Vaishali Rameshbabu took her opportunities in the final round of the Women's Candidates tournament to beat Kateryna Lagno and combined with Bibisara Assaubayeva's draw with Divya Deshmukh meant she took clear first place. Vaishali's win means she will play the champion since 2018, Ju Wenjun. Vaishali is the elder sister of Praggnanandhaa. Anna Muzychuk drew with Zhu Jiner and Aleksandra Goryachkina beat Tan Zhongyi in the remaining games. Javokhir Sindarov had already sewn […]

Javokhir Sindarov will play Gukesh for the World Chess Championship title later in the year. He confirmed his first place in the FIDE Candidates tournament in Cyprus with a draw against Anish Giri. Giri set Sindarov some problems but they weren't enough for a serious advantage at any point and a drawn rook and pawn endgame was reached. Giri looks set to finish second but he was obviously disappointed after the game. The […]

Javokhir Sindarov was happy to take a quick draw against Hikaru Nakamura in Round 12 of the Candidates, in fact his entire preparation was directed towards it. Anish Giri was left trying to beat Wei Yi and he did in fact get a winning position in an endgame but it remained tricky. Giri accidentally repeated the position three times and Wei Yi was immediately alert to this. Matthias Bluebaum was slightly better against […]

Javokhir Sindarov moved a step closer to winning the FIDE Candidates tournament in Cyprus. Sindarov was put under serious pressure for the first time in the event. Sindarov made a number of inaccuracies 22…Rc8! would probably have avoided all difficulty, I'm not sure Sindarov was lost but after Caruana's 31.g4?! he realised immediately that he should save the position which he did fairly easily from then on. A two point lead with three […]

Javokhir Sindarov put the disappointment of missing a win against Bluebaum in Round 9 and won a fine game against Praggnanandhaa, this restored a two point lead with only four rounds to go. Sindarov said his coach told him that he was playing the best chess and not to worry. In post-game analysis he was so precise it was obvious what great form he's in, a level above anyone else here. It's of […]

The 26th European Individual Championship takes place 6th (arrival day) to 20th April 2026. Players: Igor Kovalenko, David Anton Guijarro, Daniel Deac Bogdan Aydin Suleymanli, Shant Sargsyan, David Navara, Alexander Donchenko, Anton Demchenko, Ediz Gurel, Haik Martirosyan Buhl Bjerre Jonas Robert Hovhannisyan, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Maxime Lagarde, Gabriel Sargissian, Aleksandar Indjic, Anton Korobov, Jaime Santos Latasa, MarcAndria Maurizzi, Mahammad Muradli, Lorenzo Lodici, Maxim Rodshtein, Maxim Dardha Ihor Samunenkov, Daniil Yuffa, Szymon Gumularz, Casper Schoppen, […]

The 9th Round of the FIDE Candidates tournament in Cyprus saw some very consequent action. First of all the leader by two points Javokhir Sindarov missed a clear winning chance against Matthias Bluebaum and had to settle for a draw. No disaster but nevertheless a chance. Fabiano Caruana dropped out of contention when he lost to Anish Giri, who is now 1.5 points behind Sindarov and is surely the only player that can […]

Javokhir Sindarov is in the poll position of the FIDE Candidates in Cyprus after drawing with Andrey Esipenko in Round 8 and moving to 6.5/8. Sindarov was barely troubled in the first game to finish. Sindarov's closest challenger was Fabiano Caruana but he was defeated by a determined Hikaru Nakamura. Anish Giri joined Caruana in a tie for second place two points behind Sindarov after beating Praggnanandhaa, the gap is still a bit […]

Javokhir Sindarov has finished the first half of the FIDE Candidates on 6/7 following a draw against Anish Giri. Although Sindarov was better Giri's defence was very accurate and really there didn't seem to be any winning chances. The only decisive game of the day was when Wei Yi took advantage of a gruesome blunder by Andrey Esipenko, this was a case of Esipenko mixing up his move order in a sharp position […]