's also hard
to imagine Lagnau being able to achieve
that step one right now.
Meanwhile, Divya has improved her King
to the center of the board.
Lagnos is trying to do the same before getting any peace trades in right now.
King F8, the last move.
This is going to be a long, long fight, David.
That's my prediction on this one.
Yeah, this is definitely likely to be the longest game of the day.
I think we're going to be here for a good old while, but the clocks are ticking and
the players will be playing on increment shortly.
I think the main problem here for Lagnos is that the white bishop is so strong
that the black king cannot centralise further. It cannot get to e8, d8, and if f6 ever happens
to block the white bishop's diagonal, then white undoubles her pawns. I think actually maybe the
dream scenario is the knight and the rooks coming off and it's just the bishops left
because white's bishop with pawns on its own colour, not ideal as we talked about in the
Geary game. Black's bishop will be the good one, white's bishop will be the bad one,
especially if the black king can kind of end up on a square like e6,
not moving like a knight, but moving like a king round with rooks off, knights off, maybe
a draw.
But I think that's the only way she ever saves this life now.
All right, a tough task ahead of Katrina in this one.
Let's go back to our other remaining women board.
How close is, are we to a great Goryachkina streak right now?
She's had six out of six draws, looking at the 7-1.
The bar says that this is pretty level, but to me, it looks like it's trickier
than the bar actually implicates right now, David. The bishop on B5 is hanging and you
really can't stay connected to the D3 pawn. At first I thought you could go bishop A6 and
say I'm keeping the material balance. D3 is my power pawn right now. But a check with
the queen and a second check with the queen on F6 will end up winning the bishop and
I don't think the D pawn will be strong enough because the white king is extremely
close also the knight coming to E3 to stop it from queening.
Exactly. No chance that Black can save this now.
The king will probably be able to hide itself.
There's also mating threats against the Black King.
At the very minimum, the White knight can go in, like he said, sacrifice itself for the pawn,
but maybe there's also mating ideas.
Okay, I'm going to try and set it up.
Let's see if I've blundered anything. No.
White always has this mating construction.
Queen and Knight combo teaming up again.
And Tanya, you're right. Like, where's this bishop going?
don't definitely don't want to lose the deep one like earlier we thought it's
about sacrificing it but it's become so strong that it would feel such a waste
giving it up but maybe that's the only way unless the black queen dies in I was
just about to suggest that but then I stopped myself because the moment you get
in with your queen those mating construction with a check on d8 and knight
on f6 start looking incredibly scary first question d2 can you go in
immediately with the knight or the queen to d8 first forcing your king I want to
start with queen d8 not allowing a queen c7 check so let's say queen d8
bishop e8 or king g7 I'm pre-moving knight f6 this just looks like checkmate
like he said taking away the only check on the white king no longer possible and
this is gg game over and if the bishop jumps in the way same thing
right my f6 and I don't even see how black continues the game but apparently
there's a way is it just Quincy six but this would be a sad sad end to life for
the black deep one and she'd be odds on to win so despite the 0.0 Tanya again it
feels like one of those positions where it's only 0.0 if Zuzina finds all the
best moves and it's really not easy to do that in this position and again
Zuzina she hadn't lost to Anna Musichuk yesterday she's coming into
to this one, rest there tomorrow.
The last thing you want is to have a two in a row,
the wrong side.
So Virginia, she has to try to find a way to overcome this.
David, with all the lines that we're seeing,
I think it's safe to say that the deep on is about to fall.
And then you just hope you're able to create
some counterplay against the white king.
I'm actually really surprised with our eval bar
evaluation in this position.
Maybe there's a narrow path to equality here.
I think it's a very difficult position to be black.
Yeah, definitely.
I think we've already eliminated most of the most natural moves
other than maybe bishop d7.
That's the one I would say, hitting the knight.
And white doesn't have to part with the knight yet.
But if she does just get greedy and grab the pawn,
then I could definitely see why this is a draw on the spot.
Check, winning some pawns.
And due to the absence of pass pawn for white,
this is going to be a draw.
But bishop to d7, that's just where it begins.
I think Tanya, the white knight is going to be super strong, maybe on this square and as
you know she will need to be accurate for eternity if she wants to keep the drawing streak of
her opponent alive.
I was going to say to that that I wonder if knight f6 actually is the drawing line and
the part here because you've got this queen h to check and if king to e3 which at first
I thought you're hiding on f4 but actually queen e2, queen h2 there's no hiding from
these checks. Yeah, I miss Qh2 completely at first. Maybe Knight to e5 is the
only way to keep the game going, but this feels like it's only playing for a
loss with White, allowing all sorts of checks now. This has gone wrong. So it
would be a draw, as you say, Tanya, on the spot if this is where to happen.
So Bishop d7, I think, just process of elimination. She has to play it and then
start to work out the details if, for example, Knight to e5, or maybe White
gives a check first, not sure, but 90-5, maybe about 5, the end goes on.
And just to show how complex this battle is, by the way, she has made a decision, I did
see her pull her bishop back and I believe it is the right square, David, the line that
we're looking at, bishop d7, at least on the camera, is what it appears to be right
now. And there it is, bishop d7 has been played. You know, the other thing that you
have to be really careful about here in black and I'm trying to evaluate this just to show
how rich and complex this position is despite having such few pieces on the board white
also has the option to immediately force a queen trade right you can give a check on
he forced the black king out and then give a check on e5 making a case for your king
being so close to the d3 pawn saying that it's about to fall queen takes queen knight
takes queen you know maybe there's bishop e6 but that runs into knight c6 knight
pick spawn otherwise let's just show that and while the bar just doesn't move I
mean the bar is just brutal. The bar is brutal but from a human point of view this
is a bit scary for Black. Like you said Black is only playing for a draw. I think
she's just in time by one tempo to hit the knight to threaten to come in and
this should be a draw now. But yeah I mean good luck calculating this and I
think she's just a bit fortunate here to see now that everything's forced for
black and like she has to bring her King forward takes no other logical move she
has to bring her King and yeah double attack hitting B4 coming into C3 and the
thing is calculating is one thing but evaluating it from far is a whole
different ballgame right and that's where the challenge mostly lies so for
Jujina as the clock now comes down to under 15 minutes the good music that
she has at least almost a double the amount of time on the board than
than Goryachke now, but she's gonna need it, David,
to navigate all these ideas.
Yeah, I agree.
And I think 9.2.E5 is maybe the most likely move now.
It's worth mentioning Goryachke now
if she wants to keep the streak going.
She can force a draw, Queen H8, Queen R6, check, check,
check, check, check.
It's immediately a draw, but it does feel like
she's been the one pushing for a while now.
So, yeah, maybe we check back in
when she's made a decision,
whether she's made progress or not is another question.
Let's do it, David.
Let's go back.
Let's circle back to our big board right now,
where Javakir is rotating everything around the board,
bringing the rook back and bringing it forward again,
landing on the seventh rank, but not being able to break
through Anish's defenses.
And I think it's sinking in slowly in Javakir
that the fortress just holds.
Yeah, fortress just holds.
We've had 22 moves without any captures
and without any pawn pushes.
So the 50 mover all is on the horizon,
but yeah, it's impressive though, Tanya,
the determination to keep going.
He knows now, I think he's acknowledged
that this is probably a draw at best play,
but he still wants to try just in case.
And that's what all the best players do,
even if there's a 5% chance only of winning this.
It's worth playing on, why not?
And he's got a rest day tomorrow to recover,
even if this game goes on another two, three hours.
Absolutely, and I think at the start of this round,
while the Nioh field of candidates
was perhaps rooting for Anish in this round,
just so that things would open up,
just so that everyone would have a chance,
it's not gonna happen, Anish will not get a full point,
but very likely he'll make Cinderoff settle for a draw.
Very few have been able to do that this tournament so far,
only Masayas Blubomb, the only player to survive the Cinderov, Vinderov run that we've been
calling it and which I think in its own self is something to speak about because it's a
reminder to everybody else that Javakar Cinderov, he can be contained. Yes, there are only
seven rounds remaining, but there is a possibility with the black pieces to hold him off and
you know, but it all comes down to the others as well, David. They need to start
picking up the points they need to start winning
to create an actual race at the end
exactly stopping him is one thing but uh...
beating him somebody's gonna have to discover that recipe before the end
uh... if the battle for the other goes on a huge win streak uh... in the second
half
i guess i was gonna have to stop this man in front of us he plays king to
d seven that doesn't change much
uh... tanya
i guess he's trying to tempt geary into maybe moving the bishop in
Going for the f3 pawn, but he can defend that with his rook
Probably Geary doesn't even want to take the bishop off this diagonal just in case the white king crosses the e-file
area
Yes
And you know an each I think he's quite confident of the position. He's not you can you can look at him and tell
There is no nervousness in him. There's no tension energy that he's
He's emanating right now, he's making his moves, he's playing quickly, he gets up,
leaves the board, he's walking around and he's done the hard part in this game.
I think it could have been a lot more difficult for him had Cinderov slowed down
in that one moment of one window of opportunity that he had.
But after that Anish is just shuffling the king up and down
and keeping the bishop on the same diagonal.
For Cinderov he's tried everything David.
He tried to come for the F point to push it forward, he's trying to get his king in.
Is there a third plan that he can somehow magically create here?
Oh, it's it's difficult. I think eventually he will push his f-pawn forward, but maybe he'll
bring his king the whole way back to support that. I think that's last resort or last chance
to loon like the white king journeys the whole way back to like e3 or g3 and then you push the
f-pawn and then you capture, you trade pawns and then you play around for another 40 moves,
50 moves and then you might trade off the g-pawn for black's f-pawn and it's pure
Then you've got another 50 moves to play.
That's a real grinder mentality.
You max out the 50 move rule here before you play F4.
Then you max out 50 moves before G5
and you hope to tire your older opponent.
The, what did you call them yesterday?
The pensioners, Tanya, like Anish Geary, you tire them out.
But probably he might not take it to move 100.
Yeah, I'm just trying to,
when was the last one move or trade that happened, David?
It was 20 something moves ago. 46 was the last time. Now we're on move 69. So it's been 23 moves.
27 to go for the 50 move rule as Javakir gives a look there.
No more win streak is what our chatter thing. I mean five wins already.
I think it's not anything to be too disappointed about if you're Javakir's and you're all going into the first half,
Finishing the first hour with a point and a half lead, he attacks Anish's bishop right now.
Anish ready with his response.
Bishop P6 just don't do that. Just don't get that check.
King to D6 would drop off that bishop and he move apart from that, keeping it on the diagonal.
Actually, Bishop P6, Bishop P5. Anything apart from those two squares.
So that actually only leaves us with two other squares.
Anish chooses one of them, putting the bishop on the right square there, David.
As the rook comes back, and I'm trying to understand what his plan could be this time.
Does he want to place the rook?
Where does he want to place the rook?
Yeah, it's unclear. The rook's been on the fifth rank before it was on b5 for a while. It's been on a5
Nish gives a check getting closer to the 50 move rule
Why not?
Bxe6 only now and he'll bring it away on the next move
Now there's the psychological tension of the situation right because in a position of strength like this decide with the rook
will have to ethically make the draw offer. It is the side that's playing for a win.
So for Anish, even if he really wants to, even if he's really wanting it on the inside,
he can't really make that draw offer. What do you think? Does Sinderov play this on,
or do you think we're going to see an eye contact and a draw offer from him soon?
If there is eye contact, it will be Sinderov initiating. He'll make that first gesture.
like you say Tanya it is considered rude I'm not sure why I guess you don't want
to disturb the opponent but if you're the one who can only draw at the very
maximum to offer a draw is considered poor form I've actually been there many
times when an opponent while I was trying to grind while I was trying to
make make headway make progress they offered three four draws within a game
and it's the most frustrating thing so yeah Anish he's got his head down
he's focusing purely on the moves but it will be Cinder off and I think body language he's not
too optimistic anymore. He may sooner or later just smile to Anish and say okay let's both
have a rest now we deserve it. I will admit that I've been guilty of that even though the
circumstances have been a bit different where I have been the one on the defense but because
my opponent has been lower on the clock and taking advantage of perhaps having a slightly
higher rating in those moments playing the mind games of offering a draw. So yeah, a bit
of a confession there. And a lot of times it's worked, but I think that's also because
I'm playing on the clock and maybe there's something to be accounted for in that. Don't
come at me, Chad.
I think it's fine, Tanya. Like, yeah, in certain circumstances, especially if the
opponent's been trying for ages and not showing any good plan, not showing any real kind
winning attempts then a draw off is fine and as long as you kept it to one my pet
peeve is when people offer more than one draw in a game I think one is the
maximum and then it's the opponent's turn yeah all right one in like 25 and
then maybe after 25 or 30 moves if you want to if you want to repeat it but if
it's one off not even that David you're not even allowing that one draw
is the maximum quota per player if the opponent offers a draw back and then
the game goes on, then you can kind of take turns offering draws but I have very strong
views on that one.
I actually did not remember offering a draw more than once in a game which is maybe a
good thing but maybe I've done that. It's been a long career as well. I wonder what
chat has to say about that. Chat, tell us what has been the match and it's fine.
You can be honest, no one will tell anyone what is the maximum number of times you've
offered a draw on chess.com while playing a game.
Tanya, is he going to take the Rook?
Is he going to take the Rook?
That would be a huge blunder.
Ooh, setting up a trap here.
Yeah.
Ooh, he doesn't.
Moves away.
That is it.
Anesh is too strong.
And the thing is, right, when your opponent is literally
begging you to take the Rook, you just don't do it,
especially when you double kill on the other side.
But David, maybe you can just show us
that that King Pawn ending is just lost
because White edges Black's King away
and then starts picking up the Pawns one by one.
Yeah, Zugsfang here. And the good thing is with bishops you can wait. With rooks you can
wait. Knights sometimes you can't make waiting moves but with a king alone you cannot wait
any longer and just to show it, if you have a king here, I was wondering why you put the
rook in f5 because it can be attacked. After king to d6 it was poisoned. Bishop takes
rook and we would have seen the black king cannot make waiting moves. It has to give
way and sooner or later the pawn would drop. If it goes back, same thing. White hits
the pawn then waits and next move f6 will drop white would make a new queen so
yeah more important to keep a good piece on the board even if it's worth less
sometimes than the opponent's base b3 played and nothing's changed here
he set one naughty trap there but he won't set a second. That was Javakir's
third attempt at winning you know he first tried the king march in field
at that set up f4 as a trick Anishgiri was up to the task did not
work out. He set up a trap with rook f5, Anish not tell us. Finally we see a pawn move David
so reset to that 50 move counter right there for you f4 plate and this will mean now the king
will step up to g7 just to avoid g5. We did see some lines working at 7, g5 still holds but I don't
think any human wants to take any chances with that but the question is Anish then needs to
calculate king to g7 the white king stepping up and the black king is just in time to gobble
up the g4 pawn. Exactly, it's a sprint now for Anish. This game might not last too much longer.
King g7 by far the most logical move and then he'll just run forward to the white g4.
White g4 is a nice sitting target on the light squares as well.
And if he's able to eliminate it, it's a draw within his grasp. Anish, this is not despair
that we see on the camera. This is maybe relief that the game is now countering towards
that desired result. It's been a hard defense from move one for him, but he's now within touching
distance. It's Anish Giri. No one defeats Anish Giri. I mean, we should have known about this
from the very start that this one ends in a draw. If Cinderov is going to have two draws
in the candidates, one of them will definitely be against Giri. Exactly. I must admit,
I was a bit guilty of writing this game off as a draw. I just assumed, even with Cinderov's
form that Geary would be able to hold him, but it's been hard. It's been super difficult.
This has been one of the least easy draws probably of Geary's recent career, and here
we see the moves play out, Tanya, that we predicted earlier.
Yeah, it's the sequence where the F-pwn will be picked up, and Cinderov's Jeepon
about to go down. Or he might decide to keep the Rook connected to that Jeepon to
try to keep the game going for a bit longer, a move like rook to f5 would halt the king
going forward to g5. If Sinderov's resigned himself to a draw, he's going to grab the f6 pawn and
just call it a day. And he does it, David. Just a few more moves before a handshake.
That's right. It's very rare at the top level for players to test the opponent with rook
versus bishop until the bitter end, especially if the king isn't cornered. The king doesn't
need to go to the corner but if it does it's not that far away from h8. We talked about
a dark-squared corner being the safest home. First the bishop is hit but Tanya as long as he
doesn't blunder his bishop now. I think there's several safe squares b1, b3, c4. It should be
a draw soon. Yeah just now d5 walking into a rook f5 check. I'm expecting a small Anish
Kiri's smile before the handshakes as well, if you're lucky, we might get to see that.
And we see the Rook coming back and now maybe you start attacking that Rook with your Bishop
as Anishin instead reaches out for the G4 pawns and no Bishop D5 but Bishop D1 instead.
And I wonder if this is the moment we will have that eye contact or will Cinderov continue
to test Kiri?
He's going to test him a little longer.
He's going to be able to force the black king to the edge of the board if Geary takes
this pawn.
I'm not sure he will.
Okay, he does go for it.
He is a pawn grabber.
He likes to pocket pawns, fiddle with pawns.
You name it.
But Tanya, now he will be forced to the edge of the board with the black king.
And there we go.
Only move.
King h5, he finds it.
And that's it.
Just as we see it, he gives it up.
There we've got the two kings on the board.
Anish, Gehry, Halls-the-Serds, and Staps,
Sinderov from slamming the door shut at the halfway mark,
holds him to a draw, and the candidates stated
they continue to breathe.
Sinderov remains still in front,
but not out of sight for the others.
And you know what that means, Tanya,
six out of seven for Sinderov.
A lot of people will be very happy about that score.
It was almost written in the stars,
But he does look a little bit frustrated.
That was the first time in a long time
that Cinderov hasn't had everything his own way.
He did everything right for so long, had pressure,
had an advantage, but staunch defense from Gehry,
neutralizing that eventually.
And that just leaves it us to bring it to John,
who was predicting maybe only two decisive games
this result.
You're still on track this round.
You're still on track for that, John.
Oh, still plenty up in the air.
And I have to say the amount of pressure
Divya is putting on is so good at the moment. It's hard to see that happening right now.
It's possible, of course, but there's plenty of fight left in this round yet.
Sinderov held to a draw by Anish Gehry, no longer on a perfect score, because obviously
half is all anyone can get against Bluebound. But hang on a second, Gehry manages to
hold him as well. Fantastic result for Sinderov still though because of his mammoth lead
in the tournament. Now all eyes turn to Divya Lano and Goyachkina and Jew. Ladies and gentlemen,
we will be checking in on those games straight after this break.
All right, Jakarta, first question.
Which player famously beat both Magnus Carlson and Vladimir Krum, that got the 2013 candidates
tournament?
The 2013 candidates tournament, that player would of course be Vasily Ivanovich.
Which player has played the most candidates tournaments since 2013?
Since 2013, the players played the most candidates tournament?
I mean, I assume that has to be floppy
unless there's someone else who's played more.
It's gotta be floppy.
It is floppy with five.
Who has the record for most draws
in the candidates tournament?
Most draws in the Candidates tournament?
I think there's not even another contender.
I think, I don't think anyone even comes close.
Zawis Dhanish on the 2016 candidates
with 14 draws out of 14 games.
Tough to beat that.
Okay, your perfect score so far.
What is the highest score a player
has won the candidates tournament with since 2013?
Since 2013, I'm going to assume that's Neffo.
Did he get 8 and 1 half?
I'm going to guess that he got 8 and 1 half,
but I could be wrong.
It is Neffo.
He got 9 and 1 half.
Oh, 9 and 1 half.
Oh, it's 9 and 1 half.
OK, next question.
Bobby Fisher's incredible 20 wins in a row
began in the old Interzono, but continued
into three candidates' matches back when we used that system.
Who were his three opponents in those candidates' matches?
OK, so there's Tymonov.
Manov, Larson, and who's the third one?
I can't think of the third one right now.
He only won the first game, and then lost, and then ended up winning the match.
Is it Tal? Petrosion.
Petrosion.
You were right though, former World Champion.
Okay, okay.
Alright, next question.
Who finished in second place in the 2018 Candidates Tournament?
2018 Candidates, that is the tournament that Fahby won.
2018.
That's why I did not follow that one closely because I was not playing in it.
It's not LeVon, he's never close.
I actually don't, I'm drawing a plan.
I thought it was a two-way tie, but it was my Mediar off.
Oh, a shack, okay.
In which city was the 2013 tournament held?
The 2013 candidates was held in London.
Very good.
Which player had a wild candidates in Toronto losing four games in a row at one point
coming back to win five in a row.
Okay, I know it was on the other side.
It was.
Okay, you got that part right.
We're trying to trick you.
Okay, who could it have been?
I'm going to guess it was Vaishali.
Very good guess.
That's exactly right.
Two more questions.
At the 2014 Candidates Tournament,
which player finished last,
despite being one of the rating favorites
going into the tournament?
I'm going to assume that was a long one.
A lot of people have guessed that.
It's not, it's Topolov.
He was only minus two.
I think the thing is, Levan has more batters
also in the candidates than anyone else,
and we all remember when he was number two in the world.
So that's probably why.
OK, and the last one, I'm going to make hard based on speed,
because we were afraid people would get all nine questions
right.
So I'm going to give you 10 seconds
to name as many players as you can
from the 2020-2021 candidates tournament.
Newmark, get set, and go.
OK, there's Nepo.
Gehry, Enville, Fabiano, I just drew a blank.
I'm just going to stop because I just drew a complete blank.
I just drew a complete blank.
I actually don't remember the other players or something.
It's hard because you weren't playing that year.
We had Dean Grishuk, Alexianko, and Wang Hao.
I should have gotten Wang Hao because I played the Grand Swiss.
I should have gotten Wang Hao, but yeah, the other three I would not have gotten.
Interestingly, you've got the top half of the field.
finish you didn't get the bottom half yeah all right thanks very much sure
I
Welcome back, everybody, to the FIDE Candidates.
We have just finished the game between Sindarov and Gehry and I am pleased to say that Mike
Klein has managed to grab Javakir for a quick interview.
Let's see what he thinks about being on 6 out of 7.
Thanks, we hear Javakir, Sindarov, my condolence is an only drawing, a kid of course.
Looked like you were pushing for a win in an equal position.
This looks like kind of like what Magnus does.
Is this kind of your normal thing to always push like Magnus does?
No, I mean, today maybe it's from the engine shows it's equal, but for a human it's a really
unpleasant position to play it's black hand, so I understand, I mean, I'm playing for two results
and why I don't need to push this position. Was there any thought of stopping this Rook
takes b3 liquidation? Yeah, probably I should need to play Rook b7, Rook b7,
take-take and through K2 which also looks very good from start but maybe I have
really very small advantage. It also looks like very close to the road but maybe
this position I have a little bit more chances. On a lighter note you're now six
out of seven. Does six out of seven mean anything to you?
Anything to me? No, I don't know. The internet meme is dead. Yeah, okay, it's dead.
I will just walk through my next game and I really don't have energy to think about results and what tournaments are going really.
I know you're super tired so we'll make this short. We'll end on that. Good luck in the second half. Good luck playing tennis.
He's got the black on black Johnny Cash look. He's leading the tournament. I'm not sure if he knows who the head is but we'll talk off camera.
Javakir Sandarov is moving the light as always. Back to you guys.
Right, we're declaring it. The Internet meme is dead.
Sindarov did not take the bait. He's not interested.
Jokes aside, though, what a tremendous score to be on.
I mean, at the end of the day, he's on a plus score that could win the entire tournament going into the rest day at the halfway point.
This is the sort of stuff, David, that competitive players dream about.
Exactly. He could not have imagined the first half of the tournament going any better.
of. He would have taken it, of course, a one and a half point lead plus five wins incredible
at this level and very professional, I will say, whether he was aware or not of the internet meme
to stay focused, to keep it about the chess, to keep it about the next game. That is a young
man who's going places. Yeah, very impressive play, even if he was held today.
Yeah, Tanya, he's not interested in 6.7. He's more interested in 13.14, I think. He's
Purely focused now on the second half of the tournament. You could hear it from him
But we've got two games left to go
So let's now dive into one of them of your choice one of them is a more equal eval bar than the other but both look pretty interesting
Absolutely John and I think so far the storyline of the candidates has truly been headlined by Javakir center
Up. It's not even like he's playing and controlling the candidates anymore
he's sort of bending the tournament to his will.
And with only seven rounds remaining,
I think going into the second half,
all the other players will be forced to take maximum risk,
go all out.
Sometimes objectively play was just to be able
to create chances to catch Cinder off.
It's not even like catch me if you can,
it's chase me if you can right now,
six out of seven unbelievable stop
for any player at the candidates.
So well done on that,
but it's only the halfway mark
and speaking of the chess that's ongoing,
there's been a big turnaround on the Divya board
who has been dominating from the start
her game against Katrina Lagnau.
But David, she's just given away most of her advantage
in the last few moves right now
and suddenly from a position of strength,
she's going back and back and back into pieces,
turning into very defensive spots on the board.
Yeah, it's all gone wrong for Divya.
It's all about the clock.
She's only got just over a minute,
with a little bit more than that, three and a half.
I'll just take us back a few moves.
This is the live position.
We'll break it down.
We'll explain why the advantage is minimal
despite her extra pawn still.
But it all started around here.
Black had played f6.
She'd actually provoked a bit of a concession from Lagnos
since the bishop here was so strong
and it would have made sense to just trade off pawns,
undouble your own pawns.
Why not?
And here there are actually tactics
that work in white favor.
White can even give a check with the knight
if she wanted due to a pin here.
force the black king away, more checks could continue.
And this just starts becoming a very nice advantage.
The knight coming into, for example, E6
and so active here, still a pawn up,
beautiful pawn structure.
Instead, she tried to trade knights.
I think maybe just wanting to rid herself of the tension,
now the clock is ticking down.
Really surprised the knights didn't come off immediately.
But after king to d7,
a bit of an odd decision from Lagnos,
I am shocked here that she didn't just ruin her opponent's pawn structure.
This is the first thing we're taught in end games and positional play.
Just ruin the opponent's pawns. Black has isolated pawns, doubled pawns on the g-file,
zero risk for white. Maybe after some more captures, the white bishop can sit in the center.
You can imagine Black being pacified, no real counterplay, but instead after King retreating to d7,
f3, she allowed her opponent's knight to get active. Now the idea of b5 and knight c4 check is a bit scary counter play.
And she started to panic. It all went wrong from here. She was forced to trade off that very strong knight
but parting with her beautiful bishop
and Tanya, this is the live position and suddenly it's no longer just a two result game. The pawns on the queen side are targets
You've got to be really careful of the rook
Sooping all the way across trying to attack those pawns in a five a well-timed a five to open up the bishop as well in that direction
The other problem with that trade what has just happened is that suddenly the two versus three on the right flank
The two pawns are really taking care of the verse three
You'll be forced to create a passer by breaking them apart with a move like f4 at some point to make progress
But that will create counter weaknesses to take care of eventually
So suddenly Katrina Ladino is back in the game, well not suddenly, slowly and steadily
I think she made her way back and then that one big mistake by Divya in that one.
But I think from Divya's perspective, she's still looking at this extra pawn.
She knows f4 is a break that she has. She first defends a3 against any rook a1
against any a5 ideas, a check. King e3 you have to be ready to face a check
on g5 as well. How dangerous are you finding it? The king will start
moving away from the f3 pawn. The rook might start lining itself against it. So
that they are not a very pleasant choice to make. I don't believe King going
into passivity on the first try is a winning attempt either.
That's a sad choice here. The white knight is just controlled now, dominated. No
good squares for it. She does retreat, maybe out of necessity, but as you say
Tanya, it doesn't feel like a real winning attempt. The black bishop is
going to get active. Maybe just park itself on g5, could also give a check.
but it does look like Lagnos here is very likely to make a draw.
Probably not a black win, especially now with the white rook defending everything,
but with the white knight so passive, king so passive, yeah,
it's hard to imagine any progress here, the grind might not continue.
And I'm just wondering if Lagnos can in fact continue giving checks on the H file,
the problem is that if you go king B2 then bishop G5 also comes with similar ideas of forcing
the king up and away from the f-pawn, although the difference now would be that after king d3,
King c2 is also possible, but David, I just wanted to say that after king d3, the big difference
from where the rook is from the previous line,
we saw that rook f1 can still be met by king to c4. In that line, the rook was on f2.
So a small subtle difference that still allows the Vyaz game to go on.
Yeah, and it does continue. Maybe this is the plan to try and get the king active, bit risky,
but high risk high reward. If the white knight ever lands on d5, I think that's when she starts
getting real winning chances again. But it's just going to be such a long journey to get there.
So many things need to fall into place. And it looks like Bishop g5 was played. So don't move
the knight. The knight moving now would lose for various reasons. But this is chief among them.
And you could probably start taking shape of that plan already. If you're white right now,
Give a check and place that knight on C3, David, really eyeballing that D5 square,
trying to get the knight into the game and no Bishop D2 anymore.
Yeah, she should be doing this and she should be doing it quickly.
Only a few seconds left for Divya. She gives a check.
With five seconds on the clock.
Tanya, time trouble now for the rest of this game.
This is the second time control. We are way beyond the 40 move mark on move 61 right now.
Actually, even more than that, this is move 62 right now.
So there's no additional time to be added.
So Diveya has to find the winning plan every time with just about 30 seconds on the clock.
And the countdown begins.
Yeah, Tanya, do you know who the happiest person is to see that this game is now
leveling out, getting a bit more balanced?
It's John. He predicted two decisive results.
If this is a draw, I think the other one is almost guaranteed a draw.
it's usually there and they're going actually gonna look like both of them are a bit stuck neither
can make progress so this is our last chance to stop Thanos. I mean John Sargent. Yeah that was
just that was just obviously accidental by you. Thanos, I mean John Sargent is collecting the
prediction stones like the infinity stones right now all his prediction points there and we
We do see that plan in play David Knight C3.
What happened?
Tanya, she picked up the rook, she brought it over and then she decided not to do it
and she brought a rook back to H2.
I think she might have been about to play rook to A2 and hang her rook to the
Knight. I think she almost hung her rook there, panicked, realized just in the
nick of time and now she's going to go to B2.
She stops one square short.
Safety, but this is a big blunder as well.
She's allowed knight a4 hitting the rook, knight c5 coming in with a check and a fork.
She's just wow, she's just passed the advantage back to Divya.
And Divya goes it, she finds it instantly.
Her tactics on spot on point right now.
I think Lavna just panicked with the rook a2 almost slip of the rook and then the
psychological mess that it has.
She gives a check, not underlying knight c5 but can you actually fight it?
You might be forced to bring your bishop back to e7.
Ooh, the Avengers fighting back. Prediction is not over yet.
The Bishop does need to go back. The White King might get checked a few times first.
She needs to be speedy here. Go to a light square.
Opposite colour of your opponent's Bishop. Most logical move.
You have to be fast. You have to be quick. It is the end game after all.
David Howell Knight c5 a big threat on the board but first it says King E2 needs to be spotted.
It's the most natural. She plays it.
After a bit of thought she's double checking every variation. So not yet fully trusting herself
But she will start to believe now that this night has arrived and this week seven forced there we go like no finds it and
Now the night would be traded off even that is quite an interesting endgame
But Divya might not want to commit yet. So that's a night for Bishop exchange
She is playing on seconds every single move.
She gets a bonus time of 30 seconds with barely being able to build on the clock right now.
David she has managed to turn it back into a close to a winning advantage this one but
what is the follow up?
Does she take a decision to jump in with the mind that she keeps the pressure in
the air?
She does bring the Rook over eyeing the C7 square.
wants to infiltrate?
Mm hmm. Makes a lot of sense.
Given the question mark, I think that's harsh.
The white knight, if it wasn't going to jump in, then it might as well stay poised.
So I think it's nice to keep it there.
The rook, it was improved.
Why not?
But maybe the king coming over to evict the black rook was the way forward.
But the tiny margin is hard to tell the difference here with not that much time.
Tanya predictions.
Do you think she's going to get it?
Do you think Divya has made enough progress now, activating her knight,
improving her pieces while Lagnos is going passive.
She's definitely made progress and I think Divya can feel it as well.
She's got a bit more, a couple more seconds than playing on those last two,
three seconds and adding up to a 32-33 on the clock.
But is it enough, David?
I'm not sure.
I think there's still plenty more ahead of us.
Look at that.
Lagnos is tying down Divya's roof, not allowing any infiltration.
She's putting pressure on A3.
Divya Deshukh might be forced to start bringing her team into defense
for those queen side pawns on the left side.
Right now, she goes in eyeing that D5 post for the knight next.
Knight D5, is this progress, has to be David.
This is a plan that we were talking about a while back
and it looks like Divya has finally reached that point.
Yeah, this is still a step in the right direction.
It's good here that she spotted
there was a tactic of threat.
Bishop takes B4 was the threat
since the knight was hanging on the a file.
So she needed to get it out of the way.
Doesn't want to trade the beautiful knight
the bishop, the knight is going to be glorious suddenly on d5 it's improved it's evolved quicker
than any pokemon that knight was on e2 couldn't do anything it's made a whole host of moves but
it's found an outpost and hey suddenly one minute versus two. Wow this one this game is developing
fast and quick and we've got some big news coming in from john john uh how are you feeling
thirsty about your chances of that prediction game because suddenly logno is back in action in
this one. I promise you that wasn't the breaking news I was going to give you. I had my Thanos
gifts ready in chat obviously. I am the god of predictions here so I know what I'm rooting for
but the breaking news here is something that you've probably expected for at least a little while
we have officially had a draw in the game between Goryecznja and Ciu back to you.
David that's a result. I think we were predicting for a while but Jiu Jitsu and I
still managing to hold. She was the one on the back foot and had to defend for a long time in
a good night versus Bad Bishop. She managed to get that down. In this good night versus Bad Bishop
will Lajno be able to do the same. And that is the question. And she's trying, she's at least
pinned back the White King now on the first rank. Poi Goyachkina, she keeps getting these
promising positions but never enough to put it in the back of the net, never enough to get
across the finishing line all those draws and Divya will also feel frustrated if she draws this game.
In terms of progress it is frustrating for White that the rook is tied down to a 3. So the knight
on its own on d5 looks beautiful but the bishop will try to neutralize it try to cover any jumping
squares and I think the plan might be a multiple step one. First you need to get the king across,
evict the black rook, takes some pressure off the a3 pawn. Eventually you might need to somehow
cross the barrier of the second rank. If you could park the white king on B3, you free up
everything there. You could start advancing some pawns as well. It's going to be a long,
long journey to victory here for Divya but Lagna just has to make it as difficult as possible on the way.
Long journey with little time on the clock and that's a tough
sword to balance right there. Now it's Lagna who's gone under a minute. She's got less time
in fact than Divya does. That just shows how difficult the defense is. She can see
Divya's king approaching the black rook, moving it away from the ideal spot there.
Just easier to play white now suddenly. You know, 95, I think C1, KB1 are all moves that you can
make really quickly, while it's quite tough to come up with a defensive resource.
I think she just needs to wait. Like, keep the rook either on a2 or f2. Keep putting pressure
on pawns from behind, with the bishop just sit still. Just sit on squares that the white knight
to kind of take away squares from the white knight either maybe d8, d6 somewhere even if the bishop is passive
she just needs to move 16 seconds she's down under 20 for the first time in a while now and she plays
bishop to g5 it looks like we'll catch up in a second and I think the point is she's just making
it more difficult for the white king to march over she really wants her rook tying down the
white's rook to defending that a3 pawn. So we have a c1 square. Bishop g5 at least on the camera.
We can see it David. I'll put it on the board and yeah I'm expecting Divya to just finish step one.
Step one that she began with all those knight jumps was to park it on d5 and okay looks like
some more moves she first. Okay let's try and catch up. Here we go bishop g5. Knight a4 was the
idea to repeat the position once first and now she brings her king across. Given a question,
Mark Tanya, she's blundered a tactic she saw earlier. Oh, she's blundered. Oh, my goodness,
with Lagnault spotted now, the rook from A2 hitting that knight on A4 and King B1 runs into
Bishop takes rook. Oh, my God. But Lagnault, she slows down. She's double checking. She's
she's triple-tracking but she's definitely seen it.
Yeah, but she misses it.
Oh my gosh, both players saw it like three moves ago.
That's the heartbreaking thing.
Both players saw it.
Lagna set it up by putting her rook on a one
and a bishop on a seven.
Divya got out of the way with her knight
but they forgot about it three moves later.
That's how tense it is right now.
That's how much both players are kind of focused in
on the clock, on the stakes.
And sometimes that makes you miss things.
But Divya, how many lives,
How many chances is she going to get to try and win this game?
And she better make the most of it because that was a big, big save.
That would have been draw on the spot with Black picking up that pawn.
And if anything, it would be White who would need to be careful in that position.
Unbelievable.
And I think Divya realizes it.
She's calmed herself down now.
And right here, David, if you want to show that line really quickly,
Bishop takes pawn, would have ended all of Lognall's trouble.
Yeah, Bishop takes pawn suddenly maybe the white rook would need to move from while she'd be clinging on for dear life
But pawn takes on b4 suddenly you're right on it
It is black who's better black has a mobile two buses one blacks king has a path in on the king side
White's pawns are going nowhere and divya might actually have lost that game
Like no could have turned it totally on its head. Instead. She missed it bring her brought her book back
she's so focused on building a fortress making a draw and
This is the life position. It's gonna go on for a while now John
is as if they're teasing him with his prediction.
So much, so much weight on this game, you know,
are we going to see a forever smug John Sergeant
with his prediction being right one more time
or an even more smug David Howell after losing to chat
but saying you should have just listened to me,
listened to me chat every single time.
I don't know which one we get today.
Me too, John, don't worry.
She's going to try and use every square on the board.
Yes, I was going to say Bishop D8, very important.
The white knight was going to journey around and finally force these pawns to commit.
If those pawns ever move, the white rook may be able to use the sixth rank a bit later.
So the bishop tries to control the knight and the rook hits that piece.
What a moment that was.
the thing that had been set up by Katrina Logno just a few moves ago and then given that opportunity
and not taking it. I wonder if she realizes it now and it's probably best that she doesn't
because that can play tricks with your own mind and we see her rerouting her bishop with the two
square theory against the white knight so just controlling any jumps forward.
Yeah but it feels like Divya's got the perfect setup like she's kicked away the Black Rook and
yes it's annoying but it's not doing much and there we go all of her pieces are on light squares
and now she's going to put all the pawns on light squares as well that's great strategy but also
Tanya there's kind of a threat like b5 will be followed up by b6 and that black bishop is running
out of squares if he gets caught on b8 it might get trapped wow this is getting super tense and it
feels like it's getting more and more difficult for Katerina as well and you know there's this
feeling when your opponent misses that chance and it was clear on Divya's face that she spotted it.
The moment the rook slid to f2 she sort of just calmed herself down and got back
into the game into her zone right now and a4 this is Divya making progress she's managed to
kick the rook out she's getting those pawns up the board b5 coming in next Lagna decides to
fix the king side never allowing f4 but this just means the white knight also has a beautiful
f5 square and the black bishop now will be behind not just one but the other pawn as well
on g5. Yeah I'm not so sure I'm a big fan of that there's some end games as well where it was
really useful for black to be able to play like king f6 king g5 king f4 go active but she's blocked
off any active hope there at least she knows that king and pawn end games will likely be drawn
like the f-born is not running through if she can get the bishop off the knight I think she
draws this every time lagna but it's not gonna be easy b5 is the big question does divya push
or does she wait and she's managed to build a little bit on the clock to figure
out if she wants to go B5 does she want to go A5 but with A5 comes the
problem that you're kind of letting go of that break that you've been eyeing
for a long time you can try to set it up with your Rook the idea would be to
target the B7 pawn eventually in a lot of those lines so many plans so little
time for Divya she's managed to create the best possible position with
the pawns moving forward the knight and the Rook dominating the black
bishop? Does Divya go in for it right now? With about under two minutes on the clock,
David, she does it. B5 on the board. I think this is a great practical decision. I did notice
the computer was crying out for A5 rather than B5, but putting pawns on dark squares the same
color as the opponent's bishop, kind of walking away from a pawn break, felt wrong, felt risky,
and look at this. She's been rewarded Divya for putting everything on light squares because
Black's got the worst bishop in the world. This has really been the round of Good Night versus
Bad Bishop. And now any Rook exchange, White is winning. Any Rook infiltration check, White is
winning. If the White King gets off the back rank, she should be winning. Divya has all the
ingredients. Black's bishop is trapped itself. This is a beautiful position. This is your
picture perfect of that Good Night versus Bad Bishop theme that we've been talking about
from the start of the day. All of your pawns on the right square, all of your opponent's pawns
on the bad square and I'll point out yes that's an inaccuracy and maybe gives away some of the
advantage but David I think we can ignore that. The only move to be found rook f1 check even if
that is I still feel the king just moves up and I don't see a problem in this position. You could
go king c2, king b3 and just hide your king from checks. Yeah still fantastic winning chances.
we should point out why Divya's move was given a miss. Apparently, king to c1 was inaccurate because
white could have immediately gone for glory by bringing the rook to a3 with a huge advantage
because rook a7 is actually a killer threat and now here black would be barely able to defend but
if we compare it to the game, Tanya, I guess the idea is that after some checks, if the white
king is forced to b3, the white rook can't quite get active now. There's no infiltration.
it would love to be kind of on the a3 square coming round but it can't get past its own king.
And the problem with putting the king up to e3 to hide checks from where Divya is right now,
by the way she's gone this part so we don't even need to check it but the knight on c4
would have been destabilized with the rook landing up on the c-line. So the white king needs to
remain close to the pieces as well as she goes up with her king. Not going to be easy now
to infiltrate with her rook. David, I think a lot of twists and turns lie ahead in this one.
maybe I might have to rework and read out her pieces. She comes back with the King to D1,
just repeating again some time on the clock.
Repeating and she might even play a different setup. The black Rook should apparently give a
check. I think black is literally frozen the rest of the board. It is Sukswan with her King
and Bishop. If the King goes away from the D-file, the white Rook comes in. If the King had
had gone back. I'll just quickly show this. King e7, the white knight now could have improved
itself. Rook a3 as well, strong. Rook takes pawn would be impossible to choose some forks.
So the rook alone is running the show here. And we see more checks.
We do see more checks. I think we're going to see one more check on f2 right now. Again,
if the white king was to step towards the center of the board, the black rook will
start chasing the white knight away. And instead of going ahead with a check, Katrina
starts with another plan, now putting pressure on b5 and that's quite a strong resource.
It forces white to step up with the rook to d5 if you want to defend that pawn, but that
would leave the f3 pawn tender as well.
The black rook going to b3 and then lateral attack, horizontal attack, not very easy for
white to handle both.
Maybe that move we said was natural and totally fine, like that King c1, rather than going
with the white rook. Maybe that was the one golden opportunity she had. Because now, like
you say, the rook is, okay, I was going to say rook to d5, almost forced, but knight a3,
she finds another way. But suddenly she's had to put one piece passive and the black
rook is going to move. If the black bishop ever sneaks out, then it could become
quite a decent piece again.
Well, right now you need to take a pause and find a good square for your rook and
And then hope that you can go in with the plan of getting that bishop back into the game.
She eyes the knight on a3.
I think the key moment, the key plan for Devere to get her rook in was that missed opportunity.
And will she find that time again is the big question to try to infiltrate with her own
rook right now.
Rook to see she still runs into bishop d6 and bishop b4 idea so you really don't
have time.
So unfortunate.
Lagna has built up a time bank. So for Divya she needs to objectively find something she
can't just rely on nerves from the opponent's book here and just to show you her idea, Tanya,
the knight is hit, no time to go hunting because of the pin.
Can you go knight sneak too? Yes, what about knight? And then rook b1, nicely done.
Yeah, although the valuation is still slightly optimistic here, which surprises me, since
it looks like White's about to lose her pawn back. She doesn't go for this.
Instead, she puts her knight back on C4. Repetition.
Katrin Alagno trying to stay in control in the position. Both players now have
managed to get a couple of minutes on the clock as well.
Very crucial right now. And for Divya, if she's able to convert this
game that she's played, most part of it being on the front foot,
being the one putting the pressure, being up upon, this will be a second
win in a row. We put her at four out of seven. That was a winning score that Gukes had in the
Toronto candidates. For Katrina Logno, it's the same story. But right now, Logno is fighting for
her life. A draw would be the biggest relief for her right now just to stay in the race.
And I've just been checking, Tanya. Apparently the best for Divya. The best bet is actually
to put a knight back on A3. In that variation we showed it continues. The rook could hit the
bishop. Bishop D6 looks super strong. I don't blame her for wanting to avoid this, but
After knight c2 attacking the rook if the rook does go pawn hunting and white goes active with
her rook hitting b6 if b5 is captured she has this move again coming back to a3 and due to the pin
due to the hit on the black rook white has a big advantage here she cannot move her rook on the b
file anymore because knight c4 would win material win the pin bishop and therefore rook c5 and now
she has a pleasant choice she could just take and okay the queen side's gone but more activity
for the white pieces.
But I don't know if Divya has spotted this because she's moved her knight away and she's
now rushing back into that alternative to be able to have that scope to get the position.
She changes the idea to defend the b5 pawn, not with her knight this time but with her rook.
She goes in with rook to d5 and David now the problem of the f3 pawn.
Yeah, she's going to have to use her king to defend it only way now to avoid losing
a pawn.
featured chat earlier that someone was hating Black's g5 push, me too, like just feels wrong
to put pawns on the same color as your bishop. Geary showed us the way, opposite color to
the bishop controls more squares, but that being said, she's stopped any pass-pawn potential
and yeah, it feels like she's defending grimly. They do say that even the worst bishop
is a good defender against a knight, but I don't know, I'm still skeptical long-term
that Katerina Lagnar can hold this. Divya just needs a plan though.
That's a big ask because suddenly the pieces have shuffled around for white
in such a way that the white rook isn't really getting into that seventh or the
eighth rank. The knight from c4 finding it difficult to reach the f5 point
right now looking for some coordination. e5 guarded by the king and the
bishop. Divya is hesitating to put her own king on to the defense. The only
haven't moved that she could be looking at is knight to e3 to block the attack but
does that really help to cause because the knight remains pinned to that f3 pawn
it allows the black bishop into the game. Yeah she's chosen she has moved her
king across and I guess like no it's just gonna wait maybe she's gonna harass
the knight try and kick it away to activate her bishop again there we go
she does and it is hard to make progress she just needed that one
tempo, rook to a3, rook to a7, she had time but not anymore, I think d3 and this is going
to repeat at least once. Tanya, maybe has gone.
Oh my goodness. Now that he has to think if she has to keep the game going she can't
go up with the king anymore and if not that would mean a knight retreat and how happy
are you doing that because black does have the idea of anyways checking the white king
over and over again and then eventually bringing the bishop out as well. No happy squares for the
knight David, 93, you got a check in B2, knight D2, the black bishop comes out. Is Katharina
Lagna, does she realize that she's out of any big trouble here, draws within reach for her now?
I think she's getting confidence, the clock, I mean Lagna was down to 10, 15 seconds,
not that long ago, now she's got over five minutes, she's built up, built up the bank
again and it's Divya who's playing on seconds. I do wonder how much she risks because she wants to
keep the game going of course she's been winning for most of it but if the night goes super passive
and the bishop suddenly activates again the b5 pawn would likely drop off and this could turn.
Divya, oh she didn't run out of time she's still got a few seconds left I believe.
Oh I'm trying to get a closer look into her clock right now David 20 seconds is how much
she has so not all that much time and that one missed opportunity she does
bring that knight back it is a good night but had she made that rook move she
could have called it lights out and it would have been a good night for her but
right now she needs to fight all over again King e6 the knight just jumped
back to f5 the bishop d6 sorry under attack
bishop c5 or a check first by lardino yeah bishop c5 is such a
beautiful square. She's kind of proven her risky strategy of putting the pawns on the
same color as their bishop because now she controls the dart squares. If he gives a check
that will repeat if the black king just sidesteps. And the b-pawn is toast. The b-pawn is dropping
off for white so she might have to pull the break here.
Where are you sidestepping? If you go to f7 at least there's a rook d7 check to avoid
any immediate repetition right now. King f6. Would that mean more knight checks to follow
either h5 or e8 in that position? And where does that lead you when your b5 pawn is hanging?
David, I think for Devia fans the answer isn't a very happy one. I don't think it gets you
anywhere. Any of those knight checks after king f6. Black's king is just too good at
defender here there's not enough weaknesses to target and there's not a great window of
opportunity here either. Like you said Tanya all the checks from black are going to be so difficult
to stop and the b5 pawn once that drops leaves white playing a very one-dimensional game. Kingside
if you can't create a pass pawn you have to win pawns or you have to make the black king but
it's not going to be easy. I think king f6 king e7 are the two most natural moves and
She does allow a check.
She does allow a check. That's a very odd choice.
Very strange decision. You know, I thought king f6
was such a natural move. You stay connected to the pawn, you hit the white knight as well.
But king f7 does this give Divya the much needed
chance combining the rook and the knight. And I'm wondering
where does a lot more want to move with her king after that. I mean she's definitely
seen rook to d7. King f6 runs into further checks. Yeah maybe it is still king f6 and she's hoping
that she'll gain a tempo later with king e6 as the night moves to the rook on d7. So maybe there's
some logic to it but it does make an odd impression and the bar didn't quite jump but it went from
from 0.0 to 0.1, Tanya, so.
Ooh, big mistake.
If you knew, she would be loving it.
And 30 seconds for Divya Deshmukh right now in this position
to try to make some chances for that win.
We've been talking about the good night versus bad Bishop
David.
Now this end game has turned into a good night
versus a good Bishop end game.
And that just means it's been progress for Lagnau.
Great progress.
Divya, she just needs to give this check.
she wants to win like dropping her night back will repeat the position but she does go for it check
she's living life on the edge making moves with seconds left every time something i'm guilty of
myself but always nerve-wracking for the fans and for Katrina Lagno she's managed to gain five
minutes on the clock by playing fast and now she's thinking where does she want to move with
the king king g6 according to my engine is the top move which keeps the balance every other
move does give a slight chance to Divya. If Lagna finds King g6, which I will say is counter-intuitive,
you're going away from your central pawns, you're putting your king on the side, not the easiest
find. But David, apparently King f6 would run into some checks and the rook sliding over to
attack the g-pawn and it will not be ideal for Lagna. That would give the white knight some
checks. She did allow some checks on her last move so I have a feeling she might allow
some checks now but like you say King g6 is the best will some make sense no we
find that David she finds it King g6 played on the board not allowing any
checks from the knight and now what does the Vell have in her mind the b5 pawn is
hanging and the thing is the black picks that pawn up David suddenly the b6 pawn
starts rolling up the board time running low there might be a scenario where
did y'all need to be careful?
Yeah, she really will need to be careful.
How hard does she want to push here?
I quite like the idea of running with the white king,
but I don't know how far you run.
Like, if the black rook ever moves,
running into the center, she drops a knight back.
B5 will now be captured, surely?
Rook and pawn in games will not be winning for white.
The knight doesn't really want to take that bishop.
Rook takes b5.
Rook takes pawn, why not?
It's a free pawn.
No immediate repetition.
Knight takes bishop, you can't be scared of that.
Rook g7 check doesn't get you anywhere.
The king just slides over, attacks the white knight in that position.
With no check on g7, no way to win g5.
Something is stopping Lagnore from rushing with rook takes pawn.
she wants to give a check first and then go and take the pawn but I'm a bit
skeptical about trying to improve the white king. I guess the white king has to
stay honest defending its f pawn. Maybe that's good enough as well. A rook check.
But either way she does have time lag no and yeah she has done the hard work. It
does look like it is inevitable. That man that prediction. Rook takes b5. Surely
Now, I don't really see it, Tanya.
I don't see White's plan.
Like, there's no mating nets.
The black bishop actually does a good job
of covering the F8 square,
so White's knight cannot give any checks,
and she does eventually take.
And with that, for a first time,
in a long time in this game,
we see equal number of pawns for Katerina Lodno.
It's three versus three.
Now, Divya just needs to be a little careful, David,
and I think it's the moment where, as a player,
you need to realize that it's time to pull the brakes.
You can't really allow the B pawn
start rolling up the board, the white king feeling a bit naked with the knight in the
rook far away, all the checks that are lined up. F3 attend the spot. I mean you compare
right? The three versus two complete clampdown on the right flank while the Bepo on the free
one and this is Divya pulling the brakes.
Yeah good call Tanya. I think it was the perfect moment. She tried everything she could.
Lagna had the answers at the end there and yeah this is a dead drawn end game. The
Black b-pawn can take on c5 if she wants to keep level material but just for
instructive purposes taking the knight with the rook even an end game like this
is a dead draw and now her g5 looks masterful since white cannot make a
pass-pawn this is totally dead level position but of course she keeps the
pawn alive and yeah it's gonna be a draw either way all roads lead there now
yeah what a fascinating fight this has been so much nerves on these two
players, both putting pressure on each other, Kathirina Logno with a fantastic
defense. You just keep the game going. Divya Deshma questioning her at so many
opportunities, but that one window that she had to get her rook in after she
missed that, David, I have to say Logno really putting a huge defensive effort
there and it's paying off. Now Divya wants to get her king closer to the C5
pawn, march up the light squares towards D5, but it's the F3 pawn that's
going to be tender and coming away on that winning attempt.
Yeah, check here. Check on b3 now would go after the f3 pawn.
She's just calculating here like, no, what Divya has in mind
against that. Is she going to run forward with the white king?
Divya, she did look a bit emotional.
She did look a bit upset with herself that she'd blown what
was a winning advantage for most of the game.
There we see it again, Tanya.
We saw this quite a lot during the World Cup where
where she was successful, the emotion pouring out
towards the end of games.
Divya, I think is one of those players who is very expressive
with the result of the game, not as much during it.
Sometimes you can see even calculations don't go her way,
but I think with good or bad results,
she does tend to play them out.
I think that's something that we've seen on Divya
quite a few times and this is no exception.
She definitely realizes that she missed out on a big game.
pretty much from the middle game, David.
I think around move 16 or 17 it was,
where Divya won that extra pawn
and had so many opportunities to convert it.
It was a plus two advantage for her
and missing this at this stage of the candidates,
it definitely hurts.
And one can understand the emotions.
Yeah, she could have been half a point off the lead
with a win, but instead she'll be one point back.
Still plenty of chess left,
but it does feel like in the candidates especially,
Everything is amplified so much, Tanya.
So every tiny half chance missed feels so much bigger.
This was probably more than half a chance,
but she's got to dwell on it on the rest day
or use it as inspiration to come back even stronger
as she moves her king to C3.
Going into the half way mark,
half a point behind the leader,
you just feel like your chances are completely wide open.
It's anyone's candidates.
You've got seven games to catch up.
We're going to be playing the leader for a second time
in this one.
You feel like the momentum is on your side with two wins in a row and being so close to that as well
So it definitely hurts right now David and more than any of it
It's been sort of the storyline and the narrative of the game itself right so much in her hand
So in control and then all of it just slips away with end game technique
And I mean the clock was a big factor
She never had an easy move when she had a lot of time
It was kind of the big moves they came when she was already down to one minute two minutes, but
The end game technique there was a little bit lacking maybe she was never fully in control
Until maybe that moment where she had Rook a three, but the chance slipped away
Like no great defense though. Just really patient not panicking after losing a pawn in the opening and
Maybe miscalculating slightly. She just knuckled down and that deep found the all the right moves
moves and I think she's realized now that she can just give away the c-pawn if she
wants.
She moves her king across, king f7 probably the only move just to stop the white rook
going around and picking up pawns but more than good enough.
And Divya will once again go up upon but again the three versus two on one side of
the board makes that a non-story in this position.
Rook takes pawn picked up by Divya with the black rook under attack.
I think you could pick any square David. You don't even need to be super precise right now. Rook d4
Get it into defense with rook b6. Keep it on the fourth rank not allowing the white king up
Makes a lot of sense if white gives a check you fall back with the king and you look at log
No, she knows she's done all the hard work
Yeah, this is even more the fortress being Geary's fortress king on f7 or king on f6 and
White's rook would never be able to attack the bones and black's rook would just annoy Divya for the rest of the game
Just check from behind, check from the side. Attack once.
David, are you ready for the John Sergeant onslaught on us?
This would be the sixth draw and with two decisive wins.
I mean, Chad did have a feeling.
Chad always knows David, because I can already see John celebrating.
He's just, you know, he's loving life right now.
But Chad could sense it. Chad knew it.
They went 34% with his prediction and both of us lost that prediction game. I
Can't believe that only 16% thought that there would be three wins and we came so close
There's so many chances this game others, but somehow the crystal ball John
I mean John buy me a lottery ticket, please like give me some numbers like I
Was I was hoping to be so smug today Tanya. I thought today was finally the day
Sunday fun day happy Easter but nope okay hit me all right you're it okay David
you're buying a lottery ticket I can I've got some numbers for you ready you're
gonna write these down I'm at your I'm gonna return the favor from from some
Some advice you gave me previously, here we go, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, see you later.
Wow.
You lost without you, John.
You know, I'll say one thing, David, you know, John Snow might not know anything, but
John Sargent, he knows everything, Chad, and I don't see us winning the prediction
game after what's happened today.
Those lottery numbers, Chad, do something about that right now.
David there was a rook trade that was offered and of course you don't even want to calculate any king pawn and games in this
You don't want to see if you're holding it and I don't think you are
You know the black king can get edged away the white king can make in growth
So of course log no keeps the rooks on the board
Yeah, she keeps the rocks on the board because why calculate king upon end games
They're the most difficult ones anyway, and especially a pawn down white would get
Get her king snaking around the side. We have officially passed move one a hundred Tanya
So I'm not sure if this is now the longest game of this year's candidates.
I don't think in candidates history, but this candidates alone.
I'm not sure any other has passed move 100 mark, but yeah, I think by now the intrigue has gone.
It is at all. I'm going to let chat dig into that one, David Howler.
I'm not even going to pretend like I'm thinking about that chat.
Is it the first game to pass a 100 move test in this one?
I think there are a few that could have.
You know the Geary game comes to mind a couple of times but no I don't think I think you're on
point with that one David. The longest game of Canada is 2026 and it has been an up and down one
and it looks like it's about to end dead level. Yeah normally that's the base requirement to enter
grind like a grandmaster the history books but also the literal book it has to be over 100
moves that's a real grind shows the stamina shows the perseverance shows the determination but
Yeah, the players, they both had all of those in this game.
It's just, that's how chess works sometimes.
Attack versus defense, if the defender is strong enough,
the game does fizzle out.
And Tanya, you know Divya well,
do you think she's gonna play on a bit longer,
or do you think she now knows it is destined to be a draw?
Divya is an absolute fighter.
I've seen her play positions,
commentated on it, wondering when will this end,
and it doesn't for the next 50 to 100 moves
happened in Tata C Chess India very recently against Harika as well, where Divya played
this opposite color Bishop end game where really it wasn't even that there was an extra
pawn on the board. It just went on and on with it. So I think Divya plays this on. It's
also her accepting which I think it is hard for her as a player who's so fearless, who's
such an incredible fighter that she's let go of this huge opportunity to be half a
point behind the leader. So while I think everyone's hoping that she does repeat,
Knowing the Deveya who I've known sitting next to her in team competitions, playing alongside
her or commentating her games, I think this goes on for at least a couple more moons, David.
Yeah, and I've been inclined to agree just the way it's gone so far.
Just to show, she did set a trap on the last move for everyone at home, Rook to B8.
If that could give a check here, then things could have started getting a bit dicey,
still a draw, but if White attacks the Rook, Rook takes F3 now would be a huge
blunder due to a check and a skewer on f3 and likewise even if the rook could move the way
somewhere a rook check the king has to show its hand suddenly it's not so clear the white rook
has the opportunity to take on g5 probably still a draw as f3 would drop but divya at least asking
some questions not totally admitting admitting yet that it's a draw and that's a really interesting
point as well because now wherever the king was to shuffle because Katrina was relying
on that she's actually going for the f3 pawn so allowing the rook trade which will be of
course declined by her. I think it was important to keep the king where it is David because
the rook was about to go to e6 or g6 so keeping it as is and now she's just come back not
giving any time for the king to move forward as again f3 was hanging in that position.
I've got to be setting in on her I think it's been setting in for a while and
she's known it for a while that there's no improvement to be made unless there's a big
lot more blunder exactly and just while we mentioned the word blunders you mentioned it
earlier Tanya but just to put it on the board Rook takes Rook would have been a huge mistake
she kept them on the board this didn't happen but Rook takes B3 would have lost the
game on the spot as the black king gets outflank simply and just like we showed
in a similar endgame earlier in the Giri battle. Here Black has to give way, and Suno
or later gets pushed to the side of the board, and the pawns start dropping like flies, so
wisely not even considering that. And yeah, I think the only chance for Divya will be
at some point Tanya to go for kind of a king rush, but parting with the F-pawn, this
should just be a draw even without the G-pawn. It is a level end game, but at least this would
Teslaano slightly maybe give a check and try to run with the pawn.
Yeah, for Laudano this result has to be a massive relief. I'm looking at Anna Muzichik at four
and a half. Her day ended super early, you know. She was the first in the candidates to draw
today, David. But everyone still remains in the race with this draw as well. Both these
spurs will move on to three and a half, just a point behind Ladino, which means that the
leaderboard could get really compressed with every single draw at the top board by Anna
Moziccio.
So I think a lot of plot twists and a lot of ups and downs ahead in the women's candidates,
a completely different storyline from our open section.
Definitely.
And it's not just the results, it's the games.
Like, it's so unpredictable.
We saw that in the Tanjong Yi game earlier, one move blunder here, often a lot has
been decided in and around the time control and it just feels like somebody is going to try and
take the tournament by the scruff of the neck. Somebody's going to go for it in the second half
but with that they might give their opponents some chances. So definitely everything to play for
king f7. Lurundi move, the eval bar pointed out the blue arrow but more than enough she knows
this formation. She knows the setup by now. She just needs to control the e6 g6 square with
with her King not allowing the White Rook to land on any of those.
And there we have that some repeat to no one's surprise,
but continues the game,
trying to create some chances if the King was to sidestep anywhere,
it allows access to the White Rook to start attacking the pawns.
And now I'm expecting Ladino to continue with her Rook shuffling,
but it might not be easy to keep the structure.
David, very intelligent thing here has happened.
And I just realized that while I was on this rant,
The rook c4, king b3, and suddenly there is a shift.
Black will be forced to let the white king
onto the fourth rank.
And it's gonna be the you shall not pass strategy.
The king will move and then the black rook
will sit somewhere on the c-file
and it's gonna be cut down the board
rather than across the board.
Earlier it was cut on the fourth rank.
The white king couldn't pass.
But yeah, at least some progress.
It's a small wince.
And I guess the goal, king b3 surely
going to be played. The goal will be at some point to maybe cut the c-file for white to
bully that black rook away and then start to cross closer and closer towards the pawns.
She's making some gains at least. But oh, she doesn't even go for KB3.
There's this feeling that you can make that move at any point, right? She's got that
structure where KB3 will be on her disposal for a while. So it's also a strategy to try to
confuse your opponent, shuffle around a bit, you know, play similar moves but never the exact same
ones. What are the chances we reach 200 moves on this one, David Howell?
Well, we are now at move 111. The last capture was at move 98. So we've had 13 moves with no
No pawn breaks, no captures.
So we have a long way to go before the fifth movie.
37 moves to go.
But yeah, there would need to be a pawn push or a capture
in order to go deeper, Tanya.
That means White would need to somehow win E5.
I don't think she's ever pushing F4.
And I think once E5 drops, maybe in exchange for F3,
then play speeds up.
So I'm gonna say move 128.
How about you?
What's your prediction?
we need to get some predictions right surely at some point how long it's
just been going
is the only way to get it right is not to get John in on the conversation I see
he's on the call and he's actually super ready to jump in on it he's just waiting
for his John's David fine let's see who gets it closest
to the last move you say 128
I say this goes on to
uh... what move number did you say we were on
111 now
All right, I will say this is, I kind of like your pick.
Okay, I'll go 135.
John.
Tanya, I'm smug, but I'm not that smug.
I know how to quit when I'm ahead.
Oh, so what guess have we got?
We've got 128 and what did you say?
135.
135.
I'm gonna give myself the lowest percentage
chance of winning by splitting the difference
between the two of you and going 132.
There you go.
Oh no.
You're just touching the smile.
Just to make it interesting.
Let's see.
All right, it's a close one.
Good luck.
It's a close one.
Chad, what do you think?
I want to hear the numbers from Chad.
How long does this game go on for?
How long will Divya try to fight this out
for the full point right now?
All the Katrina Long knows doing a fantastic job
of holding this together.
She's defending like a lioness here. She's bringing her rook back, keeping the white rook honest.
The rook might come to f6 if white goes too far away. She brings her rook all the way back, Divya.
Okay, we actually have a few moves just catching up and now she's ready to cut across the c-file.
Step closer with her king. If she gets to d5, then I'll start to sing a different tune.
I can't help but think and feel that I made the worst prediction out of the three of us.
I'm most likely to lose again on prediction game at 135.
I think you've got quite a good number there.
And also, if it goes anything beyond 135, you've got all that covered.
You'll be the closest.
And Divya's clearly playing on.
She's clearly intent to try.
she's got until move 148 before the 50 move rule kicks in.
So unless she's going to be the one making that eye contact that we were talking about earlier
initiating and saying, okay, draw. And I mean, Leibniz got not going to be the one offering.
So you never know. I think I think you've got good, good idea.
The rook just came back from there David. She's just gone rook to d8. That's exactly
where it was. King f7 and the position repeats for the first time.
but the second time even but yeah she's just testing like no she's not going to
repeat for a third time surely there we go because just like your theory got
everything covered beyond one three five you've got everything covered below one
two eight right I'm running out of time I've already got 14 moves left this is
But now I need 30 moves left, it's a 1-1-5.
Keep fighting, you're up a pawn, your rook is active, so much to play for in this position.
I think all king moves here are fine, probably on the 6th rank.
Running out of variations to calculate, I don't really think there's much to work
out here, but if in doubt just keep the king between the two pawns, there we go.
Come on, Divya, a great draw in 9-miss time, Divya.
But why is she contemplating?
Yeah, you still have a little bit more margin than that, Divya.
So we'll see who gets that.
I want to talk a little bit about Ana Muzicik right now
because while we're talking about catching up the leader,
trying to get to that scoreboard of being half a point behind Ana,
Anna, for Divya, if she would have won, but ending the day being the point behind.
But Anna herself, right, as a late replacement to Hampi coming into the tournament, I don't
think I'm exaggerating when I say barely any preparation.
Just not expecting it.
And David, you know, her path to the candidate was through the rating qualifiers, I believe,
and then she was number nine on it.
Or maybe it wasn't the rating.
to the free day qualifying spot she was number nine and the point was that the top eight were
already qualified. They were the eight candidates and Humphrey Bejewan that's how she got in.
So imagine the odds to actually play this no preparation. By the way King F7 is that
a three-time repetition already question? No. David are you sure? It is. It is. It
would have been. She didn't claim it. She didn't claim. She did not claim. Can you have
seven? This position has happened twice. I'm never going to win a prediction. If she
just stopped the clocks and claimed there, I would have been the closest. And now she's
looking at the score sheet, Tanya, only now after making a move. She's going to realize
it. She's going to realize it, David, because it wasn't too far off. This exact position
did happen. David, it's happened twice before. I have rechecked. And Katharina Lagnar with
a missed opportunity to claim.
Yeah. And I think she might have looked at the score sheet, but forgot that it's three
time position, not three time move. And if we just quickly go back, this is where it
started. Black played the move Rook to C1. So it started with Rook C1. First time
we saw this position. As you said, Tanya, a bit of a dance with the Rook and the
the king and after king f7 second time we saw this position so first time after
Rc1 second time king f7 then a check and the last time is the most obvious
king back to f7 but she relies too late and Divya she's gonna continue or is
she going to repeat oh I know what I want but I have a feeling she's gonna
the fight on.
The good news is that for Katrina Lagna the position still remains very much in draw territory.
It's hard to even mess this up.
So a missed claim there, you know, I look at the girl, I think David draws in coming
soon.
I think she realizes it.
She's tried everything she's tried to play on.
She's reaching for the king so she won't allow the three-fold repetition she switched
things up.
Oh, and she changes her mind.
She comes back all the way rook to d3.
Okay, the rook's also been there but I believe just once.
So it won't be a 3-4 repetition yet.
Oh, wrong claim.
Wrong claim.
But this is the wrong one.
It's happened twice, David, with king f6.
I've checked with king to e6, it's happened twice.
But king to f6 is what Lana is saying that she puts her king there and this position
has happened twice.
take a look. I don't think it's even happened twice. Last time
Brookley 3 was played she went king e6. Now she's gone king f6
totally different square. And it hasn't definitely happened
three times. So the claim is wrong. Divya's going to get given
extra time. Long is going to be penalized slightly. I think
she was frustrated that she didn't claim it on the previous
move and decided to claim it now. I don't know if that's
going to affect her but she clearly is impatient for this game to end Tanya from small drama
here at the end of round 7.
Drama never stops.
It truly is absolute cinema of the candidates.
Even in this position, David Halle, she's not going to be given the draw.
It is a wrong claim.
I knew that King 2 E6 has happened before but King 2 F6 not even twice like you're
confirming.
And just to move before, Lagnau had the right claim.
You messed this up.
Will this play with her mind a little bit?
We'll find out as the players have gone in with the arbiter
to check on the game to replay the last few moves.
Do you think that there's just going to be like, OK,
this is a draw.
It doesn't matter.
The claim's wrong.
Let's just shake hands.
Yeah.
I think deep down, she was like, oh, it feels weird
to offer a draw here.
We talked about chess etiquette.
Like, if you're on the defensive side,
you can only maximum make a draw
then you wait for your opponent to make that draw off her.
let them burn out and try everything they can to win.
But I think this is the next best thing, right?
Just claim the draw.
Maybe Divya doesn't want to go through this whole procedure
and then they shake hands and peace.
But yeah, she's probably gonna be forced to sit the pack down
and play a few more moves.
And psychologically, maybe it's a bit annoying.
It's still such a drawn position
that it shouldn't affect anything.
But Tanya, top players are terrible at this.
I've had at least three,
maybe even 4, 2,700 grandmasters claim wrongly against me,
including Fabiano, once at the London chess classic.
Top players, they don't understand the rules.
They struggle with this.
I've even had a few day at Olympiads,
not understand basic three-fold repetition.
It's the one that everyone should know,
but they don't seem to.
Wow.
Yeah, and that can be pretty rough
and frustrating as a player sitting there.
But hopefully that will not be the case here, David,
They're checking by the fact that they were went rupti three it makes me feel like she would have been happy for a draw
I'd like to just play King f6 and then waited. I think they were would have repeated
You know this exact same position with the king going back to f7 now has happened four times already
So let's see what happens as we see the players coming back David. What do you think? I?
Don't see the makings of a draw with their body language off yet
No, no draw they go on that was a bit of a
Yeah, a bit of a spring in Divya's step as the game continues and she's going to get,
I believe, two extra minutes on the clock.
Lagna, I think she realised as soon as she claimed it was more in hope than expectation.
She just wants this game to be done.
She wants the rest day.
She wants the rest day.
She wants to have her dinner.
I will point out that if Divya goes with her rook to D8, king to F7 would be the
fifth time that we would reach that position now, or at least the fourth time.
So that would definitely be the right claim.
If Divya suddenly got this fresh feeling of motivation after those extra two minutes have
been added, then she will not choose the D8 square for her rook, David.
And she doesn't.
So I'm going to go for the win now.
She'd be trolling so heavily if she puts her king on B2, then starts doing that thing
with her rook and does two times in every position, depending on the king on F7, king
on F6, then she puts her king on B3 like she has been doing a couple of times.
King on B4 she might start repeating with the Rook again. I think we won't see a second claim
even if it's a right one. It's going to be scarring. I remember claiming wrongly myself
once when I was like 12, 13 years old and I don't think I've ever kind of risked a claim
unless I'm a hundred percent sure ever since that because it just feels a little not humiliating
but you know mixed feelings if you're wrong about the claim. One thing is the humiliation
It's also just not pleasant to deal with it in your own mind going forward in the game.
Even if you know that this should be a draw, it can play tricks with your mind.
And especially in the 6th, 7th hour of play.
So I think Katrina Lagna, it's a good thing that she's paused herself, she's getting
back into it, calming things down because nothing's really changed with King before.
It's not like it comes with a big threat on the board and pretty much any move holds.
But it's Katrina who's on a hold right now, kind of just making peace with everything
that's happened and then she plays the king move a very obvious one in this
position and keeps things under control. Divya, does she have a plan? Maybe she
does now offer the rook trade as we were talking about also building a bridge
for the white king to step further into the game. Yeah that would make a lot of
sense. The king sneaks closer. Still unlikely to get past the black king
but just to put that on the board, rook c3 black again should not be
taking this because she gets outflanked and the sideways opposition this time.
White forces black to give way this position with white to play draw.
That's a black to play loss.
So definitely a possibility to set another trap.
Tonya, I want to give a lot of credit to the arbiters because that was very
efficient. Like they they left the room.
They checked within a couple of minutes.
They were back out there playing again.
I've been through like 20 30 minute procedures where the arbiters are like,
Oh, but you only wrote down Rook C1 twice and I'm like, no, it's three-time position,
not three-time moves, and they don't understand and you have to go and check with the Chief
Arbiter and it goes round and round in circles.
It's like VAR in soccer and football, but this was quite a quick one.
Yeah, the Arbiters of the Canada is there absolutely at the top of the game.
And coming to that, it is pretty tricky actually, you know, because a three-fold
repetition can often be direct with the pieces shuffling around.
A three times position repeat a totally different animal
because it could have happened over a period of time.
You could have had it about 10 moves ago
and then another seven moves ago and then now.
So it makes it that much more interesting
and I've seen players be so incredibly sharp
to even follow it up after that position
has come for a third time,
after about a 20 move gap, David.
Exactly, that's extremely impressive
when the pattern recognition is so good
that you remember something from 20 minutes ago and it's happens to be the same position.
But yeah, in this one, I'm still looking at the numbers, the prediction game. I'm running
out of time.
Where are we?
119.
And you're still, you're still in winning realm there. I mean, you're also 1-8, so that's
about a nine move margin that you have. I'm feeling slightly better about my prediction.
I won't lie, but I still think it's going to be Jon Sargent again.
It could well be, and we might have to bring Jon in shortly to ask about his Arbitering
background and asking how he would have dealt with this.
I'm sure he would have dealt with it in the exact same way, very professionally.
Tanya, you mentioned earlier Animozi Tric qualifying being the ninth in line and
It's a top eight already, or at least being,
yeah, ninth in line, the top eight already being qualified.
I guess that might include Juwen Jun,
who's already up there, already world champion.
But do you think that's my best bet
to hope that the top 45 or 46 players in the world
just suddenly magically withdraw
from the candidates next time round?
Let me in.
You know, we've been calling John a Thanos.
So maybe he'll just take a flick of his fingers
to make that happen for you, David Howell.
If he does it, but tell me, I know that you've been so close to making it to the candidate.
It reminds me of your bang house story.
The grand Swiss run a fantastic event for you that one was.
It came down to that last round.
What do you think?
Do you want to try this here, David?
And actually, I have a question for you.
Will you be playing the Olympiad?
Oh, put me on the spot, Tanya.
No comment.
You'll find out in September.
What?
Maybe.
Personally, I haven't decided. I haven't been, well, I don't know when selection for the England team takes place.
I haven't been very active. I've only played a handful of rated games in the last 12 months, so I wouldn't begrudge someone more active playing in my stead.
I think they would deserve it, maybe a bit more. How about yourself? Will you be there in Uzbekistan in September?
So I would need to, again, play a tournament before, I think, May or June, maybe, to make it a team.
You need to play a certain number of games as well.
And I'm not sure if I want to again, you know,
and it's also, I think playing for India has been one
of my biggest motivations in chess.
It's been what's kept me going in the game
and working for it for so many years.
But after the performances that we've had
in the last year at Lamp Yard, we got the bronze in 22,
we got the gold in Budapest.
I just feel very much at peace at where I am.
It's a good place to be when you've conquered Everest.
Why try to climb again?
I mean, yeah, it was just incredible
watching the Indian teams in 22-24.
Like maybe winning it on Uzbek soil
is going to be extra satisfying
after the Uzbek open team won that one on Indian soil.
May if that's some motivation, Tanya.
I'm telling you, I'm still undecided about it.
If I have to make a run for the team, then I need to at least play one tournament.
I think by rating I'm still around and if I have a reasonable tournament, I would be
in.
Again, the team selection hasn't been decided based and it will be in a few months.
But I know that I'll be a part of the Olympiad one way or the other, either on the board
or maybe calling the action.
I'm also happy to do it on the sidelines.
I do enjoy commentating and I remember the Chennai Olympiad, David, you were there as
well and you had quite a run yourself in that one.
Oh, the glory days.
Thank you, Tanya.
I promise everyone at home, I didn't pay Tanya to bring that up but that was the peak
for me.
Probably the last gold medal I'll ever win.
Why would you?
This was going so well.
Why would you lie to the chat like that, David Howell?
I mean, that was not called for, you know.
I can't believe he just did that. He totally, my invoice is already on the way, Chad, he's got my bank details.
That's what it takes these days. Not winning gold medals, I'm bribing co-commentators to talk about them.
They're historic from years and years ago. On a serious note though, the England team, I was looking the other day,
if I played and the top five players played, I think actually at the top six English-rated players, the average age is 42 nowadays.
So I think it's about time I stepped aside.
I'm no longer, I mean, I might be the youngest of them,
but no longer spring chicken.
It's time for the kids to come.
Inglid actually has a 12 year old number one in the women's rating list.
So, the future is more.
Badana.
I mean, she's doing incredible things right now.
It's awesome to watch her play.
Even in faster format, she's just such an incredible beast on the board, David.
So, it's going to be interesting to see how the women's team performs for England as well.
But I remember the 22 Olympiad very well for both of us for all the good reasons and sad,
it's true he didn't pay me to say this.
It was a fun one and then the Budapest one as well.
Do you miss being an active player?
Yes and no.
When I watch games like this, I'm like, I miss the feeling of grinding those long
battles, just wearing down your opponents.
But there are some games where I'm just like, oh my god, it's so messy.
so stressful. The one thing I don't miss, Tanya, is sitting with a computer for hours
every morning, hours every evening, trying to prepare, nervously covering every hole
in the repertoire, wondering where I'm going to get hit by a novelty against some young
player with stockfish. And yeah, that's the one thing I don't miss, the opening
stuff. That's why I quite like freestyle chess. But I don't know. I'll come back
I'll make a proper push again, but maybe not for a little while.
How about you?
What's the thing you miss most about being in the heat of the action?
I think the adrenaline of it is completely unmatched.
The purpose that you feel when you're preparing for a tournament, a big one, and then playing
A, I think it's a different kind of kick for me and I really enjoyed that.
I do feel that I'm at that stage in phase where the amount of hard work it takes, the
pressure and the expectation around performance as well, it feels like for me, while I love
the game, I don't know if I love playing it as much, the joy of calling the action on
it, it's at least equal to the days when I really did love playing as well.
But at times I do miss the rush of it, you know, winning games, playing those
time scrambles, preparing for those openings, all of that. I think while I love the job of commentary
and calling the actions, especially you know working with the crew that we are right now,
I do miss playing sometimes. So who knows maybe I'll be back when I miss it enough.
Okay hot take exclusive. If you had to hear first that we'll both be back at some point.
At some point but maybe this is the point where Divya goes in with things. You know the
the black king has moved so much towards the queen side now. I'm wondering if this is the
moment that the rook can reach out. I was going to go one step further into b6 and try to get
to that g pawn eventually. But instead, Devia puts pressure on e5 inviting the king to e6.
I don't think this makes progress anymore. But the problem with rook b6, maybe we can
have a look at that, that Lagna would have sufficient counterplay against the f pawn.
Rook c3, you could stop with it immediately, maybe throw in a check, but I don't think
it makes a difference and then you end up swapping the f-pawn with the g-pawn and say
that now my king is close enough, king steps in or even Rf4 feels very strong. Just Rxpawn,
Rxpawn, curtains.
Yeah, the white king is just on the wrong side. If you could pick up the white king
and put it on like f6 now then serious when he chances but the king is stuck on
the edge of the board. So she's played Rb5, should we try and figure out how narrow
the path is. Can black do the same as we just showed? Or should she be guarding? I think
she wants to do the same thing by the way. Like now she would give a check and if the
black king wants to stop rook to g6 then maybe the rook can shield the king and it starts
to creep closer.
Again, you know, yes the Valbar remains as it is but it doesn't matter. As long as
you're making progress and putting pressure at this hour of play strange things can
happen but she does go for the most direct line David she does attack the F pawn so Rook takes
pawn Rook takes pawn there's a second pawn hanging I do think this works in Lagnaud's favor
and she's calculated it all the way through you put pressure on both the pawns with the Rook stepping
up she even first very professional drives the working further away before picking up the pawn
and Tanya I think like I'm going to be so gutted I think John might win this you know
Again! David!
It suddenly becomes so forcing that it can't continue that much longer.
So I think it's going to go beyond three more moves. That's my limit.
One, two, eight. The king's now on the edge of the board.
Rook takes f3, rook takes g5.
And Black's going to find a way to pick up one of the two remaining pawns,
probably bring the king closer.
I think this goes on another seven, eight moves minimum.
And it's that sweet spot that John called.
Or maybe it's...
He called 1-3-2, right?
And you called 1-2-8. So what happens at 1-3-0 is what I want to know.
Oh, good question.
Cool, honorable draw.
We round down in chess.
I think with the marathon game we've had,
a peaceful result between you and John would not be the absolute worst.
So Rook F3 and what is the linear line that we're talking about?
So there was to grab the g5 pawn here the rook steps up to f4 you're hitting e4
you're hitting b5 g4 at the same time white can still push the pawn forward to
e5 in that case David I don't know if we can have those moves on the board we see
oh we might see this being played out so we can let the player show us the
part. Yeah rook to f4 looks sensible all the black king sneaks closer one or
the other she'd be really sneaky and hopeful some checkmates if she plays
I'm not sure if that's something she wants to go for but it just feels like the king's too far away here, Tanya, for any realistic winning chances for White.
I think you're just in time to pick up the pawn combining the rook and the king. And like you said, it's quite a forcing line here, David.
If you do attack the e-pawn with the rook stepping up, White will be forcing. I think we're seeing this being played out.
out. The black king will march forward to stay connected to that pawn via e6. The black
will try to rush her own king back with king to either b5 or b6. The black rook lines up
against it. The king moves closer but not in time. Rook takes pawn to follow and the
black king closer to the white remaining pawn and this could be the end of the day.
Oh no, it's going to be exactly move 132. Oh my gosh. How is this happening?
How is this happening? That position we showed, Tanya, we've got to hope that Divya finds a different way.
It's happening. It's happening on the board. David, e5 played, king e6 on the board.
Chat, watch this unfold. You know, John, you really should have gotten gone out and picked up a lottery ticket for yourself.
turns out even when the players try you're the one who's right here but maybe
she'll offer a draw at this point David maybe there's hope come on Divya like
this is it one two eight last chance oh she looks like she's about to offer a
draw come on I think she plays I know Divya she's gonna do the whole King
versus King stuff going on here David she goes in with the King now the
Blackrock lines up against that pawn, picks it up, and Divya plays till King versus King.
That's going to be, I'll be very surprised if at this point she decides to go in for a
draw.
Although she looks like it David.
I think this is a close-up fight between you and John, then it is between Divya and
Katrina.
You need to save the trees, save the score sheets.
You don't need to write down more moves.
Save the environment.
The score sheets have suffered long enough.
This is a move 129 now and maybe she keeps the rooks on the boards.
I guess she can play on a bit longer but with the white king so far away, the g-pawn will
never run through.
Actually, g-pawns are the worst ones to have even with the white king on g3, h4, it's
always going to be a draw.
What move number did you say?
This is move 130.
I'm out of it.
I'm done.
It's your John Tanya.
They can't be because the pawns are about to, ooh, they're still fighting on.
She doesn't go for the King Wars scheme.
Maybe I'm in the fight.
I'm in the race.
This is fantastic news for you, Tanya.
It's as if she heard you, your countrywoman, doing you proud.
She's my teammate right now.
She's my one true teammate right now.
David, how does it feel to be the only one to not win a prediction today?
Or maybe I'm speaking too soon.
I should wait, Chad.
wait before I get this mind about this. I'm waiting for the playoffs, the playoffs. We've
got 14 rounds in playoffs. One day I'll get it right. Like I'm optimistic. One day, surely.
Well, Divya is still fighting this position as well. That is,
that's classic Divya, I will tell you. And it usually does work for her. You know,
it's exactly this fighting spirit and it might not be today. But this is what makes
her opponents crack so many times she just never stops you have to earn that
draw they I don't I think you could pick up the rook right now I think King takes
rook still draws King takes rook King takes rook King G7 looks drawn to me but
why risk it I guess the question is now move 1 3 2 I said 1 3 5 it's only the
next move. John wins if there's a draw for on the next move.
Is this it? Oh, nothing since I did you. No eye contact yet. It continues. This is the
most drawn Rook and Game I've seen in a few rounds.
Oh my god. Okay, 133. Rook A4. And now, Katrina Lagna, I think she's equally surprised
I am not at all. I mean, I think seeing Divya fight this out, it's one of her biggest trends, really.
And yes, it might be something like, it's not called for in this position, but this is just what...
This is what works for her so many times. She does push the point and I want to announce that this might end in a draw, but I have won the prediction game.
Again, so John Sargent and David Howell.
Imagine, Tanya, winning the prediction game and as a reward, this goes to 200 moves.
Oh G6 she gives away the pawn. Is that the draw? That is king takes pawn and that's
it just like that unmoved 135 with G6. Deva Deshmukh vs Katharina Lagnau ends in a draw.
What a marathon of a fight but it is Lagnau who is the relieved one and for Deva Deshmukh
bittersweet feelings, this has to be disappointment. Winning, well not a winning advantage, but
pushing for a win pretty much throughout the game. She can't be happy with this draw, David.
Exactly. For around 120 moves she had an advantage or she was a pawn up for most of that. And
in the end it just wasn't enough. Langer too strong a defender, too consistent, too
tenacious and divya. As you said Tanya, she might play that position a hundred times.
You might only win once that type of Rook End Game,
but that gives her the extra 1% that kind of gives her
that elite status, that elite mentality.
So a very impressive fight from both.
As a grinder myself, I can appreciate it.
I was only disappointed it didn't go King versus King
at the end, but I think the players after that marathon
do deserve a rest day.
Yeah, I noticed how I think Lagnar was also
quite frustrated with how long she had to defend
and had the game going on from a dead draw position.
Gets up and leaves.
It is time to get dinner for everyone.
It's time for us to get in, John.
I believe this is the moment as we go into all the results,
three draws and a win in the women's section.
Thank you very much, Tanya.
And hello again, everyone.
Tanya not only winning that side bet,
but absolutely nailing it to the move as well.
So congratulations there.
There definitely wasn't a part of me thinking that,
ah, if Tanya's gonna win this bet,
I hope she gets rewarded with this game going on to move 220.
But hey, oh, there we go.
These are the results from the women's candidates.
Vai-Shalli getting the win over Tan-Zong Yi.
Otherwise, we have three very hard fought draws today.
Let's take a look at what that does to the standings.
Tanya, based on that incredible prediction
in that final game, what does that do
to the overall standings?
What are we looking forward to after the rest day?
It's closer than where we started the day, right?
because Anna Muzichuk had a point lead
over the rest of the field.
Now it comes down to a half a point over Veshali.
And what a comeback story this has been for Veshali,
similar to what we saw at the candidates in Toronto,
where Veshali went on this insane five win game streak
right there.
I mean, at the start of this tournament,
few would have expected her to be at four points,
going into that halfway mark, but it's a close back.
Right after her, we've got four players
with three and a half.
Again, I think it's the same story lines,
same narrative.
We can't say it enough.
The women's candidate remains a close fight.
It's one for anyone to take.
And it still remains that it's actually quite a different story in the open section as well
because when we take a look at those standings and those results, ultimately David, we don't
have Cinder of being caught today, although he was held to a very credible draw by Anish
Fabiano remains one and a half behind.
Yeah, just just as you said with the women's candidates. This was also very hard fought in all of the games
Cinder off pushed Geary to the limit
Ultimately a draw a fair result Geary's defense very impressive pregnant under
Karawana cancelling each other out and a really fascinating encounter blue-bound testing Hikaru not quite making it
I guess good news for two players round seven
It was Cinder off just because he's now one round closer to his goal of winning the candidates
But also way II who might be three points behind might be trailing still but finally picks up his first win and hopes
But maybe the momentum will continue after the rest day
Well, let's have some closing thoughts before we close out the stream today
But I'd like to carry on that point with you if that's all right Tanya
Why are you picking up his first win if you're playing a tournament? You're maybe not having the best time
You do get that first win. What does that do to your momentum?
How significant is it beyond just the point on the scoreboard?
I think you start living again right you start feeling like things could turn
around seven seven more rounds to go the rest day coming up you go into the rest
day with a fresh fresh mood you're happier about things getting that
first win there's no doubt and I think we saw Wei Yi with that interview with
Mike Klein as well then he relies as a three-point gap with the tournament
leader is a massive one and it's gonna be hard to imagine him going all
the way going on a hot streak and then Cinder off fumbling along but
you to have any chances. But you know it's a start. It's the most that you could have asked at this point.
And I also want to touch upon the other big result that happened, John, which I think has quite a lot of shaping to do into the next part of the
candidates, the draw between Fabiano Caruana and Pragyananda as well. Because you know, while that's stable on the score sheet, it's slippery on the standings.
Because of both these players, now the margin to make it closer to Cinderov, that gap is getting shorter and shorter.
It's now, I know it's strange to say, but only seven games remaining and a huge leap
for Cinder off a one and a half point margin.
David, I'll ask you for your closing thoughts as well, but also piggybacking off what Tanya
just said.
You know, you don't lose any more ground to the tournament leader.
In most circumstances, we would consider that to be, you know, that's a nice result.
Let's see if we can do it next time.
But the reality is Cinder off has done so unbelievably well that a draw almost feels
like a loss for some of the players from the standings point of view.
Exactly. The tournament is a marathon. It is 14 rounds, but we're halfway through that.
We've already run through half that marathon and time is running out. Fabiano will have
it in the back of his mind every move now of every game that he might need to take a
little bit more risk that could backfire, but it also could work well. Traditionally,
in the candidates, we've seen one of two storylines play out. Either it becomes
really close a really fascinating race down to the last few moves or someone runs away and I think
just as we enter the second half now we'll find out we're at that sweet spot Fabiano still has some
say in it he will have the white pieces against Cinderhub in the second half and I think that
might be the most important monumental game that we can look forward to in the second half now.
So that wraps things up for today's broadcast remember we head into a rest day tomorrow so there is no broadcast
But we are back same time same place the day after
So have a good rest day for those of you who have a holiday tomorrow
Enjoy that and on that rest day. We will find out will Fabby get to play paddle against Javik here
Will Mike Klein sneak into the players hotel and have a dip in the pool at midnight
All of these answers and more will be revealed in two days time.
Take care everyone, stay safe wherever you are, and have a great rest of your weekend. Good night!
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