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

Tan Zhongyi scored a quick victory against Rameshbabu Vaishali in Round 9 of the Women's Candidates tournament in Toronto and that eventually proved to be enough to lead alone on 6/9. Tan claimed to have surprised Vaishali with her choice of opening, I'm not sure at what move that was but after Vaishali's 11.Ng5 the position became tricky to handle for both sides. 13.h4?! (13.Na3) was ambitious but the key moment came with 16.c4? (16.Bxd6 is only a tiny bit worse for white) f6! and white was already in dire straits. 18.c5? was another error and the collapse was complete with 19. ...Nxd4 20. Qe ..read more

The ninth round of the FIDE Candidates in Toronto saw just the one decisive game when Santosh Vidit beat Hikaru Nakamura but the joint leader Ian Nepomniachtchi looked to be in trouble against Alireza Firouzja. In the end Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi share the lead with 5.5/9 half a point clear of Praggnanandhaa. Hikaru Nakamura seemed to have moved into contention with his round 8 victory against Caruana but went backwards again today by losing for the second time against Santosh Vidit. Nakamura's Round 2 loss was an unmitigated disaster, this one he was just outplayed, twice. Nakamura was equal ..read more

The FIDE Candidates in Toronto is heating up nicely after eight rounds. Gukesh joined Ian Nepomniachtchi in the lead and Hikaru Nakamura moved into contention alongside Praggnanandhaa. Fabiano Caruana's loss to Nakamura took him back to 50% and is surely a major blow. Gukesh recovered from his loss in Round 7 with a win against Santosh Vidit in a Two Knights with 4.d3. Superficially it might have seemed like it was Vidit who had the initiative after the opening, he was pushing pawns and making breaks, but Gukesh had the a-file and white's position was deteriorating with almost every move. Guke ..read more

Tan Zhongyi was joined by Lei Tingjie and Aleksandra Goryachkina on 5pts after 8 Rounds of the Women's Candidates tournament in Toronto. It was all so unnecessary too, Tan turned down a draw by repetition by playing the risky and objectively not very good 21.f4 and her position more or less went downhill from there. There's been very little for Humpy Koneru or Rameshbabu Vaishali to smile about in this event and the latter had her 3rd loss in a row, she was worse and then lost the exchange and that was pretty much that by move 17. Kateryna Lagno against Aleksandra Goryachkina was a fairly well ..read more