FIDE Candidates Round 1 Recap - Tan Zhongyi Takes Early Lead

The 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament kicked off on April 4 in Toronto. This time, the open and women's tournaments are taking place simultaneously, bringing fans more joy and reasons to talk about chess.

The inaugural round saw four exciting draws in the open section and three more in the women's section. Former Women's World Champion Tan Zhongyi managed to clinch victory over her compatriot and former championship challenger Lei Tinjie, thanks to her opponent's blunder.

In the open event, Chessify's Ambassador Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura produced a spectacular game, with both sides playing creatively yet fairly accurately. Caruana managed to take advantage at some point but, with little time on the clock, opted to play safely, allowing Nakamura to equalize comfortably. We present the game with GM annotations below.

Nijat Abasov and Ian Nepomniachtchi played a solid game that finished in a relatively quick draw, while the young stars Praggnanandhaa and Firouzja achieved the same result in a very double-edged game. Both sides played on the opponent’s king, eventually finishing their game in a perpetual check. The last draw in the Open section was between the Indian Grandmasters, Gukesh and Vidit. In an equally playable position, Vidit, who played with the black pieces, forced a quick draw with a brilliant Bishop sacrifice. See the fully annotated game below.

The Women's tournament saw three fairly balanced draws in Aleksandra Goryachkina vs. Kateryna Lagno, Vaishali R vs. Humpy Koneru, and Anna Muzychuk vs. Nurgyul Salimova. The only decisive result came in the Chinese derby between Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tinjie, where the former world champion managed to capitalize on her opponent's blunder and finished the game solidly without allowing any escapes. You can view the full game below.

The FIDE Candidates participants are scheduled to play the first four rounds non-stop before going to their first rest day on April 8th.

Game Annotations by Zaven Andriasyan

Photos by Michal Walusza / FIDE Flickr Page