Round 12 of the FIDE Candidates tournament brings more intrigue to its current standings. Ian Nepomniachtchi couldn't win against Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, while all his main competitors managed to earn the whole point.

Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh Dommaraju got their wins over Vidit Gujrathi and Nijat Abasov, who both lost even mathematical chances to win the tournament. But we're looking the most at the chess streamer Hikaru Nakamura. He played white against Alireza Firouzja and also got the W.

Tomorrow is a day off before the two final rounds. The current standings couldn't be more intriguing: we realistically have four challengers for the first place, and three of them are co-leaders, with only Caruana being half a point behind Nepo, Nakamura and Gukesh.

And here comes the most interesting part: Nepo will play against Nakamura and Caruana. Hikaru will play against Ian and Gukesh, and only Caruana and Gukesh have one match against players from outside the top 4 (they will play on Saturday against Pragg and Firouzja, respectively).

It is now impossible to predict all the results as all the leaders will play each other. In case two or more players have the same amount of points while being tied for first place, a tie-break with shorter time control will happen.

Main image: youtube.com

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