Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi continue to lead after draws in Round 6 - 6

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The FIDE Candidates in Toronto, Canada are almost at the half way stage. Not much has been settled and 6 of the 8 players can still regard themselves as still being in the hunt for tournament victory. Today Ian Nepomniachtchi chose a drawish variation against Fabiano Caruana and whilst the American had to be accurate a draw was what we got. Nepomniachtchi said most of his preparation was focussed on the Sicilian but also such easy days are a key part of tournament strategy. How this draw will be seen will very much depend on the final result, wasted white against a major rival? Good pragmatic decision on the way to the title? We'll see. Gukesh did try against Hikaru Nakamura, his problem was that a smart piece of preparation equalised the game for Nakamura almost straight away and he followed up with accuracy to produce a totally drawn position. Praggnanandhaa moved to +1 with a win against Nijat Abasov. This was a fighting game decided on the run up to first time control, 38...Rxf6? looks like the decisive error in an objectively level position. Alireza Firouzja is struggling here, today he made two very serious errors 11...Bb7 and 13...Qxf2 early on and was crushed, he did limp on to move 40 before resigning but the game was long gone. Round 6 Standings: 1st= Gukesh, Nepomniachtchi 4pts, 3rd= Caruana, Praggnanandhaa 3.5pts, 5th= Vidit, Nakamura 3pts, 7th= Firouzja, Abasov 1.5pts. Round 7 11th April at 19:30BST: Nakamura-Nepomniachtchi, Caruana-Praggnanandhaa, Abasov-Vidit, Firouzja-Gukesh.

Source: https://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/ev ... in-round-6