At the Great Hall in Toronto, Canada, in the sixth round of FIDE Candidates 2024, R. Praggnanandhaa of India defeated Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan. With this victory, he now has 3.5 points and is tied for second place on the scoreboard with Fabiano Caruana of the USA.
In an ideal game of Tarassch Defence, the eighteen-year-old showed off his perfect talents and forced his opponent to surrender on move forty-five. With the white pieces, Praggnanandhaa made a big move on move no. 26, taking advantage of an error by Abasov in his g-file pawn push.
Before the Indian made the mistake of offering a rook exchange to negate his advantage, the queens were already off the board. When Abasov misplaced his king, it forced an exchange of the other rook, which dealt the ultimate blow.