3 min readApr 5, 2026 05:09 PM IST
With Uzbek Grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov in hot form in the Candidates, 5-time world champion Magnus Carlsen has reacted to his performance. “I think it was possible to guess that he was one of the main dark horses there. Nobody expects you to go 4.5 out of 5. I will be curious to go home and check the games now,” Carlsen said on the sidelines of the Grenke Freestyle Open in a clip shared by the tournament organisers on their social media accounts.
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Nodirbek Abdusattorov, another grandmaster from Uzbekistan, also praised his country-mate for his dominance at the Candidates.
“I’m very happy for Javokhir as he is truly showing his strengths because he’s capable of winning Candidates. He’s now 5.5/6 which is a phenomenal performance, incredible quality of games. I hope he wins this tournament because he fully deserves it. We of course discussed some things before he went to Candidates. And he’s done a great job. He has done a lot of work before tournaments. He has coached many, many seconds. And it’s showing the fruits,” he said.
On Saturday, Sindarov of continued with his winning ways as he beat Wei Yi of China in the sixth round. With each passing round, Sindarov seemed to be moving far away from the huddle and this is by far the greatest performance ever in the history of the Candidates tournaments. With his fifth victory in six games, Sindarov moved to 5.5 points awaiting other results.
Sindarov was pleasantly surprised by Bishops opening by Wei Yi and did not have any trouble in equalizing early with his black pieces. The Uzbek sacrificed a pawn in the middle game that was poisoned and then launched a series of threats forcing Wei Yi to complications. The game lasted just 36 moves.
Meanwhile, 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.
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