This Time No Draws! || Praggnanandhaa vs Anish Giri || FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026

Hello everyone and welcome to the second game we're covering from the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026, the most important tournament of the year as the winner of the tournament gets to qualify world champion Gukesh Domaraju for the title of world champion. And this game is all about Pragnananda and Anish Giri. Pragnananda, as you know, qualified through the FIDE circuit. He won the 2025 FIDE circuit, much like Fabiano Caruana. He won the 2024 FIDE circuit, Anish Giri. He won the FIDE Grand Swiss. Matthias Blübaum also qualified through the FIDE Grand Swiss. And through the World Cup, we had three qualifiers, Djavo Kristindarov, who won the FIDE World Cup, Weiyi, who got second place, and Andreas Benko, who got third place. And Hikaru Nakamura qualified as he has the highest average rating. So those are the eight candidates. In the previous video, I've made a little bit of an intro. I've also shown you that nice photo with all of the candidates, so I'm not going to be repeating that. If you haven't seen my previous video, do check it out. But yeah, let's see why so many of you requested this one already as I've published my previous video. It is a very nice game. So let's check it out. Pragnananda with white opens with Pawn to e4. We have Pawn to c5 and now Knight to c3. And okay, I know you guys will ask me this. So yes, I do have a photo of the two of them playing. I will load it up in a second and then we will enjoy the game without any further interruptions. There we go. There we go. A nice game. Sorry, a nice photo. Let me just make it a little bit smaller so you guys can actually see it. There we go. Oh, there's Prague. There we go. Sorry, they're incredibly large. That's why it loads so large. But here, from a certain position, maybe not this exact one that we had on the board, but yeah, a very nice photo. There we have it. Let's soak it in for a little bit and then we can continue the game. All right, so Knight c3, we have Pawn to d6 and Pawn to f4. The Grand Prix attack against the Sicilian. And maybe some of you don't know this, but in 2016 Candidates Tournament, Tanishi Giri played 14 draws. So all of the games he played in the Candidates Tournament, he drew. And then the joke started that he is an artist, you know, because he likes to draw that, you know, he... I can't even remember them anymore, but the Drawish Giri, you know, that he's like Thanos, he's all about perfection, I don't know. And of course he had to start playing more aggressive openings and ever since then he started playing the Sicilian. He made his grand course on the Sicilian, which, you know, everyone can buy. And everyone knows he's going to play the Sicilian, so he has to prove again and again that he's just a better Sicilian player than everyone plays against the Sicilian. So he goes Pawn to g6. Knight to c6 is a bit more common. Here he played Pawn to g6. We have Knight f3, Bishop to g7, and Bishop to b5 with check. So again, nothing new here. The pretty standard setup for the Grand Prix. We have Bishop to d7, and here a standard is to capture or to go Bishop c4. We have Pawn to a4 by Prague, Knight to c6, castle skiing side, and Pawn to a6 challenging the Bishop. We have Bishop back to c4 and now Pawn to e6. So Anish burning a bit more time here, but nothing spectacular. We have e6, Pawn to d3, Knight gte7, and Pawn to f5 played without hesitation, without burning even a couple of seconds, I imagine, as it's still an hour and 57. And the question is, what do you play here? You could definitely castle and allow f-captures on g6, but Anish calculates precisely and he goes e-captures on f5, Queen to e1. Now it's still not a new position, it is a known one. But there is a game where f-captures on e4 was played, which just isn't all that impressive because you can just go Knight g5 and that's pretty much it. But here we have Bishop to e6. Also the problem is if you play Pawn to h6, well Pawn to h6, there's also a game where Pawn to h6 was played. So this is actually the top move recommended by the engine, and this can be played. Just stops Knight g5 and that's it. Next you're going to play Bishop to e6, castles, and your position is fine. But Anish played Bishop to e6 right away, and it is now as of move 11 that we have a completely new game. So Prague captures on f5, and now comes g-captures on f5. Again, if you play Knight g5, it's just big problems for Black. So after e-captures, we have g-captures on f5, Bishop captures on e6, f-captures, and Queen captures on e6. Queen to d7, again, still the position is fine for Black. Queen to c4, okay, of course Prague will avoid this Queen trade, and castles Queen side. We have Bishop to g5, still making it difficult for Anish to fully develop, and still making some problems, asking some questions. Rook d to e8, and Rook a to e1. We have Knight g6, burning quite a considerable time here, almost 20 minutes on Knight to g6, but it's a fine move. He wants to get the pawn to f4, and the Knight really doesn't have any better squares. And you have very, very nice control over e5. So the main question is, how do you get the King to safety and strike with d5 without losing the c5 pawn? If you can get the d5, d4, then Black's position is just amazing. So Knight d5, as the square has presented itself, King to b8, and now Knight to f6. Now, with the King on c8, Knight to b6 was a threat, and while you can still play Knight to b6, Knight to f6 just wins the dark square Bishop, so that's also very nice. Bishop captures, Bishop captures, we have Rook h to f8, and now Bishop back to c3, followed by pawn to f4. With this move, Anish is making a statement that he has defended, he solved all of his opening problems, and now he's the one who's going for the attack. Prague goes Rook captures on e8, we have Rook captures Rook to e1, offering a trade of the other pair of Rooks, but now Anish declines. Or you could just trade and put a King on c7, this is also perfectly fine. He decides to defend the f4 pawn, we have Queen to e6, and now we have a trade. Captures, captures, followed by King to c7. And it really doesn't seem like Anish has all that much to worry about. But here comes Knight g5 from Prague, and the question is, how do you deal with this? You can't really advance it, as the Knight on g6 would hang. What do you play? So here we have King to d7, Rook to e4, and now Rook to f5, sacrificing the pawn in order to get the d5 and d4 in. This is played in a great style, I would say. Knight captures, we have pawn to d5, attacking the Rook, Rook to e2, pawn to d4, Bishop to e1, and now Knight c to e5. Yes, Anish is down a pawn, but his position is now incredibly active, and it seems like this Knight is kind of trapped. How is this Knight ever getting out? Can't you just march the King a few squares to the right and win the Knight? You'd think so, but no. Prague Nananda goes to Rook to e4, and you actually can't win the Knight. If you try King e7, then the key idea is h4. And now you just allow the Knight to come to g5, and even if you go Rook to h5 to try and somehow win that pawn, then comes Knight g5, and now the problem is, how do you play this? You can't really move this Knight, as it defends this Knight, and if you move the King in to defend the Knight, you can play g3. And after f captures, just Bishop captures, and White is still just winning. So no way to do it that way. So here, Knight to g4 was played by Anish. h3, attacking the Knight, knight e3, an excellent square for the Knight, and pawn to c3, trying to undermine it a little bit, also protecting your c2 pawn. Knight to d5, and now pawn to h4. Okay, the Bishop here on e1, even though it's a terrible square for the Bishop, it's doing a remarkable job here. d captures on c3, with b captures, and now Rook to h5, putting pressure on the h4 pawn, and here comes Knight to g5. And the problem is, how do you play this? There's very few moves that even come to mind. I'll give you an example. If you play Knight captures on h4, because why wouldn't you? Then comes Knight e6, and this is just close to lost for Black, if not lost, because all of the pawns here are hanging, and if you try something like, let's say, Knight f5, let's say you just want to get the Knight back into the game, because the Rook also can't move as it's defending the Knight, let's say you bring the Knight back. All of a sudden, c4. And now after, let's say, Knight f6, Knight f8 check, where is the King going? If you go here, then Rook e6 check, you lose the Knight. And if King to d8, Rook captures on f4, you're up a pawn, and you're actually completely winning. There's nothing Black can do here, there's no defense against g4, it's just crushing. So, you have to be very careful. Anish plays Knight to f6 here, and this simply will not do. He now got a very, very long time, four more moves need to be in order for time control to be reached. What do you play here? Only one way to win, while I give you a couple of seconds. I imagine it's not the most difficult move, because you see the two Knights, and you have a Rook, so it is Rook to e6, but even that is not enough if you don't find the key move of this line. Rook captures on g5, yes, removing the defender of the Rook on e6, so you have to play Rook captures on f6, and now Rook g4, followed by Pawn to h5. This is the key move, and the only way to win in this entire line. We have Knight to e5, Pawn to h6, again, another only move that wins. Knight f3 check, King to f1, Knight captures on e1, and now King captures on e1, Rook captures on g2, and Rook captures on f4. So it seems that Pragnananda is only up a Pawn, but this is, look at this, Rook h2, Rook f6. This is Tsug Tsuang for black. There's nothing you can do. The King cannot advance, you cannot get into the game. You think maybe you can play b5, but you really can't. Rook captures, and it's still the same thing. Captures h7, you cannot capture due to Rook a7 check, this is still hopeless. So you have to play something. I mean, you can play something like c4, but it doesn't really make much sense. So a Pawn to h3, a Rook to h3 was played, now Pragnananda gets his King into the game. King d2, Rook h2 check, King e3, Rook h3, King to e4, and now Pawn to c4, trying to create some weaknesses, but Pragnananda doesn't care. It's all about the h-pawn. D captures, Rook captures, now comes King to f5. You don't need any more Pawns to win this. King to e7, or you capture, but then the Pawn just marches forward. King to e7, Rook to b6, and now comes Rook captures on c4, followed by Pawn to h7, and it was in this position, on move 51, that Anish Giri resigned the game, as there is nothing more to be done here. The problem is, once you play Rook h4, of course, you probably are looking at that b7 Pawn, and you probably want to capture it, but there's a much simpler way of winning, and that is King g5. You just attack the Rook, and now captures will be met with captures, and you pick up the Rook, or if the Rook goes back anywhere along the h-file, you just block the Rook and promote the Pawn to a Queen, and that is it. If you try a couple of checks, you can just march the King down the board, and one more check, and that's it. Next move, you bring the Queen into the game, and it's game over. So yeah, brilliant stuff by Pragnananda, taking down Anish Giri like this, the master of the Sicilian defense, probably just outplayed him with the Grand Prix. I mean, no one ever plays the Grand Prix, but here, the Candidates Tournament, the most important tournament of anyone's career, yes, now it is time to employ it, and you can see how, you know, even if something isn't played for a very long time, or maybe it drops out of fashion, it can still be easily revived with one unpleasant move. And here, Prague was full of unpleasant moves, and just completely outplayed Anish. Just broke him. So yeah, no draw for Anish, but at least he's playing fighting chess, and I hope very much to see more Sicilians from him, and more results coming his way. So yeah, I really hope you guys enjoyed it, and some of you said in the previous video that you dislike this time format, that you want the time increment, that you want the increment basically from move 1, not from move 40, and yes, I agree. In a way, this is the tournament of the highest caliber, the most important tournament of anyone's life. It should be played with the most, you know, proper time controls, not someone losing a game because he doesn't have enough time to reach time control. But we live in such times where games also need to be interesting, and yes, this is one, I imagine, one concession they have to make in order for it to happen, because, I mean, there were candidates where you had like four draws, and then round two, four draws, then round three, four draws, and you know, you get to round seven, and then someone wins a game. It's not as easy to follow, but yes, it is the most proper way to decide the candidate, but I think they even allowed the players to vote on it, and you know, the players agreed that they wanted this format. If I was playing, I would also prefer this time control with increments starting from move 1. I don't know, just the games will be more exciting, I'm going to enjoy it more, the viewers will be enjoying it more, so... But yes, from, you know, it is inconceivable that Capablanca and Lasker would use this time control, even though in their days time controls were crazy, if you guys remember. But yeah, really hope you enjoyed it, very nicely done by Prague, very much looking forward to what it does in round two. I would like to thank Darren Ceng-Skarsboro, Carlton Mary, Torkel Stenquist, BBY Rere, and Oskar Nietzsche for your contribution to my channel. Thank you a lot, I really appreciate it. As usual, you can check two of my previous videos here. Thank you for watching, and I will see you soon, continuing to check up on your suggestions and whatever else happens in the chess world. Thank you all, I will see you soon, and have an excellent rest of your day.