Recap

Ian Nepomniachtchi makes a comfortable draw with the white pieces against Rapport and clinches the tournament victory with one round to spare. Thus, he also becomes challenger for the title of World Champion!

Two rounds to go and two-point lead for Ian Nepomniachtchi. There were three draws, including the notorious Berlin draw featured in the central game Nepomniachtchi–Nakamura, and one decisive game, where Radjabov crushed Ding Liren with black pieces in just 26 moves

Ian Nepomniachtchi scores another win with the black pieces after Firouzja spends the whole night playing hyper bullet chess online. The former challenger was close to even extending his 1.5-point lead, but Ding Liren managed to prolong his winning streak to 3 games in a row, beating Fabiano Caruana in a nerve-wracking endgame.

While Nepomniachtchi seems to be cruising towards the tournament victory, increasing his lead by another half a point after yet another bloody day in the 2022 FIDE Candidates, race for the second place becomes wide open.

Round 9 before the third rest day of the tournament turned out to be the bloodiest round of all thus far. All games except the most high-stakes one, Caruana–Nepomniachtchi, ended with a decisive result.

A tense day in Madrid — Hikaru Nakamura took down Fabiano Caruana in an epic battle, while the leader of the tournament, Nepomniachtchi secured his lead with a quick draw. Everything is still open, though, and we might even have more players re-entering the race for the World Championship match spot depending on how the ninth round plays out.

One more round and we reached the middle of the FIDE Candidates Tournament. Ian Nepomniachtchi scored another victory with the black pieces after Rapport overpushed, refusing a move repetition early in the game. Fabiano Caruana stays in the race as he won a full point against Teimour Radjabov.

A bloodbath was on the boards in today’s round — dynamic, fighting games and eventually two decisive results. After winning their games, Nepomniachtchi and Caruana separate themselves from the rest of the field even further.

It looked like Ding Liren could’ve been the hero of the 5th round in Madrid, scoring the only decisive point of the day, but alas. 4 draws, no change in the standings and the same leader, Ian Nepomniachtchi.