Mark Crowther    Tan Zhongyi took sole lead of the FIDE Women’s Candidates with . 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 . points,...

Mark Crowther    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...

Mark Crowther    The tenth round of the FIDE Women’s Candidates saw two decisive games and Lei Tingjie re join Tan Zhongyi in the lead on . 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...

Mark Crowther    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, Praggnanandhaa, Nakamura and Caruana on . and Vidit on all in the mix. A playoff rather than a...

Mark Crowther    Tan Zhongyi scored a quick victory against Rameshbabu Vaishali in Round of the Women’s Candidates tournament in Toronto and that eventually proved to be enough to lead alone on . Tan claimed to have surprised Vaishali with her choice of opening, I’m not sure at what move that was but...

Mark Crowther    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 . half a point clear of...

Mark Crowther    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 and is surely a major blow. Gukesh recovered from...

Mark Crowther    Tan Zhongyi was joined by Lei Tingjie and Aleksandra Goryachkina on pts after 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 .f and her position more or less...

Mark Crowther    Ian Nepomniachtchi leads the FIDE Candidates with . at the half way stage. Nepomniachtchi hasn’t looked that steady in the last three rounds and in Round he and Hikaru Nakamura engaged in a memory competition for a mind bending computer line in the Petroff. It seems that Nepomniachtchi...

Mark Crowther    The FIDE Women’s Candidates tournament reached the half way stage and round saw the meeting of the top two placed players. Aleksandra Goryachkina remained half a point behind Tan Zhongyi after their move draw. This was a modern move d pawn Queen’s Gambit move order, that ended up in some...

Mark Crowther    Tan Zhongyi leads the women’s Candidates on . after a round where all the games finished decisively. Tan played the Colle system against Anna Muzychuk and hit a bullseye as black drifted into trouble. Objectively there weren’t early problems but Carlsen won with black playing ...cxd ...

Mark Crowther    The FIDE Candidates in Toronto, Canada are almost at the half way stage. Not much has been settled and of the players can still regard themselves as still being in the hunt for tournament victory. Today Ian Nepomniachtchi chose a drawish variation against Fabiano Caruana and whilst...

Mark Crowther    Tan Zhongyi leads the FIDE Women’s Candidates with . half a point clear of Aleksandra Goryachkina. Nurgyul Salimova is the lowest rated player and Humpy tried to target her in Round and that backfired. Today Tan got a very favourable Caro Kann, .Bf seems new and ...d looks like a...

Mark Crowther    The fifth round of the Candidates could have seen all four games finish decisively and in fact the two games that did were only decided by mistakes at the end of very long games and the two draws came after huge advantages were let go. In the end leaders were Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi half a...

Mark Crowther    Tan Zhongyi leads the women’s Candidates with going into the first rest day. Tan should have lost the lead and there should also have been three decisive games. Instead there was just the one, Humpy Koneru played what in retrospect was over aggressively and lost to Nurgyul Salimova. Anna...

Mark Crowther    Ian Nepomniachtchi took the lead of the FIDE Candidates tournament in Toronto with a win against Santosh Vidit. He is on half a point clear of Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh. Can Nepomniachtchi win the Candidates for a third time in a row Already I personally wouldn’t bet against it, his...

Mark Crowther    Praggnanandhaa beat Santosh Vidit in Round of the Candidates to record the only decisive game of the round. There was only one decisive game in the women’s Candidates, a win scored by his sister Vaishali. Praggnanandhaa seems to have come to the Candidates intent on making the biggest mess...

Mark Crowther    Humpy Koneru has looked very solid so far in the Women’s Candidates, she had the draw that gave her the black pieces in the first two rounds, she met the leader Tan Zhongyi in Round and had the white pieces for the first time. This was a reversed Gruenfeld and after a slight inaccuracy Koneru...

Mark Crowther    The second round of the FIDE Candidates in Toronto, Canada was a bloodbath with all four games being decisive. Santosh Vidit was the first winner as his shock move ...Bxh unbalanced Hikaru Nakamura completely, the game wasn’t over and Nakamura had chances to hold but a final blunder .Be ...

Mark Crowther    There were two decisive games in Round of the women’s Candidates in Toronto. Tan Zhongyi launched a big kingside attack against Rameshbabu Vaishali who got her knights tangled up on the Queenside after successfully equalising out of the opening a Jobava Attack that turned into a fairly...