Chess Candidates and a Chess Jigsaw

One player won the Candidates in Toronto, seven other players didn’t.

I picked up a Chess Jigsaw from a junk shop.


This is what the finished puzzle should look like.


But I soon got bored and just did the chess bit.


The position on the board is;


The machine is picking up a Bishop. No idea where it going, the position appears random.

Back to the Candidates. It was won by 17 year old Dommaraju Gukesh.


(picture from CHESS magazine.)


If he wins the title match v Ding Liren in November he will be the
youngest ever World Champion. If he losses the title in 2026 then
he will be the youngest ever ex-World Champion. If he wins back
the title in 2028 then he will be the youngest player to win back the title.

If this winning and losing the world title continues until 2076 then Gukesh....

(Enough of the Gukesh age thing greenpawn...get on with it....Russ)

Before the event none of the great and the good predicted Gukesh would win.


Most stuck their necks out and predictably predicted Caruana or Nakamura
who were then second and third on the rating list. I added in Nepo thinking
experience would be a factor. Gukesh surprised everyone in an exciting last
round finish when it could have panned out with any of those four as the winner.

In time honoured Planet Greenpawn tradition let us look at a game Gukesh lost.

A. Firouzja - D Gukesh, Candidates Toronto 2024

The two players got to here (White to play)


Gukesh has three pawns for a Knight. Both players are in time trouble.

Firouzja’s h-pawn on h5 had the Alpha Zero drones squealing with delight
thinking he had lifted the idea from Alpha Zero. Sadly no. Firouzja was
unable to castle so to get the h1 Rook into the game by pushing the h-pawn
was a common enough plan even when Capablanca was in nappies. Indeed
the same position when Firouzja played h2-h4 had been seen before in 2003.
when Alpha Zero was just plain Zero - a computer chip still in its nappies.

I mentioned the h-pawn because it figures strongly in what happens next.


That was a ‘what if’ moment. In the actual game this happened.


The best win by Gukesh. The finish of this one was quite good (easy to understand.)

S. Vidit - D Gukesh, Candidates Toronto 2024


Blunder of The Candidates? I guess it is Fabiano Caruana’s slip in the 8th Round.

H. Nakamura - F. Caruana. Candidates Toronto 2024 (Black to play)


White is attacking the b7 pawn so Black played 33...b5 missing the real threat.
(note the h-pawn. Alpha Zero magic? No it got there by natural human chess.)

33...b5 34. Ne7+ Kh8 35. Nd5


White is attacking the Queen and threatening 36.Qxf8 checkmate. Caruana resigned.

The thread accompanying this blog is Thread 199526