PAPHOS (Cyprus), April 6: Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa will be desperate for an elusive win in his bid to stay afloat in the Candidates Tournament when he takes on Dutchman Anish Giri in the eighth round here on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old from Chennai, who currently occupies the third spot with Giri after logging 3.5 points in seven rounds, just has another seven rounds to turn the tide at the halfway stage.
Starting off with a victory over Giri in the opener, Praggnanandhaa has been looking for a second win that is just not forthcoming.
It has been a tough ride in which he has drawn five games and lost one against tournament leader Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan, who has enjoyed a fairytale journey since last October when he won the World Cup against a highly competitive field.
At the start of the tournament he was, at best, a dark horse according to pundits but he has proved himself way stronger than the rest.
He has, so far, clocked the most impressive performance in the history of the tournament by winning five and drawing the remaining two games.
With Sindarov on six points, the nearest contender and only one within striking distance is Fabiano Caruana of United States and he too is 1.5 points behind the leader.
The eighth round will see Praggnanandhaa take on Giri with white pieces while Sindarov has to fight it out against Esipenko.
Wei Yi of China is on the joint fifth spot with Matthias Bluebaum of Germany on three points while Hikaru Nakamura closely follows them half a point behind.
Andrey Esipenko of Russia is in the last spot in the tournament that will decide the challenger to reigning world champion D Gukesh later this year.The women’s event being held simultaneously is comparatively open but the surprise package has been Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine who leads on 4.5 points out of her seven games.Muzychuk, who replaced Koneru Humpy after the latter withdrew citing security concerns, was probably least prepared for the event but has thus far given a good account of herself.Praggnanandhaa’s sister Vaishali seems to have caught the rhythm and is in second spot on four points, half a point clear of Divya Deshmukh and Russian Kateryna Lagno.
The fourth spot is held by Ziner Zhu of China along with Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva and Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia on three points each.They are half a point ahead of former world women’s champion Zhongyi Tan of China.Vaishali will have black pieces against Assaubayeva and Divya will also be black against leader Muzychuk.
Pairings round 8:
Anish Giri (Ned, 3.5) vs R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 3.5); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 2.5) vs Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 4.5); Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 2) vs Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 6); Wei Yi (Chn, 3) vs Matthias Bluebaum (Ger, 3). (PTI)
