What was indicated in the first round and increased in the second round can no longer be overlooked in the third round of the Candidates Tournament: A number of the eight candidates who are fighting here in Toronto for the right to challenge the world champion have brought opening variations with them , like they were hardly seen in chess at the highest level for a long time.
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Chess: Who beats the king?
On Saturday it is the 18-year-old Indian Praggnanandhaa from Chennai who brings the move f7-f5 onto the board with Black on the fourth move of the time-honored Spanish opening. That means he moves his king’s bishop pawns two squares ahead of him, attacks the white king’s pawn, yes, invites him to capture it, as a small sacrifice in advance.
Such moves spread fear and terror in the middle of the 19th century, when chess was still primarily about attack and little about defense. The opposition was ridden to death like cavalry and they didn’t even know what was happening to them. Later, the defense learned, and the all-too-quick, all-too-brisk approach visibly failed due to sophisticated countermoves. After bitter decades, the unsuccessful attackers eventually realized that the surprise had come to an end.
Now we live in a time when chess programs with a high level of detail help analyze openings. For the solid main variations, it can be roughly said that they all ultimately result in a draw. Anyone who knows their mechanisms has nothing to fear on the board. However, you have to know a lot.
That’s why the historical, traditional variants are coming back into focus: They may not be as safe or as balanced, but their rarity gives the person playing them an advantage because the opponent simply doesn’t know their way around. In addition, modern computing programs extract hidden points from even the most dubious openings.
The black pawn moves from f7 to f5: a move from the 19th century © Screenshot chess.com
The young Indian Praggnanandhaa plays this pitchfork-like pawn advance f7-f5, and if his counterpart, the Indian Vidit, who is eleven years older, might not have expected something, it was this. From move to move he falls into deep brooding, knowing that none of this can be very good and not knowing how to refute it.
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A little later, when he had the opportunity to force a draw through continuous check, he turned it down. According to my own understanding, it looks far too good. And so the game takes an unfavorable turn for him. Praggnanandhaa certainly has a rugged position with many weaknesses, but he maneuvers with virtuosity and Vidit doesn’t really get out of the box with his figures. They get in each other’s way, in fields where they don’t do anything, and regrouping them took time that we don’t have.
And because he also loses time to think about it under the pressure of the opponent in a completely unfamiliar position, he ends up missing essential minutes. He loses track, adds two pawns, and the whole thing falls apart completely. Give up after 45 moves.
It is the same Vidit who dominated events on the previous two days with his phenomenal sacrifices. Just triumphant, now run over. The victorious Praggnanandhaa, on the other hand, had been defeated in a fantastic way in the previous round.
This is how the fighting in Toronto fluctuates back and forth. The audience in the Great Hall is thrilled, and so is the audience on the screens. The royal game with its 1,500-year history is a modern board sport: dynamic, unpredictable, varied. Board, it seems, comes from boards.
Score after 3 of 14 rounds:
Gukesh 2 Points
Jan Nepomnjaschtschi 2
Fabiano Caruana 2
Vidit Gujrathi 1,5
Praggnanandhaa 1,5
Alireza Firouzja 1
Hikaru Nakamura 1
Nijat Abasov 1
You can find everything about the Candidates Tournament on our topic page.
In his videos, grandmaster Niclas Huschenbeth analyzes one game per round.
Round 1: Caruano vs. Caruano. Nakamura
Round 2: Saw vs. Nakamura
What was indicated in the first round and increased in the second round can no longer be overlooked in the third round of the Candidates Tournament: A number of the eight candidates who are fighting here in Toronto for the right to challenge the world champion have brought opening variations with them , like they were hardly seen in chess at the highest level for a long time.
On Saturday it is the 18-year-old Indian Praggnanandhaa from Chennai who brings the move f7-f5 onto the board with Black on the fourth move of the time-honored Spanish opening. That means he moves his king’s bishop pawns two squares ahead of him, attacks the white king’s pawn, yes, invites him to capture it, as a small sacrifice in advance.
