Candidates Chess: Sindarov beats Praggnanandhaa, joins Caruana in lead; Divya draws

NAGPUR: World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov sacrificed his knight for two pawns to end the impressive run of Praggnanandhaa R and join Fabiano Caruana in the lead. The third round of the Candidates also witnessed a great fall of China in Cyprus on Tuesday as all three Chinese players lost their respective games.

Caruana took just 19 moves to break the defensive Chinese wall when Wei Yi made a blunder on the 17th turn and the American world No. 3 jumped to a decisive advantage. Two moves later, Caruana became the first to take the lead.





The last game of the open field between archrivals Sindarov and Pragg saw some dramatic turn of events, with the Uzbek turning the tables on the promising Indian Grandmaster.

As early as the 13th move, Sindarov offered his knight and Pragg became a piece up but was two pawns down. The Sindarov move also displaced Pragg’s king.

For the next 18 moves, the game remained complicated. When Pragg made a mistake on the 33rd turn, it was advantage Sindarov. Under time trouble, Pragg failed to find the best defensive weapon and fell in Sindarov’s trap after the 35th move to suffer his first defeat in 40 moves.

The game between Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum and Andrey Esipenko of Russia was an accurate play that eventually ended in a draw after 41 moves. The English Opening clash of Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri too ended in a 41-move draw.

In women’s, Kazakhstan’s talented 22-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva surprised world No. 4 Zhu Jiner of China to break the deadlock while taking the lead. With her black pieces, Bibisara chose the Canal Attack of Sicilian Defence and made a couple of notable moves on the 25th and 31st turns to become two pawns up and prevailed over China’s 23-year-old Zhu. The game lasted for 43 moves.

Later, Ukrainian-born Russian GM Kateryna Lagno registered a rollercoaster win over 2017 Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi of China to share the lead with Bibisara. The 54-move battle of extreme possibilities saw an opportunity for Lagno to win early, but a series of mistakes gave Zhongyi a chance to garner full point.

India’s lowest-ranked Candidate, Vaishali Rameshbabu, secured her third successive draw when the 24-year-old held Ukraine’s World Championship finalist and 36-year-old Anna Muzychuk. With her white pieces, the 2470 Elo Vaishali chose the Italian Game and both the players remained flawless in making their moves. The rook endgame with equal pawns finally ended in a 41-move draw.

In the last game, Divya Deshmukh drew the lost battle against Russia's experienced Aleksandra Goryachkina in a marathon contest that lasted for 81 moves and 5.30 hours.
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