4 min readApr 7, 2026 11:11 PM IST
What is a big-ticket chess event without whispers of a player’s meticulously-concocted preparation being out in the open?
On a day the rampaging Javokhir Sindarov ended his round 8 Candidates match against the bottom-placed Andrey Esipenko with a 24-move draw in Cyprus, he was asked repeatedly about his opening prep leaking.
The rumours came from the fact that an account belonging to Sindarov on the chess platform Lichess had opening ideas left unguarded in its study feature. Soon after the discovery spread on social media — Reddit in particular — the studies were made private.
In a sport where grandmasters go through extraordinary lengths to hide their preparation — protecting even the identity of their seconds — a player’s opening lines being visible to the world, including their opponents, is the chess equivalent of a wardrobe malfunction. Months of work rendered unusable overnight.
The 20-year-old Sindarov, however, was nonchalant.
“It was not a big deal because I don’t remember the last time I opened those studies,” he said, shrugging off the potential damage. The lines revealed were something he had looked at a long time ago, he told interviewers. He pointed out that during last year’s FIDE World Cup in Goa — which he won to secure his Candidates spot — his prep was even more exposed.
“I was getting messages from fans telling me that my studies on Lichess were not private,” he smiled in response to Chess24’s question.
Chess legend Judit Polgar, in commentary for Chess24 immediately after his interview aired, was struck by the response. “It seems like the seconds and the players themselves are not paying enough attention to the security part. But I liked Sindarov’s attitude. It’s a champion’s attitude — whatever happens, happens. We go with the flow and we get the best out of what we have.”
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Her co-commentator David Howell added: “Very impressive attitude. I would be freaking out and a bit tilted if this had happened to me. It helps that Sindarov has had a good start to the tournament. He played with a nice calm smile on his face — and that’s a skill in itself.”
This is not the first time a player’s battleplans have been left unguarded online.
ALSO READ | Javokhir Sindarov’s whirlwind start makes him firm favourite at halfway stage in Open section
At the 2018 World Chess Championship between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, opening lines Caruana had prepared were accidentally revealed when the St Louis Chess Club posted a YouTube video containing those lines. The video was hastily deleted.
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The incident produced a rare moment of levity at a particularly tense championship. When Carlsen was asked at the press conference — with Caruana sitting beside him — whether he had seen the video, he replied with a sheepish smile: “I am aware of the video’s existence. But I don’t think it exists anymore.” He added that he hadn’t had the chance to watch it.
A similar instance occurred during the 2023 World Chess Championship between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi. While the match was still in progress, two anonymous accounts — believed to belong to Ding and his second Richard Rapport — were found to have played games in lines later used against Nepomniachtchi.
Polgar recalled how her generation handled the problem.
“I used to have my notes on paper!” she said, holding up a sheet for the camera. “I had my sisters and coaches for training. Those physical files were so heavy they doubled as physical exercise. Only later did I move to having prep on the computer — which would run into thousands of lines.”
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