3 min readMay 16, 2026 09:22 AM IST
After defeating Javokhir Sindarov in a round 2 clash of the Super Chess Classic 2026 tournament in Romania, India’s Praggnanandhaa said that the upcoming World Chess Championship battle between the Uzbek prodigy and world champion D Gukesh will be an evenly poised battle. Sindarov has been in rampaging form in classical chess recently, scything through the Candidates tournament in Cyprus last month with an unblemished record to secure his spot in the world championship.
In fact, the defeat to Pragg was Sindarov’s first in eight months. The Uzbek prodigy’s last defeat in the classical format came in September 2025 against Bulgaria’s Ivan Cheparinov in the 3rd round of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 at home in Samarkand. Sindarov went unbeaten at the FIDE World Cup in Goa and then the Candidates tournament.
But while former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov have firmly installed Sindarov as the favourite for the World Championship against Gukesh, Pragg felt that no player has a clear advantage.
When asked by ChessBase India about who he thinks is the favourite at the upcoming World Championship at the end of the year, Pragg said: “The world championship is 6 months away. No one knows what form they will go in. I think it’s just 50-50. I don’t think anyone is a favourite. It’s just about who plays the best at the World Championship that will take it.”
Sindarov was handed a brutal loss by Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa in a second round game of the Super Chess Classic 2026 tournament in Romania. (Pic Credit: Lennart Ootes)
Last month, when Carlsen was asked who would win the Gukesh vs Sindarov World Chess Championship clash during a Chess Party in Stockholm, he had named Sindarov to be the next world champion.
“At the moment it’s impossible not to say Sindarov but we know anything can happen in a World Championship match,” Carlsen had said. “I am first of all really curious as to what Sindarov will do in the next few months because he is very different from Gukesh. In the sense that Gukesh has very obvious weaknesses when it comes to his understanding and Sindarov does not. He is a lot more well-rounded.”
Kasparov had also backed Sindarov to beat Gukesh.
“Compared to Gukesh, if you look at the games, Sindarov looks like the clear favorite. But this match is a special format. Gukesh is very mentally stable, able to defend any position and find resources even in the worst situations. Gukesh has match experience, but for Sindarov, this will be his first serious match. Yes, it’s relatively short — 14 games, we’ve played longer games before — but it will still be very interesting,” Kasparov said in an interview with St Louis Chess Club’s YouTube handle.
