2022 Candidates, Round 4: Nepomniachtchi alone in the lead
After four rounds of play, Ian Nepomniachtchi is alone in the lead in the Candidates, having defeated Alireza Firouzja, while the remaining games ended in a draw With three out of four, Ian Nepomniachtchi is half a point ahead of Fabiano Caruana, who has 2.5 points. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Richard Rapport and Hikaru Nakamura are all on fifty percent. Following his first defeat in the tournament, Alireza Firouzja is at the bottom of the board, in the company of Ding Liren and Teimour Radjabov, with all three players on 1.5 points. Ian Nepomniachtchi made another big jump in the Candidates, having defeated the 19-year-old Frenchman Alireza Firouzja in a sharp and gripping game. This duel was the tale of the two kings in which only one would survive. In the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian, Firouzja – playing as Black – opted for a sharp double-edged line. Alireza blitzed all his moves in the opening, but once he went out of his preparation, Firouzja was struggling with finding the right plan. The complicated position on the board – where opposite castled kings had their defence lines severely probed – required meticulous calculation. Here Firouzja fell short of the task: his sacrifice of material with the hope of a vicious attack on the white king came to nothing, while Nepomniachtchni defended well, launching a devastating attack and then serving a tactical blow to his opponent, forcing him to surrender facing imminent checkmate. With two victories in the first four rounds and having demonstrated a confident and high level of play in all of the games, Nepomniachtchi is gradually angling himself for the repeat of the 2020/21 Candidates, when he took first place. As for Firouzja – he had a tough pairing in the first four rounds, having to lead black pieces in three of the four games, but in each of them, he played ambitiously and creatively, and both are essential for success, whenever it may come. World No. 2 Ding Liren’s hopes of making his first breakthrough in the tournament didn’t come to fruition. Despite achieving a slightly better position in the opening as White against Fabiano Caruana in the Ragozin and winning a pawn, he did not manage to convert. Ding created a free runner on the a-file, but Caruana was there in time to stop it. He then exchanged his queenside pawns to gain an extra pawn on the kingside but ended up in a drawish rook endgame. Still, Ding kept on pushing, but Caruana’s confidence in holding the draw never faltered. Caruana is half a point behind the leader Nepomniachtchi and ahead of everyone else. Ding is still at the bottom – hoping for a well-deserved break. The game between Richard Rapport and Hikaru Nakamura was well played by both opponents but ended in a draw. In the Berlin defence, the two quickly liquidated into an even endgame with knights and rooks. Both were familiar with the pawn structure and the nature of the position that emerged. Still – as it seems to be the tradition of today’s top-level chess players – they persisted in playing a trialling endgame before finally calling it a draw once just the two kings and knights were left on the board. Both players are on a solid fifty percent. In another Berlin defence, Jan-Krzysztof Duda drew with Teimour Radjabov. A slightly more complicated position developed following the opening than in the Rapport-Nakamura game. White had slightly more initiative but was possibly a bit too slow in building it up. Once the queens and the heavy pieces were exchanged, the two moved to an even rook endgame which ended in a draw after 41 moves. Duda is on fifty percent with four draws, and Radjabov is half a point behind, having suffered a loss in the second round. While the question for Duda is whether he will manage to keep the high level of play he has shown so far, the challenge for Radjabov is to demonstrate if he can do more than just defend and find a way to a draw. Here follows a closer look at the games from round four of the Candidates. Richard Rapport vs Hikaru Nakamura: Tense and long Among all the candidates, Rapport and Nakamura are the two who are more renowned for their creativity than detailed opening preparation. Both have qualified for the Candidates via the same event: the Grand Prix, where Nakamura was first, and Rapport came in second. This order is also confirmed with their head-to-head score: three victories, two draws and zero defeats, Nakamura – at least statistically – was the favourite. The clash of the two creative players did not produce much novelty or innovation on the board. In a well-known line of the Berlin, Nakamura was pushing his kingside pawns – h6-g5-f6 (introducing a novelty on the move nine along the way) – in a similar fashion as he did against Caruana, but there was one difference: he didn’t castle kingside, which in the above-mentioned game opened the path to his demise. In this position, the opponents quickly traded several minor pieces, which put both players on track for an endgame with a knight and a rook each, where White was minimally better, but it was even overall. It was time for Rapport and Nakamura to show that their creativity can flourish when calculating long and tedious endgame lines, but it was virtually impossible in an equal position. However, the opponents still tried. Nakamura advanced his pawns on the kingside, but Rapport wasn’t waiting: he sent his knight to the queenside hunting for Black’s pawns. White emerged a pawn up, but Nakamura’s king, knight and rook were more active, and soon Black restored material equality. The opponents ended up in a dead-even position, eliminated all the pawns and called it a day after 44 moves. A strong and stable performance by both players who now have two points out of four games. Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Alireza Firouzja: A tale of two kings This game brought