Gukesh joins Nepomniachtchi in the Candidates lead after an action packed Round 5 - 5

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The fifth round of the Candidates could have seen all four games finish decisively and in fact the two games that did were only decided by mistakes at the end of very long games and the two draws came after huge advantages were let go. In the end leaders were Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi half a point clear of Caruana and all three had good reason to thank their lucky stars today. Praggnanandhaa doesn't need any encouragement to go for dangerous attacking ideas but that's nevertheless what the leader Nepomniachtchi did in grabbing a hot pawn in the Petroff. Nepomniachtchi couldn't find his way through the complications and after 23...Nc5? (23...Bxh2+) he was lost with the move 26.Qe5! being the killer blow, Praggnanandhaa didn't find this and Nepomniachtchi eventually escaped and stayed in the lead. Nepomniachtchi will always have weak moments like this, but if he isn't punished he's more than likely to just steamroller his way through the event as he has done twice before, this was a very big escape for him and bad news the rest of the field. He was joined in the lead by Gukesh who was not at all convincing in a very long win against Nijat Abasov, he kept getting big advantages and then frittering them away, at the end he had the pawn in a Queen and Pawn vs Queen endgame, really tricky for Abasov and although the position was drawn he understandably blundered and this time didn't escape. Santosh Vidit was straight up winning against Fabiano Caruana and contrived to find practically the only move on the board where he had to give perpetual check immediately. Hikaru Nakamura beat Alireza Firouzja in a game that came down to a tricky endgame where Nakamura had a knight and running pawns vs a rook. An obviously nervous Firouzja almost lost on time but the move he played put his King on a forking square which meant he couldn't stop one of Nakamura's pawns and he had to resign. Round 5 Standings: 1st= Gukesh, Nepomniachtchi 3.5pts, 3rd Caruana 3pts, 4th= Praggnanandhaa, Nakamura 2.5pts, 6th Vidit 2pts, 7th= Abasov, Firouzja 1.5pts. Round 6 10th April at 19:30BST: Gukesh-Nakamura, Vidit-Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa-Abasov, Nepomniachtchi-Caruana.

Source: https://theweekinchess.com/chessnews/ev ... ed-round-5