Javokhir Sindarov is already the clear favourite to win the 2026 Candidates in Cyprus and to challenge India’s Gukesh Dommaraju for the world crown after the Uzbek grandmaster, 21, began the tournament with a commanding 3.5/4, including an impressive victory against the pre-tournament favourite and world No 3, Fabiano Caruana. It is the fastest ever start by a player under the format of a double-round Candidates.
Sindarov’s seconds correctly anticipated that Caruana, with the black pieces, might open with the solid Queen’s Gambit Accepted, and prepared accordingly. “I got kind of caught in the opening,” said a subdued Caruana at the post-game press conference. The US champion got into heavy time pressure, and after 20 moves was down to 10 minutes to reach move 40, with no per-move increment.
“Of course I never imagined that I would go into the rest day with plus three, but today I played a really good game and the prep was also fantastic, thanks to my seconds,” said Sindarov, who added that he was particularly proud to achieve this success in preparation against the highly experienced Caruana and that he had been lucky to have revised this specific line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted immediately before the game. The key white innovations were 13 dxc5! and 14 c6! while Caruana’s critical errors came at moves 17 and 18, when 17…Qxd4! and 18…Qxd4! should enable Black to survive.
Caruana himself had created a stir in the previous round when he defeated China’s Wei Yi in a miniature in only 19 moves. Wei’s bishop got trapped in the American camp and he resigned early rather than continue a hopeless struggle.
Thursday was a rest day and the key round five pairing on Friday afternoon will be Hikaru Nakamura v Sindarov. Nakamura, the world No 2, has had a slow beginning with 1.5/4 and no wins, but now has the opportunity to kickstart his tournament while simultaneously helping his compatriot Caruana. The streamer with millions of followers is recapping his games every night live, and will be uncomfortable at not being able yet to show any wins. Nakamura did have chances for victory in a double rook ending against Wei, but mishandled it.
Candidates scores after four of the 14 rounds: Sindarov 3.5, Caruana 2.5, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (India), Matthias Blübaum (Germany), and Anish Giri (Netherlands) 2, Wei and Nakamura (US) 1.5, Andrey Esipenko (Russia) 1.
The women’s Candidates has been a tale of missed opportunities, particularly by this column’s tip, Aleksandra Goryachkina, who could have had 4/4 had she taken all her chances but who has drawn all her games.The tournament is still all to play for, with all eight competitors between plus one and minus one. A highlight has been the game Tan Zhongyi v Kateryna Lagno, in which the Russian’s 42nd to 45th moves were an amazingly imaginative sacrifice of a knight, then a queen, for mate or a decisive advantage.
Women’s Candidates scores after four rounds: Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) and Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) 2.5. Goryachkina and Lagno (both Russia), Zhu Jiner (China) and Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) 2, Tan and Divya Deshmukh (India) 1.5.
The Reykjavik Open ended in a clear victory with 8/9 for the top seeded Iranian, Amin Tabatabaei, the only 2700-rated player in the field of over 400. Tabatabaei was half a point ahead of Zhou Jianchao, the Chinese-American GM who earlier this year broke Bogdan Lalic’s record of 155 unbeaten games with a streak of 158 consecutive games in nine months, comprising 106 wins and 52 draws.
The unlucky player was England’s Matthew Wadsworth, who after checkmating his round seven opponent was in clear second place, and in line for the prize of €2,000. After drawing with Tabatabaei by solid play he was still tied for second, but was then paired with Zhou in the final round, was edged to defeat and finished out of the money.
Next week Wadsworth will lead the small English contingent at the European Individual Championship at Katowice, Poland, where he will be accompanied by England’s youngest grandmaster Shreyas Royal, 17, who like Wadsworth is campaigning for a 2600 rating, and by IM Jonah Willow, who aims to complete the qualification requirements for his GM title.
All three are being supported in Poland by grants from Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £250,000-a-year fund to help England’s best young talents.
Meanwhile, England’s primary school prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, has dramatically jumped in the official Fide ratings for April to No 1 in Britain. She has also broken into the world’s top 100 women for the first time and is currently ranked as world No 72 with a rating of 2366.
World chess ratings are compiled by Fide and updated on the first day of every month. In the April list, Sivanandan replaced four-time British women’s champion Yao Lan, 25, as the English Chess Federation’s top player. Her latest advance follows strong recent performances at Graz, Austria, and Cannes, France.
Sivanandan already holds records as the youngest woman ever to defeat a male grandmaster, and the youngest ever to achieve a WGM norm.
Sivanandan’s future rapid progress is not guaranteed and there are some grounds for caution. Her opening repertoire is narrow and a touch passive, she is often involved in long and exhausting marathons, and she relies too much on general judgment rather than specific calculation. Additionally, she soon faces a move from primary to secondary school.
For all these reasons, she is unlikely to match the meteoric progress that the world all-time top two women, Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan, achieved in their early teens. Still, Sivanandan has already had a remarkable career, and the best is probably yet to come.
4018: 1 Qc3! Qb7 (Black must guard against both 2 Qg7 mate and 2 Qc8+) 2 Qa1! and Black resigned. It’s zugzwang (compulsion to make a losing move). The BQ cannot now guard against both 3 Qg7 mate and 3 Qa8+. If 2…Kf8 3 Qh8+ Ke7 4 Qg7+ wins, or 2…Qe7 3 Qh8+ Qf8+ 4 Qxf8+ Kxf8 5 Kh7 and the g7 pawn queens.
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