We’re now past the halfway point between Candidate tournaments, the penultimate competition leading up to the FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) World Chess Championship. With a bisection of the Candidates field established, including Azerbaijani grandmaster Nijat Abasov, American world #2 Fabiano Caruana, and Indian chess prodigy Praggnanandhaa, as well as runner-up of last year’s WCC Ian Nepomniatchi. Many favorites are still vying for one of the four remaining spots to gain the opportunity to face reigning champion Ding Liren – “I’m super excited to see who’ll challenge him [Liren],” says Freshman Levi Hollands.

Right now, 114 of the world’s best players are competing in the 2023 Grand Swiss, in which 1st and 2nd place will guarantee qualification for the Candidates. However, after what has thus far (we’re on round 6 at the time of this writing) been a stellar performance by the already-qualified Fabiano Caruana, it seems that 2nd and 3rd place could decide the 5th and 6th candidates. Further opportunities to join will come to the winner of the FIDE circuit (a collection of the largest tournaments hosted by FIDE) and whoever is the highest-rated player in January of 2024. The Candidates tournament itself will be held between April 2nd and April 25 next year.

The following is a position from the game Jan-Krzysztof Duda versus Pouya Idani in the first round of the event, in which the former won a beautiful game. Do your best to find what move sealed the deal for the Polish grandmaster playing white:

Answer: a4-a5!!

A beautiful move, ignoring the threat of f4-f3 and winning the game on the spot. Stockfish, the strongest chess engine in the world, gives white a +3.1 advantage – equivalent to being up roughly three pawns.