Candidates 2024: Gukesh draws against Nepomniachtchi, Vaishali registers win

Indian GM D Gukesh continued his lead at the top of the Candidates 2024 standings after playing a draw with joint leader Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia on Monday in the 10th round.

The much-anticipated clash between the table toppers fizzled out in a draw after 40 moves. Gukesh started with a Spanish opening against Ian but both players agreed to a draw after more than two hours of Chess.

Both players will stay on top of the standings with four games remaining in the prestigious tournament.

The other game of Round 10 involving Indians — the clash between Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi — ended in a draw by three-fold repetition. Pragg thus stayed on the heels of Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi, just half a point behind.

Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana claimed wins against Nijat Abasov and Alireza Firouzja to join Pragg in the third spot.

In the women's section, India's R Vaishali registered a rare win after a string of losses while Koneru Humpy held women’s leader Tan Zhongyi to a draw.

After losing four games in succession, Vaishali finally turned the tides in her favour to win her round 10 clash against Bulgaria’s Nurgyul Salimova. Playing the Grunfeld defense game, three pawns, a rook, a bishop, and a knight were already exchanged by the 15th move.

Salimova traded queens before Vaishali made a couple of errors which gave an edge to the Bulgarian.

However, the fortune swindled in Vaishali’s way as the 84th Grandmaster of India won from a completely lost position, forcing Salimova to resign on the 88th move having an extra pawn in the rook endgame.

Despite the win, Vaishali sits at the bottom of the leaderboard with 3.5 points while Humpy is in fifth with 4.5 points.