India’s Gukesh D becomes youngest Candidates tournament winner, to compete in World Championship final

Not thought-about as a title favorite by many, India’s teenage sensation Gukesh D has turn into the youngest to win the Candidates tournament after 14 rounds of play over three weeks as he held American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura on to a draw. Gukesh wanted to win the Round 14 recreation, however after the draw, his title rivalry relied on the Fabiano Caruana-Ian Nepomniachtchi conflict. After 109 strikes, the duo reluctantly shook fingers earlier than agreeing to a draw which meant that the 17-year-old was declared the youngest winner of the Candidates.

Gukesh has turn into solely the second Indian to qualify for the World Championship final after Viswanathan Anand. Gukesh would be the first teenager to compete for chess’ greatest prize as he’s set to tackle China’s Ding Liren later this yr for the title.

If both Caruana or Nepomniachtchi had received, Gukesh would have confronted the winner in the tiebreaker however the draw was sufficient for the Indian teenager to win. Ahead of his final recreation, Gukesh talked about that due to his age, there would have been an excessive amount of deal with that issue and admitted that there’s lack of expertise however talked about that he had no baggage due to it. “There are pros and cons considering my age and, you could say, lack of experience, but there are also some advantages. Like such a long tournament, it is easier to be focused at my age. There is a lack of experience, but I am trying my best.”

Gukesh was the third youngest to compete in Candidates after Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen and was nowhere close to the title favourites talks. Gukesh received 5 video games and misplaced just one to Alireza Firoujza of France.

Tan Zhongyi received the Women’s Candidates tournament by a 1.5-point margin. Zhongyi had a profitable place towards Anna Muzychuk, however a draw was sufficient to safe the title win and now she’s going to compete towards Ju Wenjun in the Women’s World Championship.

In the opposite video games, R Praggnanandhaa beat Nijat Abasov whereas Vidit Gujrathi agreed to a draw towards Firoujza. In the ladies’s competitors, R Vaishali registered her fifth consecutive win after beating Kateryna Lagno whereas Humpy Koneru defeated Lei Tingjie.