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          FIDE Candidates 2024 Day 3 wrap: Siblings Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali get only wins of the round

          File photo of R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali ESPN
          • ESPN staffApr 7, 2024, 02:50 AM

          The third day of the FIDE Candidates 2024 in Toronto saw the Indian brother-sister duo of R Praggnanadhaa and R Vaishali secure their first wins of the tournaments in intriguing fashion... the only players to get decisive results in Saturday's round.

          Praggnanandhaa beat Vidit Gujrathi, who had stunned world no. 3 Hikaru Nakamura in the previous round, with an unconventional move while Vaishali beat Nurgyul Salimova as both got debut wins.

          In other Indian results, D Gukesh did well to draw with Ian Nepomniachtchi while Koneru Humpy held Women's Candidates leader Tan Zhongyi to her first draw of the event. Gukesh faced strong defence from last time's winner Nepomniachtchi but held on in a match that could have gone differently but for a few moves. Humpy, getting her third straight draw, played out a straightforward match that she said she wasn't very satisfied with, in 32 moves.

          The highlight of the day was Praggnanandhaa's unorthodox opening that had everyone abuzz. Playing black, he opened with 4...f5 and then 7...Na5, which was a rare gambit and had observers shocked by the audacity of it. Vidit did his best to hold his own and played a well-thought game but had to end up on the losing side.

          Vaishali, unlike her brother, had to face an interesting move but was undeterred. Playing with white, went on attacking mode and sacrificed her knight, eventually forcing a result. "Winning a nice game always feels good," she said at the press conference. "10. Bd4 is an interesting idea; it's a new move," she was quoted as saying by the official website. "I did not know 10... Bd7, but just continued with my original idea of h4."

          Other matches, all draws but many thrillers, saw Nijat Abasov and Hikaru Nakamura swap most pieces off the board by move 20, Lei Tingjie play the rare Evans Gambit against Aleksandra Goryachkina, Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja play a diametrically opposite quick and slow game.

          There are five Indians playing the Candidates for the first time, which is a winner-takes-it-all tournament between the top 8 players in the world to decide who will compete in the World Championship match to challenge the reigning world champion.

          Standings after Round 3:

          FIDE Candidates Tournament:

          1-3. Caruana, Gukesh, Nepomniachtchi - 2 4-5. Vidit, Praggnanadhaa - 1.5 6-8. Abasov, Firouzja, Nakamura - 1

          FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament:

          1. Tan Zhongyi - 2.5 2. Goryachkina - 2 3-5. Vaishali, Koneru, Lagno - 1.5 6-8. Salimova, A. Muzychuk, Lei - 1

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