On one of the most significant days at the parallel Candidates chess tournaments in Cyprus, the sibling duo of R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali were the cynosure of all eyes. The 20-year-old prodigy lost to Uzbek phenom Javokhir Sindarov for the second time in the tournament but Vaishali played out a draw against Anna Muzychuk to remain unbeaten in her last five games, a streak that keeps alive her chances of winning the Women’s Candidates. Vaishali’s draw on Thursday, coupled with a victory for Bibisara Assaubayeva against Zhu Jiner, means that the Indian is now the sole leader in the women’s section with only four games left.
Vaishali and Zhu had been co-leaders coming into Thursday’s set of games. But they had contrasting results in Round 10, with Vaishali battling her way to a quick draw while the Chinese rising star Zhu fought tooth and nail to salvage something in the endgame against Bibisara.
After her clinical takedown of compatriot Divya Deshmukh on Wednesday in Round 9, Vashali gave the world a little peak at the ace she has hidden up her sleeve for this event: the 24-year-old has been working with a psychologist to be in a fighting-fit psychological state at what is the biggest tournament of her career. Of course she would not reveal much about who she was working with, but the work behind the scenes clearly seems to be working wonders.
At her first Candidates tournament in Toronto two years ago, Vaishali experienced what she called an “emotional roller-coaster”. She lost four games in a row to find herself dead last after nine rounds. Then, she won her final five games in a row, detonating her way to end up tied on points for the second spot. In a case of history repeating itself, Vaishali was joint-last after five rounds in Cyprus this year too, thanks to four draws and a defeat. But five more rounds in, she has hauled herself up to first spot, thanks to three wins punctuated by two draws.
Pragg loses to Sindarov again
Pragg came into the tournament with an enviable head-to-head record against Sindarov, beating him four times and losing just once in 10 classical clashes. (Photo Credit: Niki Riga/FIDE)
Meanwhile, Pragg’s defeat to Sindarov more or less confirms that the Indian cannot win the tournament since he is now four points behind the Uzbek prodigy with four rounds to go. With eight points, Sindarov now leads the event with a two-point gap over Anish Giri.
Pragg came into the tournament with an enviable head-to-head record against Sindarov, beating him four times and losing just once in 10 classical clashes. That record has been rubbished in some style by the Uzbek in Cyprus after winning both games against the Indian.
Sindarov had, in fact, earmarked the battles against Pragg as the ones he was most keenly looking forward to after he had secured his spot in the Candidates at the FIDE World Cup in Goa last year.
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Sindarov’s reasoning for picking the Indian prodigy was simple. They have a long history dating back to when they were seven-year-olds.
“I’m expecting a very interesting match against Pragg at the Candidates. I played him for the first time back in 2013, 12 years ago. Even at that age—I was just seven—I knew he would become one of the top players in the world…” said Sindarov, “…because he beat me.”
In a chat with The Indian Express during the World Cup in Goa, Sindarov had also let on how his CV would have looked a lot different if Pragg had not been around.
“Pragg beat me in a lot of age group tournaments. If he wasn’t around at that stage, I would have won a minimum of two cadets tournaments,” chuckled Sindarov goodnaturedly.
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The latest installment of Pragg vs Sindarov shifted on move 22 when Pragg played bishop to d7, which the engine said was a blunder. At that stage, the Indian had an extra bishop on the board as opposed to Sindarov’s two additional pawns. Two moves after that blunder with black pieces by Pragg, Sindarov sacrificed his queen in order to pick off both of Praggnanandhaa’s rooks. This material imbalance — Pragg’s two rooks as compared to Sindarov’s queen — stayed the same till the game ended.
Sindarov has seemed content to play out draws in the second half of the tournament in Cyprus, a willingness highlighted by his decision not to go for the kill in the previous round against Matthias Bluebaum. But today, against Pragg, Sindarov opted to chase victory, which arrived on the 53rd move.
“Pragg’s score at the tournament has been very poor reward for his play. His play has been quite good. He’s come up with some good ideas, but essentially he’s lost three games since that first victory,” said five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand in the FIDE commentary.
