The most relevant game of round 9 was the one played by the two best players in the tournament so far: Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana. The Russian played a Petroff defense, without a doubt a risky decision, since, although it is a solid defense, the American is one of the greatest specialists in that defense and of course he would know how to play against it. In fact, at some point he was better, but he couldn’t take advantage of it and in the end the result was a draw.
As mentioned before, this game was the most relevant, but not even close to the most interesting especially considering that there were three games that ended in victories in this round. The first of them involves the other American player in the tournament, Hikaru Nakamura, although sadly for him it was not good news: he was defeated by Teimour Radjabov.
Alireza Firouzja finally came out of the bottom of the standings beating Richard Rapport, whose performance has been quite irregular during the tournament. The remaining game was the victory of the Chinese Ding Liren against the Polish Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who with this defeat is last in the standings with a performance that so far has been a real disappointment.
2022 Candidates Tournament: Round 10th Clashes
The next round will take place on Wednesday, June 29 at 9 AM (ET).
Jan-Krzysztof Duda vs Fabiano Caruana
Richard Rapport vs Ding Liren
Hikaru Nakamura vs Alireza Firouzja
Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Teimour Radjabov
2022 Candidates Tournament: Standings after 9 rounds
| Player | Points |
| Ian Nepomniachtchi | 6.5 |
| Fabiano Caruana | 5.5 |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 4.5 |
| Ding Liren | 4.5 |
| Teimour Radjabov | 4 |
| Alireza Firouzja | 4 |
| Richard Rapport | 4 |
| Jan-Krzysztof Duda | 3 |
