Nakamura Heats Up in 2022 FIDE Candidates Round 2
The 2022 FIDE Candidates continued on June 18 with Round 2. Hikaru Nakamura defeated Teimour Radjabov to bring himself a half point behind the leaders, Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who played each other in a tense game. Richard Rapport narrowly missed out on a victory against Alireza Firouzja, while Ding Liren and Jan-Krzysztof Duda also drew.
Nakamura-Radjabov
Hikaru Nakamura was looking to bounce back from a Round 1 loss with a win with the White pieces over Teimour Radjabov in the battle of the two oldest players in the field. Radjabov had the target on his back going into the tournament after a poor performance in Norway Chess, while Nakamura ranked surprisingly highly in many predictions based on his recent success in the Grand Prix to qualify for the Candidates. Here is the game with annotations:
Nepomniachtchi-Caruana
In the most hyped up Round 2 match, the two co-leaders and former World Championship Challengers in the field faced off. Those two players are Russian #1 Ian Nepomniachtchi and American #1 Fabiano Caruana. Here is the game featuring my annotations:
Hungarian #1 Richard Rapport and French #1 and World #3 Alireza Firouzja both struggled to make a draw in Round 1 and were looking to pick up some steam in Round 2. Here is the game with annotations:
World #2 Ding Liren was seeking a win after a shocking Round 1 loss to Nepomniachtchi with White. On the other hand, Jan-Krzysztof Duda was hoping to take advantage of the momentum that saw him almost win his Round 1 game against Rapport. Here is the annotated game:
