Uzbek sensation Javokhir Sindarov is no longer just winning games but making a mockery of the Candidates Tournament 2026, taking place in Cyprus. On Saturday, the youngest player in the event crushed China’s Wei Yi in the sixth round for his fifth win. With 5.5 points from six games, he now leads his nearest rival by a full 1.5 points. And this against the best players in the world, with a World Championship shot on the line.
Just months after breaking Chinese hearts in the FIDE World Cup summit clash in Goa, Sindarov did it again. And this time, with a lot more eyeballs pinned on him, he made sure no one mistook it for a fluke as his juggernaut just keeps rolling.
Commentating on the match for the Chessbase India YouTube channel stream, Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi watched in awe.
When asked to pick a single decisive moment, Vidit, no stranger to the pressure cooker of a Candidates tournament, having featured in the previous edition in Toronto, said, “There were a few small decisions. Allowing the double pawns was interesting. But I really liked the bishop g4 move.”
On the surface, Bishop g4 cost Sindarov a pawn. Vidit noted that it would have been a tempting option to go for a pragmatic Rook a3, a move that leads to dynamic equality and, in all likelihood, a draw. But Sindarov wasn’t interested in pragmatism or needed a safety hook. He was all in for blood.
Sindarov sees chaos as a resource and not as a risk.
Javokhir Sindarov in action against China Wei Yi at the 2026 Candidates. (FIDE/Yoav Nis)
“He found such a practical way of playing… bishop g4, exchange the knight, put the bishop on d4 assessing this dynamic structure,” Vidit said. “Not to be worried of this f6 pawn. You have long-term compensation. I believe he is very good at it,” said Vidit
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India’s lone hope in the Open section, R Praggnanandhaa, in his second Candidates’ appearance, needed a spark. What he produced instead was a lifeless draw against American Hikaru Nakamura.
For the second consecutive round, Pragg failed to extract any juice from his position. Against a player of Nakamura’s experience, a draw is never a disgrace, but context is everything. With Sindarov pulling away from the pack, every passive result feels like a surrender.
At this rate, Pragg’s dream of a World Championship shot is already slipping into the realm of mathematical miracles. And looking at Sindarov’s form, an Indo-Uzbek clash for the world crown now seems far more likely than an all-Indian one.
While the Open section turned out to be another hopeless day for Indians, the women’s Candidates brought some much-needed relief. Both Indian players in the event, Divya Deshmukh and R Vaishali, finally notched up their first wins of the tournament.
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Vaishali’s game against Kateryna Lagno was absolute chaos. Playing the Bishop’s Opening with the black pieces, the game ebbed and flowed both ways before Vaishali finally forced her opponent to resign from a losing position on move 47.
The key highlight was Vaishali’s bishop sacrifice, not once, but twice. Chess.com deemed both moves “brilliancies.” She first chopped off Lagno’s pawn on h3, offering the sacrifice. When the Russian declined, Vaishali tried again two moves later. This time, Lagno obliged. It was far from a clean game, but Vaishali will gladly take the full point.
Praggnanandhaa in action against Hikaru Nakamura at the 2026 Candidates. (FIDE/Yoav Nis)
Just like Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh also won with the black pieces, beating Bibisara Assaubayeva to hand the Kazakh GM her second straight loss, after Lagno had beaten her in the previous round. It was a long grind in the Queen’s Gambit Declined, where Divya was terrific under time pressure, forcing mistakes from Bibisara.
Divya delivered under severe time pressure. At one point, she had just over five minutes left with 11 moves still to go before the time control. Yet, the Indian was at the top of her game and nerves, seizing the initiative. Assaubayeva had more than double the time on her clock but cracked towards the fag end of the game. With a meticulous endgame, Divya ensured she levelled with compatriot Vaishali, both now on 3 points from six rounds.
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Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk, the 11th-hour replacement for India’s Koneru Humpy, continues to have an impressive show. She registered her second win of the tournament, pulling down China’s Zhu Jiner with the black pieces and ending Zhu’s two-match winning streak. What was a three-way tie at the top between Zhu, Muzychuk, and Kateryna Lagno after round five now sees the Ukrainian enjoying the sole lead.
In the Open section, Fabiano Caruana was held to a draw by Andrey Esipenko, widening his gap with leader Sindarov. On the other board, Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum drew with Anish Giri.
