Tan Zhongyi will challenge Ju Wenjun for the World Chess Championship in 2025. The 32 year old player was not the favourite for the event but her confident play dominated with only a round 8 loss to her closest challenger Lei Tingjie as a blemish in the event. In the final round Tan played a very sharp Sicilian against Anna Muzychuk. Tan secured a big advantage but steered the game to the draw she needed. Lei needed a win and played an amazing Queen sacrifice against Humpy Koneru. Eventually her compensation disappeared and she subsided to a loss ..read more

Dommaraju Gukesh won the FIDE Candidates at the age of 17 years old. He comfortably held a draw against Hikaru Nakamura in the final round of the event. Fabiano Caruana built up a winning position against double defending champion Ian Nepomaniachtchi but a blunder on the first move after first time control allowed a draw and Gukesh's victory. Gukesh should play Ding Liren later in the year for the World Title. Ding seems to have had some kind of personal crisis since taking the title and has hardly played, and when he has it's not been very good play ..read more

Tan Zhongyi could not ask for a better chance to win the Women's Candidates in Toronto going into the final round. Tan hardly played the most critical continuation against Aleksandra Goryachkina but a quiet game suited her and a draw by repetition was agreed on move 29. She now leads the Lei Tingjie by a point with no-one else able to catch her. Tan faces Anna Muzychuk with the black pieces in the final round, Muzychuk hasn't won a game yet, although she generated enough chances to have been in contention. The key result of the day was Rameshbabu Vaishali's fourth win in a row, a streak that f ..read more

Dommaraju Gukesh is on the verge of victory in the FIDE Candidates tournament in Toronto. A win in the final round with the black pieces against Hikaru Nakamura would guarantee first place. Half a point behind is his opponent Nakamura as well as Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi who face each other. Gukesh could well win the event with a draw, the other players need a win. There could also be a two way tie, this will be resolved by rapid followed by blitz, if necessary. Gukesh beat 20-year-old Alireza Firouzja whose entire campaign has been undone by his highly emotional approach to chess ..read more

Tan Zhongyi continues to lead Lei Tingjie by half a point going into the final rest day of the Women's Candidates tournament in Toronto. They are too far clear of the rest of the field, one of these two players will win the event. Tan Zhongyi was losing against Nurgyul Salimova. By move 25 Tan was in a very uncomfortable position and tried to break out tactically with 25...b6? but this made things worse. Salimova's 43.f6?! (43.g6!) was a step in the wrong direction but she restored her winning position only to play 50.Bxf7? (50.Nxb4, 50.Rh4+ or 50.Bc6) which basically threw away the entire adv ..read more

The FIDE Candidates in Toronto, Canada has reached the final rest day. With two rounds to go three players, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Gukesh and Hikaru Nakamura lead with 7.5/12 half a point clear of Fabiano Caruana, one of these players will win the event. There will be day of tie-breaks on Monday if required, although I'd rather there be a clear winner. Intriguingly pairings include Nepomniachtchi-Nakamura in round 13 and Nakamura-Gukesh and Caruana-Nepomniachtchi in the final round. Nepomniachtchi chose the Exchange French against Praggnanandhaa and after 9 moves black was already level. Praggnan ..read more

Tan Zhongyi took sole lead of the FIDE Women's Candidates with 7.5/11 after beating Kateryna Lagno in a Reti. Lei Tingjie managed to draw against Anna Muzychuk and is half a point behind. With three rounds to go Kateryna Lagno, Humpy Koneru and Aleksandra Goryachkina are all on 5.5 points, realistically it's between Tan and Lei for the title. Tan played a Reti System, 13...e5 from Lagno could have been met by 14.Nxe5 with advantage but instead a roughly balance position was arrived at. 27.Rc5? could have been refuted by 27...f4 when overloaded pieces combined with a kingside attack win for bla ..read more

Ian Nepomniachtchi won a really fascinating struggle against Santosh Vidit in the eleventh round of the FIDE Candidates tournament in Toronto, Canada. Not only did Nepomniachtchi win, he won with the black pieces, but it was Vidit who first had winning chances. Vidit chose a side-line in a fairly topical Petroff line, even with Queen's off the play remained complicated and 33...Rb3? (33...Kg7!) was losing according to engines after 34.h5! Then 35...a5? 36.Bxa3 d5 was also deemed losing for black but only after giving up a piece. The position was back level and 58.Bb3?! and 60.Nb2+? suddenly Ne ..read more

The tenth round of the FIDE Women's Candidates saw two decisive games and Lei Tingjie re-join Tan Zhongyi in the lead on 6.5 points, they're a point clear of Aleksandra Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno. Goryachkina has the reputation of being one of the most solid of women's players and she was hitherto undefeated until Lei beat her today. Goryachkina played the exchange Slav with white and after 23.Rc1? (23.Re1, 23.a3 were both better) Kg6 was in major trouble. 31...Bd3?! lost quite a bit of the advantage and Goryachkina was soon back level, 37.f3? was however a terrible move after which she wa ..read more

The tenth round of the FIDE Candidates tournament saw the leaders Gukesh and Ian Nepomniachtchi draw and wins for Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. This leaves Nepomniachtchi and Gukesh on 6, Praggnanandhaa, Nakamura and Caruana on 5.5 and Vidit on 5 all in the mix. A playoff rather than a technical tie-break coefficient will decide the winner. Nepomniachtchi played quite a solid Ruy Lopez line against Gukesh. The main point of interest seems to have been whether 19.c3 led anywhere, but this was a computer move rather than a human one. After 19.Rd3 a draw was favourite until the end of the ..read more