A Battle of Preparations

𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗴 𝘃𝘀. 𝗡𝗲𝗽𝗼 | 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝟱 | 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟬𝟵, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰

Round 5 of FIDE Chess Candidate 2024. India’s Chess Prodigy Praggnanandhaa is scheduled to play against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Despite Nepo having 32-games in the FIDE Candidates tournament, has been leading the tournament – has been gatekeeping as the contender for the World’s Chess Title, and has a great gameplay playing as black, Praggnanandhaa still manages to put up an outstanding fight against Nepomniachtchi.

But Team Pragg, and Pragg himself showed up and challenged Ian head on playing for the win. Both players memorized the first 18-move sequence of the line and no one seemed to be winning because the game is still draw even at this point.

Praggnanandhaa, however, out-prepped Ian. Literally memorized 24-move preparation to eventually gain a positional advantage, and has a high possibility of winning the game.

However, on move 26, Praggnanandhaa misses his only chance to win the game. Nepomniachtchi manages to get out of the dire situation which then led to a rook end game, and the game ended up in draw.



Watch the round 5 of the Candidates here on the link below with GM’s Naroditsky, Polgar, and Howell as commentator

https://youtu.be/_y5czNQfp0Y