Trendy chess is unusual, in ways in which transcend the floor. It’s an age when engines are so highly effective that each opening has been analysed to loss of life, and high gamers can rattle off 20 strikes of concept with out breaking a sweat. The result’s a defensive customary that’s by no means been greater. When each gamers know what the pc thinks is one of the best transfer and errors are ruthlessly punished, the draw has develop into the default consequence on the elite stage. So how does one win?
Monday’s recreation between India’s R Praggnanandhaa and China’s Wei Yi, within the second spherical of the 2026 Candidates Event, supplied a touch of a solution.
It was one other draw, however in actuality, it was greater than two grandmasters taking part in for a truce. Praggnanandhaa had come ready with one thing particular, and he used it to push Wei Yi, one of the dependable defenders on this planet, to the very edge.
The shared level was virtually like an afterthought, and what actually mattered was how shut the Indian got here to breaking by means of towards a participant who seldom cracks.
R Praggnanandhaa in motion towards Wei Yi within the second spherical of the Candidates. (FIDE/Michal Walusza)
After going with an uncommon opening within the first spherical, the “Grand Prix” – a wild variation of the Sicilian Protection – towards Anish Giri with white items that helped him breach the Dutchman’s citadel, Pragg had black items and wanted to watch out towards Wei Yi.
After the Chinese language grandmaster pushed the e4 pawn to start out issues off, Pragg opted for the French Protection with e6, and it was now his territory. Following the preliminary improvement of the minor items, Praggnanandhaa was slowly getting forward on the clock. It was a copybook method, just like the one towards Giri, the place he pressured his opponent to spend significantly extra time on the clock proper from the beginning. By the thirteenth transfer alone, the Indian had gained almost a 50-minute edge and was in a position to preserve the place fluid.
Pragg’s long-time coach and Dronacharya awardee RB Ramesh explains the significance of peculiar the opponent. He described how the sport has developed and that it’s now not sufficient to push and play for a win with solely the sunshine items. Now, to maintain up with the calls for of the fashionable recreation, one must play for a win even with black, for the reason that first-mover benefit has blurred with the arrival of engines.
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“So that you can win the title, you could rating extra factors than everybody else, so primarily you want extra wins. Gone are the times when there was an method the place you play for a secure benefit with white, push, and solely play for a win whenever you get a bonus with the sunshine items, and simply play for a draw with black,” he mentioned on the ChessBase India YouTube stream.
“It’s very tough to get a bonus with white anymore, so you can’t simply be taking part in for a win with white and say, when you don’t get something with black, it’s okay. So we’re pressured to seek out alternatives to play for a win with black items as effectively, particularly in such tournaments.”
R Praggnanandhaa takes on Wei Yi within the second spherical of the Candidates. (FIDE/Michal Walusza)
Shut however no cigar
Nevertheless, even after stunning Wei Yi along with his preparation and gaining a large edge on the clock, it took only one transfer for the Chinese language to close the door on Pragg. That’s exactly why Ramesh’s rationalization is legitimate on the necessity to outsmart the opponent from the preparation itself.
Within the ladies’s part, an all-Indian battle between R Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh was opened by five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, who made the ceremonial first transfer.
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The sport started as an English Opening that later transposed right into a Queen’s Gambit Declined, with Divya taking part in white. Each gamers went for early exchanges, buying and selling off the dark-squared bishop as early because the sixth transfer. Vaishali struggled with time administration for the second consecutive spherical, having narrowly survived a time crunch towards Kazakh GM Bibisara Assaubayeva on Sunday.
Happily for her, Divya was additionally brief on time as each gamers had solely about quarter-hour left with 17 strikes nonetheless to make earlier than reaching time management. Divya missed the possibility to capitalise on a major blunder from Vaishali underneath time stress, as a substitute permitting the sport to simplify. The gamers finally agreed to a draw.
Each match in each sections on Monday – Open in addition to Ladies’s – led to a draw. Pragg is main the standings with 1.5 factors after two rounds, together with Fabiano Caruana and Javokhir Sindarov. Everybody within the ladies’s part has one level.