Caruana and Nepomniachtchi lead the 2022 Candidates Tournament

American chess player Fabiano Caruana started this 2022 Candidates Tournament in the best way, winning the first round game with White against his compatriot Hikaru Nakamura, and drawing the other two. With 2 points out of a possible 3, Caruana is leader of the Candidates tournament along with Ian Nepomniachtchi, who also won the first round and drew the other two.

The other American in the tournament, Hikaru Nakamura, started off losing (as mentioned above) his first game to Fabiano Caruana but in the second round he had a white win against Radjabov and a draw with Alireza Firouzja in the third round, so with 1 1/2 points is one of the pursuers of the leaders.

It is precisely the Frenchman of Iranian origin, Alireza Firouzja, who is closely followed by the chess community since the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, announced after retaining his title at the end of 2021, that if the challenger was not Firouzja, he would not would defend his title. At the moment, the Frenchman has 1 1/2 points as a result of three draws.

Standings after 3 rounds of 2022 Candidates Tournament

As mentioned before, the tournament is led by Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi with 2 points out of 3 each. They are followed by Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alireza Firouzja, Richard Rapport and Hikaru Nakamura all with 1 1/2 points. In last place are Teimour Radjabov and surprisingly one of the favorites to win this tournament, the Chinese Ding Liren, who got two draws after starting losing to Nepomniachtchi.

The next round, the fourth, will be played on Tuesday June 21 starting at 9 AM (ET).