Nepomniachtchi leads the 2022 Candidates with +1.5 after Round 10
Round 10 of the 2022 Candidates Tournament ended with 3 decisive games, and a 3-way tie for 2nd place with Caruana, Nakamura and Ding Liren. Nepomniachtchi still remains at the top with a +1.5 lead.
Former Women’s World Champion and winner of the 2021 FIDE Women’s World Cup, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, made the ceremonial first move today in the game between Richard Rapport and Ding Liren. Kosteniuk put her charms on the board with the two GMs having a fantastic game. The Chinese played aggressively with Black and won the game – his second in a row.
Another great win was Duda’s against Caruana. GM Daniil Yuffa noticed that maybe Fabi had such a strong desire to win and move closer to Nepo, that he overestimated his position.
After move 40, Duda looked to be completely winning, a result that eventually came.
The third decisive game was Nakamura-Firouzja. The 19-year-old GM chose to go for the Najdorf, a wrong choice for such an important game according to IM/WGM Elisabeth Paehtz. Firouzja spoted a tactic to win an exchange, but it didn’t seem to help with Nakamura winning the game.
The Nepo-Radjabov game was the uneventful one with Giri predicting the result before the game.
The game could have ended much sooner with a quick draw by repetition, but even if it took them a while, the result was the same! “As I said two years ago, it’s very important to try not to lose. If you don’t lose, it’s surely going alright.” Nepomniachtchi said after his game.
After today’s results we have a 3-way tie for 2nd place with Caruana, Nakamura and Ding Liren and Nepomniachtchi still remaining at the top with a +1.5 lead.
Join our broadcast with GM Daniil Yuffa and WIM Anna-Maja Kazarian, tomorrow at 13:00 UTC.
Round 11 Pairings:
Hikaru Nakamura – Richard Rapport
Alireza Firouzja – Ian Nepomniachtchi
Teimour Radjabov – Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Fabiano Caruana – Ding Liren
