Nepomniachtchi beats Vidit in a tense struggle to lead the Candidates alone again on 7/11 - 11

Ian Nepomniachtchi won a really fascinating struggle against Santosh Vidit in the eleventh round of the FIDE Candidates tournament in Toronto, Canada. Not only did Nepomniachtchi win, he won with the black pieces, but it was Vidit who first had winning chances. Vidit chose a side-line in a fairly topical Petroff line, even with Queen's off the play remained complicated and 33...Rb3? (33...Kg7!) was losing according to engines after 34.h5! Then 35...a5? 36.Bxa3 d5 was also deemed losing for black but only after giving up a piece. The position was back level and 58.Bb3?! and 60.Nb2+? suddenly Nepomniachtchi was winning and his conversion was a lot easier. Earlier Hikaru Nakamura was extremely impressive in beating Praggnanandhaa with black in a game starting 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c5! Gukesh was the one slightly pushing in his draw against Fabiano Caruana. All this leaves Nepomniachtchi leading on 7/11, Gukesh and Nakamura on 6.5/11 and Caruana in an almost must win situation on 6/11 with three rounds to go.

Round 11 Standings: 1st Nepomniachtchi 7pts, 2nd= Gukesh, Nakamura 6.5pts, 4th Caruana 6pts, 5th Praggnanandhaa 5.5pts, 6th Vidit 5pts, 7th Firouzja 4.5pts, 8th Abasov 3pts,

Round 12 18th April at 19:30BST: Nakamura-Firouzja, Abasov-Gukesh, Caruana-Vidit, Nepomniachtchi-Praggnanandhaa.