D Gukesh rejoined the leaders thanks to a timely win over Nijat Abasov. Ian Nepomniachtchi drew while Hikaru Nakamura’s back-end form meant he picked up another win. A look at the tournament with two rounds to go...
What are Gukesh’s chances with two rounds to go?
It’s looking good for the Indian teen. He was joint second and played a very neat game with black pieces against Nijat Abasov. He slowly but surely reeled the Azerbaijani opponent in. “I thought it was a pretty good game,” Gukesh said in the post round press conference. “I felt like I was outplaying but he still had some drawing chances in the endgame.”
Who are his two opponents?
After Friday’s rest day, he faces Alireza Firouzja before closing out the tournament in what could potentially be a winner-takes-all clash with black pieces against Nakamura.
Who are the other contenders?
Both Nakamura, who is in a hot streak at the moment after a very sluggish start, and Nepomniachtchi, are the front-runners. But do not rule out Fabiano Caruana, not yet anyway. Saying that, all three of them have extremely difficult games coming up. More so for Nakamura whose penultimate match is against Nepomniachtchi before closing out against Gukesh. However, that means he controls his destiny. Win both games and he will become the Challenger to Ding Liren’s world crown.
What about the other Indians in play?
The other Indians cannot realistically aim to make a play this late in the tournament. While Praggnanandhaa is 1.5 points behind the leaders, Vidit Gujrathi cannot aim to make the gap between him and the leaders. In the women’s section, Vaishali is the same boat as she trails the leaders by 2.5 points. Koneru Humpy, joint third, trails Tan Zhongyi by two points.
What if there’s a tie at the end of 14 rounds?
Because of how closely the leaders are bunched up, this could be a very real possibility. In case Gukesh ends up in a two-way tie, he will play a pair of rapid games. In case he’s involved in a three-way or four-way tie, there will be a single round-robin competition to identify the winner. If there’s still a tie, blitz games will be played till there’s a winner.