Praggnanandhaa's insane opening preparation | Pragg vs Nepo | FIDE Candidates 2024

AR prananda makes his way to the playing Hall he is taking on Yan nepom Nishi in the all important round five Encounter of the fiday candidates 2024 and there you have Yan entering he's a little bit confused because the layout of the playing Hall has changed totally and so he goes towards a board there he sees the fiday flag against Indian flag and goes there but later realizes that's actually the gorak versus humpy board so then moves to actually his board there sees his name on the chair and uh game that's nepo score sheet and this is prag Nanda nepo got the spelling right but prag got neomi spelling wrong uh where I told prag what he had missed but prag said okay that's fine I have to now focus on the that was a funny moment before the start of the day and there we go the game is about to begin prag has the white pieces nepo has black nepo is the winner of two candidates before this he's also the sole leader at this point let's see how prananda deals with this just like with it prag also takes his time before making the first move he doesn't make it instantly and now he plays his Pawn to E4 after taking 36 seconds nepo responds back with E5 Yan nepom Nishi known for his pet defense let's see if he goes for it Knight comes out to F3 and nepo does play his Knight out to F6 one of the most solid openings in the world of Chess how is prananda going to break Yan Petro even Magnus Carlson had difficulties doing that in the world championship match in 2021 so PR takes the pawn now remember taking here is not a great idea because of Queen E2 white gets an advantage and that's the reason why nepo pushes first the Knight away the Knight goes back to F3 and now black can take on e4 yes he takes the pawn on e4 and now you can pin but that can also be just simply met with Queen E7 so PR goes for the main line with D4 and Neo Plays his Pawn to D5 this has been played many many times before and prag brings his Bishop to D3 just finishing his development next move F want to Castle and if you think about this position you will see that it's very symmetrical in a way just that Knight is on F3 and black knight is on e4 shouldn't black be better because Black's Knight is more active than White's Well turns out that this Knight is a little shaky for the time being and this is what gives white a small Edge because after black castles you will see that prag now plays his next move C4 and he wants to sort of shake up this Knight in the center of the board nepo says I'm going to solidify it with the pawn to C6 and now prag brings his Knight out to C3 nepo has played this on several occasion and so he responds quickly he takes back Knight takes C3 and PR takes back B takes C3 and now you take D takes C4 the pawn is taken prananda will capture it back and now for black the main move used to be Bishop coming to G 4 but it seems like nepo has more trust in putting his Bishop on F5 we've seen this before and he does play it Bishop comes out to F5 a strong move there just putting it on a good square and now prag has to decide which is the way in which he continues his development and I think this is a very very nice provocative move because you can't push your Pawn to F6 this is pinned so you are attacking attacking the queen here and nepo has to decide where to put his Queen he decides to go to A5 and you will see that he's putting pressure on the C3 pawn and there's also pressure on the on the G5 Bishop somehow but prag goes Knight H4 and by the way this is not a new move this has been played before and prag is actually been blitzing out his moves he's well prepared so is nepo and now nepo plays his Bishop back to E6 of course if you take here which PR does and if black had to take back his structure would be terrible white is just better after this but Neo's idea is not to recapture that Bishop it is to actually recapture this one here on G5 and now both the pieces are hanging on E6 and H4 so prug brings back the Knight and attacks the queen this is all well-known Theory we are on move number 15 nepo has also played this against Ral mov in an online game so now he attacks the pawn on C3 and also the bishop is hanging so it's very interesting to see what is the move that PR chooses he puts his Bishop on H3 and More Than This diagonal being important I think it has more to do with the fact that this keeps the B file open the bishop on B3 would not have allowed that and you will see that nepo is now taking taking his time he takes the pawn on C3 last time he played mov I think he had chosen the move Queen to C7 but here he comes up with this move Queen C3 and now to test prag whether he's prepared prag says of course I'm prepared and he goes Rook B1 attacking the pawn on B7 that pawn has to be protected you cannot let a rook enter the seventh rank also the Knight cannot develop easily here so he plays Pawn to B6 and now prag comes back to the board is he out of his prep now or is he still in his prep or is his prep beginning here Rook B3 attacks the queen okay Queen sort of has two squares C4 and A5 both seem viable and I'm sure prag is prepared in both the moves nepo goes Queen A5 and if nepom Nishi can put his Queen somewhere here his position should be fine then get the Knight out he's Pawn up maybe in the process he may give back a pawn but prag instantly plays D5 what a move and the main point being Queen takes D5 is met with Rook D3 and you lose the bishop so D5 you cannot take with the queen nepo after thinking for a full 40 minutes takes back with the pawn but now you can see that the queen is a little bit sideline because of her own pawn and prag is ready with his next move this is scary because brag is so well prepared and he moves in with the Knight now with the Knight Bishop Queen and Rook this can actually turn into a very dangerous attack G6 perhaps is the best move but what can be more natural than kicking the Knight away and what is PR's idea boom he takes on F7 indicating that if you take with the Rook I have Bishop E6 next move this is hanging and white is better so nepo picks this up with his King looks at prag and says what is your prep now prag what do you want to do well prananda now moves his Rook to D3 and look at this he wants to take here but he's not going to win a piece because Bishop will come to C5 but he can move his Queen and Bishop and he wants to attack nepo says take my piece because if you take here I'll simply go back and I'll be happy you know just finishing his development but prag now chops off the pawn on D5 it's very important for nepo to take here and then play Knight C5 and he would have won an important Pawn uh in the same variation like what could happen in the game but he goes Knight C5 and this is a big mistake this is a massive mistake which gets prananda a big Advantage so prag has 1 hour extra on the clock he has a completely better position and all of that because of his amazing prep now he can take the bishop that which is the most natural move he must do it but he's calculating if there are some checks which he must consider because he doesn't know what the best move is now so he takes on D6 after 7 Minutes of thought not a big thought there but Rook takes D6 and now I think it's time to move your king inside this is very important King to G8 so that at least you have some fighting chances yes he goes King G8 and now prag has kind of a straight line to win this game which is Queen D5 check very important first you need to move your queen forward and I think prag is ready with that move after 16 minutes of thought so prag also investing some serious time he gives a check and nepo now can move his King to h8 now the winning move here is Queen E5 threatening Rook takes H6 Che prug did not like the fact that here Queen takes A2 would happen but there was Bishop F5 very strong move and then after King G8 comes the move Bishop B1 and queen B2 a very tough line to see and that's the reason why PR goes Bishop Bishop to F5 but this is a mistake this throws away a major chunk of the advantage because now nepo has This brilliant Moon Knight B7 let's see if he finds it because Knight B7 if you take the Knight the bishop is hanging and he finds it beautiful and now the Queens are going to get traded and that is going to reduce PR's Advantage so Bishop F5 was not good but there was this very very difficult win with Queen B Bishop B1 and queen B2 which was not spotted by prug now the thing is although the material is even White's Bishop is better than Black's Knight so clearly BR can try he goes G4 and he also has a kingside majority but the the issue here is that Black's pieces are very active and he's not even materially down so Knight to C4 attacking The Rook and now Rook to D5 played come move and he plays his Rook a to E8 so The Rook becomes more active and PR plays H3 and how does black continue you now also you know the black king is slightly passive here because it is this square is controlled so Knight E5 played maybe somewhere if you can get G6 and King G7 that would be epic PR can go F4 I believe but F4 he'll just come back to C4 so goes King G2 first and now nepo pushes the bishop away the bishop comes back to C2 and perhaps now you can go G5 fixing this structure yes good move by nepo because now F4 is impossible once the F4 move is not possible this is uh a solid position with the Knight controlling this Square Bishop comes back and maybe prug wants Rook to C1 to C7 that is his idea to get on the C file nepo solidly defends with rookie 7 and you can see that prag is thinking what should be the way to press he goes Rook D6 and he's attacking the H6 Pawn nepo simply brings his King up to G7 and prag now moves his Rook maybe the other Rook yes where Rook E1 played white still has some pressure in the position black is slightly passive but you can see how nepo confidently is making his moves he goes Rook F6 can prag come up yes he plays Rook D5 with attacking the Knight the Knight has to be careful because the Rook could be hanging but nepo is prepared with his move he goes Knight G6 this doesn't look the best because now let's say after take take Rook D7 you have pinned the Knight and also attack this Pawn but King f8 is such a nice move because now if you take on A7 I'm going to take on F5 and then the material is even so that's the reason why PR now has to move his Bishop away you can see nepo gets up from the just showing to PR that hey I'm completely fine now Bishop comes to E4 improving the position of his bishop and now nepo comes back A7 is still hanging but maybe it's time now to push your pawns on the queen side for black he pushes to A5 and we have reached we are closing in on the 40th move this is the 40th move brag goes King G3 there's still enough imbalances in this position to continue playing for for white for sure but nepo is known for his defensive skills he goes Knight G6 and PR takes it because otherwise the Knight would be very well settled on F4 so takes Rook takes and maybe PR can try to create a passer with F4 then later using his King side Pawns he first plays H4 because if you take here King H4 then you have F4 F5 coming in later so nepo would not like to take but then prug gets an additional option of playing H5 and fixing these pawns so this time it's PR time to get up from the board nepo plays Rook to C6 he wants to enter in with a check and then move here attack this Pawn BR takes on G5 he doesn't push the pawn to H5 because maybe with Pawn to H5 King simply stays here and defends this so he goes at g h takes G5 and now how do you create a passer here is difficult because if check F4 there's a check coming in so he goes Rook B7 nepo pushes the pawn to A4 slowly and steadily we are inching towards a draw here A4 played and you can see prananda looking up there and I believe he's going to offer a draw it seems he's just thinking whether there's any hope for him prag is generally very careful before offering a draw because he likes to fight till the very end and oh maybe nepo had already offered a draw and prag has accepted the draw let's hear their analysis takes takes King E4 no no okay Rook D5 instead of Rook B7 and check check C king2 Rook C5 C5 Kess I mean a46 F4 X next 65 five I'm G6 justly I sure exctly maybe I can play this that's [Music] your [Music] mind [Music] yeah

Channel: ChessBase India

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Id: TMvqUJ0LaGo

Length: 19min 20sec (1160 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2024