3 min readUpdated: Apr 5, 2026 04:26 PM IST
One thing Javokhir Sindarov has done to rattle older opponents is put them under intense time pressure at the Candidates, but not without losing his solid play. “It’s always like you are playing with good comfort. Main thing is if you have time you always try to be confident because if you miss small tactics everything can change very fast,” he explained to FIDE after defeating Wei Yi and going 5.5/6 at Cyprus.
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Sindarov chooses moves to spend time on, and blitzes through others. “When I have time advantage I try to play a little faster but only after checking everything. I’m not trying to find best moves, but if I feel like here if I have some winning moves then I take my time and think a lot. But otherwise I try to play faster and press his time like in usually every game,” he explained.
Sindarov was also prepared because he played a lot of Vienna Hybrid in eSports.
“I played a lot like this Vienna hybrid in eSports and yeah, we played a lot of these games. I expected it but I didn’t prepare for this line. So it was a surprise. But it looks like some Italian position for black. And white had just one temp on a3. I like my position but I don’t need to give him this stuff with bishop g5,” he said.
So, how do his team function?
“My team just found this interesting idea, and I liked it. It’s an interesting imbalance. From Italian I played a lot knight f3 knight c3 and if they play d6 I was always playing knight A4. Queen d3 is a novelty in my database. I only have one game that’s queen e2,” he revealed, possible thing for Gukesh to keep an eye on, should the Uzbek line up for World’s as seems likely.
“A3 surprised me. I understand he chose this opening because he needs to play something without (out of) my preparation. And I like his idea. He needed to play faster, maybe at some point he missed something,” he said.
Sindarov also revealed he believes in guerrilla moves at constant clip. “If he don’t push I will just try to attack some small attacks from this side.”
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Wei Yi said, “after queen d3 I was still in the book. But the position was not easy to play for both. Sindarov played some strong moves. After b4 I missed the idea played by Sindarov. Bishop g4 was a very strong idea. Sacrifice the f6 pawn but play for activity of pieces.”
For 35 minutes thereafter, he calculated bishop g4. rook takes.
Sindarov said he makes good use of thinking on opponents’ clock.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
