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The Candidates 2024 tournament witnessed an uneventful opening day as seven of the eight opening matches ended in a draw on Friday in Toronto, Canada.
Ian Nepomniachtchi and Nijat Abasov were the earliest pair to settle for a draw, with the latter happy to pocket the half-point despite starting with white.
The only decisive result of the day came from the all-Chinese clash between Li Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi where the latter converted a beautiful endgame to win with black pieces.
India’s R Praggnanandhaa held a significant time advantage against Alireza Firouzja. But the Frenchman held fort to cut off the possibility of an early misstep.
MATCH OF THE DAY — FIROUZJA VS PRAGGNANANDHAA
Title favourites Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura too played out a protracted, complex game, with the American pair shaking hands soon after going past move 40.
Vidit Gujrathi blunted the challenge from countryman D Gukesh, thanks to an inspired 17th move (Bishop to g4), which FIDE commentator Viswanathan Anand labelled ‘amazing’.
In the women’s category, India’s R Vaishali overcame a major time deficit to salvage a draw against compatriot Koneru Humpy.
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