After a tough fight against Wei Yi, R Praggnanandhaa has taken the joint lead among the candidates.
R Praggnanandhaa continued his steady start at the FIDE Candidates Tournament as he played out an easy draw with black against Wei Yi in the second round on Monday to remain on the joint lead by 1.5 points.
After a strong early win over Anish Giri, Praggnanandha once again looked in control and put little pressure on the French defense despite playing with the black pieces. However, Wei Yi chose a safer route, leading to simplification of the game as pieces were exchanged at regular intervals.
The game eventually turned into a bishops endgame of the opposite color, where Praggnanandhaa had an extra pawn but could make no further progress. With White’s position strong, the players agreed to a draw after 46 moves.
While the initial round had produced three decisive results, the second round saw a more cautious approach across the board. Giri played out a draw with Fabiano Caruana, while Javokhir Sindarov shared a point with Matthias Bluebaum.
In another game, Hikaru Nakamura was playing a theoretically prepared rook-and-pawn endgame against Andrey Esipenko.
What happened in the Candidates Women category?
In the women’s event, Divya Deshmukh missed a golden opportunity to take the sole lead after slipping from the winning position against compatriot R Vaishali.
Divya had a strong tactical idea in time crunch, but faltered in execution, allowing Vaishali to escape with a resourceful counter that included a queen sacrifice to force a draw.
Xiner Zhu also failed to convert a near-win situation against Katarina Lagno, who saved a draw through a timely rook sacrifice under pressure.
Elsewhere, Bibisara Asoubaeva played out a draw with Alexandra Goryachkina, while Zhongyi Tan shared points with Anna Muzychuk.
Notably, there is no conclusive result yet in the women’s category after two rounds.
The Candidates Tournament, held every two years, determines the challengers for the world title. The winner of the open section will face De Gukesh later this year, while the winner of the women’s section will take on Xu Wenjun.
– ends