At Candidates, battle-hardened Praggnanandhaa will hope to put recent form behind and make a decisive play to be Gukesh’s challenger
The 14th round of the 2024 Candidates Tournament in Toronto was an absolute pressure cooker. For Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and D. Gukesh, it was a day of destiny where one of these four men would earn the right to challenge for the world title. For others, the fight had already ended. Vidit Gujrathi and Alireza Firouzja, drained by the gruelling event, saw little point in further exertion. His opponent was Nijat Abasov, and the outcome would not change the standings at the top. He was out of the title race and was just a peripheral figure on a day destined to belong to Gukesh, who would become the youngest-ever Candidates winner and later the youngest world chess champion in history. But Pragg did what he had always done and played for a result. And when he left Toronto, he carried with him a full point from the final round, a small reward, perhaps, but it was validation to a mindset that refuses to concede even a single battle, even when the war …
