Nepomniachtchi and Caruana start the 2022 Candidates with a win
Round 1 of the 2022 Candidates Tournament ended with Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana winning against Ding Liren and Hikaru Nakamura respectively.
Right before the start of the tournament, Magnus Carlsen gave his predictions, dividing the players into three tiers.
Round 1
Four ceremonial moves were made to begin the 2022 Candidates Tournament.FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich started the game for Caruana, event sponsor Isai Scheinberg for Radjabov, European Chess Union President Zurab Azmaiparashvili for Ding, and FEDA President Javier Ochoa for Duda.
Jan-Krzystof Duda – Richard Rapport
The Duda-Rapport game started with an early novelty from the Polish GM. Duda chose 5.Bf4, which is not only uncommon but was played by Rapport against Caruana in 2021. As WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni noticed after move 7 there was a totally new position on the board.
Soon things didn’t go so well for Rapport and Duda had a huge advantage only after 10 moves into the game.
After numerous engine ups and downs and more than 6 hours, Rapport equalized the position, “stealing” half a point from Duda.
Ding Liren – Ian Nepomniachtchi
“I didn’t expect to say so but Ding Liren against Ian Nepomniachtchi is one of the most boring games of Round 1” GM Daniil Yuffa said for one of the most anticipated games of Round 1, and we couldn’t disagree with him for at least 20 moves.
The view of the board changed dramatically for Liren who failed to defend black’s kingside attack. After an accurate execution to his advantage, Nepo cashed out the first point of the tournament against the World’s No.2 and favorite for Challenger. Not to mention that he did it with black and in 32 moves!
“A win is always a win ... I think that, you know, highest-rated or lowest-rated, I mean everyone is pretty strong player here,” Nepo said after his win.
Fabiano Caruana – Hikaru Nakamura
An interesting fact about the Caruana-Nakamura game is that the two GMs have already met 146 times in major tournaments, but this time was a critical one! The All-American game in Round 1 of the Candidates featured the Berlin Defense. After a risky play by Nakamura, Caruana created a solid advantage which kept increasing as the game was evolving. Eventually, Nakamura made a fatal mistake and his position fell apart to lose the first game of the Candidates.
Teimour Radjabov – Alireza Firoujza
The 19-year-old GM Alireza Firoujza had definitely attracted a lot of attention after becoming World’s #2 (currently #3), not only media-wise but also Magnus’, who stated that he is most likely to play the 2023 World Championship match only if Alireza wins the Candidates! On the other hand, Teimour Radjabov is a much more experienced player as GM Daniil Yuffa explained during the broadcast, which made the game even more exciting.
Their game started with the Queen’s Gambit declined and it didn’t take long for Alireza to spice up the board with an exchange sacrifice.
Right before the 40-move point, the two GMs entered a rook endgame with a pawn up for Radjabov. Alireza once more showed his exceptional defense skills, and the endgame ended in a draw.
Join our broadcast with GM Daniil Yuffa and IM/WGM Elizabeth Paehtz, tomorrow at 13:00 UTC.
Round 2 Pairings:
Richard Rapport – Alireza Firouzja
Hikaru Nakamura – Teimour Radjabov
Ian Nepomniachtchi – Fabiano Caruana
Jan-Krzystof Duda – Ding Liren
