5 min readNew DelhiApr 4, 2026 12:08 AM IST
In the history of the Candidates Tournament in its current format, no player had ever scored 3.5 points from the first four rounds. Uzbek sensation Javokhir Sindarov not only matched that mark but has gone one step ahead, surging to 4.5 points in five rounds while casually tearing down Hikaru Nakamura’s defences as if for fun in Cyprus on Friday.
The 20-year-old, the youngest in the 8-player lineup, is toying with the world’s elite in what is widely considered the most brutal gauntlet in chess, the final step before a shot at the World Championship title.
If his win against Fabiano Caruana in the previous round was a lesson in calculated domination, his game against Nakamura was an outright dismantling. Playing at the picturesque Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, perched above the deep blue Mediterranean, Sindarov made the extraordinary look routine to secure his fourth win.
The colours don’t matter to Sindarov anymore. With all the stars aligning, he caught Nakamura in his opening prep with black pieces, his signature weapon in this event. Bizarre as it sounds, the American spent 67 of his 120 allotted minutes on a single move – a h4 pawn push on move No 13 – only to make the wrong call in a sharp line of the Marshall Gambit (Queen’s Gambit Declined). The error handed Sindarov three pawns for nothing in return.
Javokhir Sindarov takes on Hikaru Nakamura in the Candidates tournament. (FIDE/Michal Walusza)
A rattled Nakamura bled clock while Sindarov watched his crushing win unfold move by move. Three pawns down with no compensation, Nakamura resigned to his second loss of the tournament.
Sindarov summed it up with characteristic brevity: “He thinks for one hour and plays the wrong move. I take an advantage and played very well,” he told Chess24.
Nakamura had no real explanation. “It’s pretty straightforward: either I completely forgot what was in the file, or it’s on my team. I looked… castling was not the move. I suspect it’s the latter, and I didn’t forget, so it’s very unfortunate. I considered knight e4 during the game, but without prep, it’s impossible to play that position. So that’s life.”
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After a much-needed rest day, India’s R Praggnanandhaa’s hopes of pushing for a win with the white pieces against laggard Andrey Esipenko were crushed by the Russian’s top-tier defence. Pragg never made any real progress and eventually settled for a threefold repetition. India’s solitary hope in the Open is now full two points behind Sindarov and losing ground worryingly for his chances.
Meanwhile, following a shocking loss to Sindarov in the previous round, Caruana made a resounding comeback. His win over Matthias Bluebaum ensured his gap with the Uzbek didn’t widen as the American stays a point behind.
Sindarov continues to hold a one-point lead over Caruana, while his advantage has grown over Praggnanandhaa and Anish Giri, who are tied for third with 2.5 points each.
Praggnanandhaa in action at the 2026 Candidates on Friday. (FIDE/Yoav Nis)
Slipping away
With three points now separating the field, the risk-averse approach must be thrown out the window by the collective group if they hope to even slow down the Uzbek’s mad whirlwind. In an event of the Candidates’ stature, where playing safe is usually the order of the house, the likes of Wei Yi or Giri now face a tough choice of either stick with the safety-first approach and let Sindarov cruise with his massive lead, or adopt fearless chess in a desperate bid to take him down before the entire field faces him again with reversed colors.
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And funnily enough, this is precisely what Sindarov would want. Once desperation takes hold, because nothing less than first place matters at the Candidates, taking risks against him will only hand the Uzbek more opportunities to hammer the final nail.
In the Women’s Candidates, Zhu Jiner and Kateryna Lagno joined Anna Muzychuk in a three-way tie for the lead. Zhu handed R. Vaishali her first loss of the event, administering a slow, grinding death. It marked Zhu’s second consecutive win over an Indian after she had beaten Divya Deshmukh in the previous round. On Friday, Vaishali was cornered by an aggressive Zhu, who grabbed a pawn in the middlegame and never let up the pressure. Vaishali finally cracked after 62 moves.
Divya’s game against Tan Zhongyi was calmer but no less frustrating; much like Pragg, she simply couldn’t find any gaps. Playing with black, Divya registered over 98% accuracy and earned a half-point.
Joint leader until the fourth round, Bibisara Assaubayeva stumbled against Lagno for her first loss, while Muzychuk drew against Aleksandra Goryachkina, meaning the women’s field still remains tight, with just one point separating the entire pack. The Indian duo of Divya and Vaishali, alongside Tan, are tied for last place with two points from five rounds.
