Overview of the Pretenders Tournament (1)

Caruana a contender

Caruana had a chance to become a pretender if he had won his last game against Nepo. But, he played 72.Re4. This move was not only weak. It was a mistake, after which winning was no longer possible.

And winning was easy. See how we did it in Goldchess. Black’s position is, of course, defended by our educational computer, certainly much weaker than Nepo, but that doesn’t matter. After our move Caruana would have dealt with Nepo in exactly the same way.  The game is (Chess Miracles-Winners diagram) here:
https://www.goldchess.com/en/other/winnerslist.html#g0_wins

To play it, it is best to download our chess program:
https://www.goldchess.com/en/other/download-ceec.html

Nakamura, who had a chance to beat Gukesh in a big way in the last game, could also be a contender. In one of the earlier games, Gukesh could have been stopped by Praggna. And who knows if he wouldn’t have then gained a chance to win the tournament and become a contender. The ball is round and chess is unpredictable. We will show all these games in our next reports from the contenders’ tournament.