Sindarov Wins Candidates With Round To Spare; Women's Still Wide Open

12 min read Original article ↗

GM Javokhir Sindarov has won the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament with a round to spare after a draw against GM Anish Giri in round 13. More important than the €70,000 prize, he will be the next challenger to GM Gukesh Dommaraju for the world title. GM Wei Yi won the only decisive game, against GM Andrey Esipenko. GM Fabiano Caruana missed a win against GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu just before move 40, resulting in a draw, and GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Matthias Bluebaum also ended in a draw.

Six players can still win the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates going into the final round, with GMs Bibisara Assaubayeva and Vaishali Rameshbabu in the joint lead on 7.5/13. Assaubayeva beat GM Anna Muzychuk with White while Vaishali escaped with Black against GM Tan Zhongyi. GM Zhu Jiner was pushing to take the sole lead by overcoming GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, but overpressed and fell to a shock defeat to leave her half a point off the pace. GM Kateryna Lagno's win over GM Divya Deshmukh still leaves her with chances of reaching a playoff.   

The final round is on Wednesday, April 15, starting at 8:45 a.m. ET / 14:45 CEST / 6:15 p.m. IST.

FIDE Candidates: Sindarov Clinches

A draw was enough for Sindarov to win the tournament. Wei scored his second win of the event in the only decisive game.

Candidates Round 13 Results

Sindarov is now uncatchable, but there's still another round to play.

Candidates Standings After Round 13

Sindarov vs. Gukesh will be the youngest world championship match in history. In 2024, Gukesh vs. GM Ding Liren was a combined age of 50 in the now second-youngest encounter. In 2026, both players will be the same age, 20, for the first time since GM Vladimir Kramnik vs. GM Veselin Topalov in 2006. They were both 31.

Sindarov is world number-five on the live rating list, and Gukesh is number-15. 

Giri ½-½ Sindarov

Isai Scheinberg made the ceremonial first move. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The game itself was rather anticlimactic, but that's a testament to Sindarov's unbreakable defense. Over 58 moves, the champion played with 99.5 accuracy—an essentially perfect game. With this game, he is at a 50-game unbeaten streak—his last loss was against GM Ivan Cheparinov in round three of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss.

Sindarov said it was "not easy but a close-to-easy draw," pointing to 20.Qf3 as one moment where Giri could have pushed harder. After the queen trade on move 20, he said he felt no more pressure.

Reflecting on the tournament as a whole, he said that both games against Praggnanandhaa were some of his best, but he favored the "very technical game" against Caruana even more. He defeated Caruana in round four and then held a dangerous position, probably his shakiest game in the event, in round 11.

At this time in 2025, Sindarov could never have imagined he'd be playing a world championship match just one year later. He quipped that he'd spent a lot of time over the years playing Counter-Strike, though he doesn't regret it.

"When these guys worked 10 hours in a day [studying chess], I spent my time every day with Counter-Strike," said Sindarov about how he spent his time after becoming a grandmaster. #FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/ffTqga8v3j

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 14, 2026

He also commented on his remarkable improvement, saying, "I'm very happy, but I'm not that surprised to win this tournament, because I always believed in myself." When he finished second in Tata Steel Chess 2026 earlier this year, he realized, "I have all chances to win this tournament," and his countryman GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov told him the same thing.

Along with thanking his sponsors and all of his fans, he also thanked his seconds, GM Mukhiddin Madaminov and GM Roman Vidonyak. The chess fever in Uzbekistan continues to climb.

🇺🇿 Uzbekistan Chess Federation FanZone!#FIDECandidates #Chess #FIDE #Cyprus pic.twitter.com/yavAx3V6jJ

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 14, 2026

Sindarov doesn't have much time to celebrate or even to rest, as in two weeks he'll play in the Grand Chess Tour's Super Rapid & Blitz Poland. Not to mention the preparation for the most important match of his life.

There were three other games, but they won't have an impact on the world championship. One of the draws was solid and tame, and the other was not.

Another near-miss for Caruana. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Caruana played a tremendous game, allowing his bishop to be trapped on g3 but winning three pawns in return—with an attack to boot. He converted flawlessly to a point, but just before move 40 allowed Praggnanandhaa to escape, when the American was essentially one idea from achieving the full point.

In the other draw, Bluebaum held Nakamura in a solid Queen's Gambit Declined. It's the German star's 12th draw in 13 rounds, with just one loss against Caruana in round five. Both he and Nakamura are on six points.

You can watch Nakamura's video recap here.

Wei 1-0 Esipenko

Wei won the only decisive game of the round, and his two wins in the event came against Esipenko. "I was lucky after the opening because I didn't like my position," he said, pointing to 9.Qc2 as a mistake.

We had a sharp battle in a Petroff where White forsook the right to castle, a plan that Wei had already tried against GM Yu Yangyi in 2017. The Chinese grandmaster added that nine years ago, his opponent didn't know anything about this line, and that Esipenko understood the position much better.

In the "deep dark forest" of tactics, Esipenko sacrificed a piece, but missed a key detail that arose four moves later (23.Bxe4!). From there, his position deteriorated and Wei stamped out the flames of any initiative.

Sindarov has one more game, against Wei, in the tournament. If he draws, he will achieve the best score in Candidates history by half a point, beating GM Ian Nepomniachtchi's record. 

Candidates Round 14 Pairings

FIDE Women's Candidates: Assaubayeva Catches Vaishali In Lead 

We got three decisive games in the penultimate round, and it could easily have been four.

Women's Candidates Round 13 Results

Only Tan and Divya are completely out of the running to win the Women's FIDE Candidates, while leaders Assaubayeva and Vaishali can be caught by any of the four players behind them.

Women's Candidates Standings After Round 13

The big winner of round 13 was Assaubayeva, who had started the day half a point behind the leaders. 

Assaubayeva 1-0 Muzychuk

Assaubayeva picked up a third win in four games. Photo: Niki Riga/FIDE.

Assaubayeva seemed to have been knocked out of contention to win the Candidates by back-to-back losses in rounds 5-6, but she goes into the final round as a co-leader after winning three of her last four games. The game against Muzychuk couldn't have started better for the Kazakh player, who had used almost no time until move 13 when she already found herself in a position that commentators GMs Judit Polgar and David Howell described as "pleasant and risk-free."

Assaubayeva exchanged knights on d5, and in the play that followed Muzychuk had nothing better than to give up a pawn. It wasn't all one-way traffic, however, with Assaubayeva saying after the game: 

It was a very pleasant game for me because I have a big advantage after the opening and also a big advantage by time, but then I think I made a few mistakes and probably at some moment she had a draw, but I don’t know how. In the end I’m happy that I won the game. 

A well-timed ...a6 might have equalized, but 32...a6?, played with under three minutes on the clock, was the point of no return—Assaubayeva gained a passed pawn on b6 and it was no longer possible for Muzychuk to defend pawns on both sides of the board.

Muzychuk still has an outside chance of winning the tournament, but Assaubayeva goes into the final round as co-leader. She also has some inspiration from the FIDE Candidates winner Sindarov.

Assaubayeva congratulates Sindarov on his win. Photo: Niki Riga/FIDE.

She commented: "I’m very happy for him and very proud because I know him for the last five years and we grew up looking at each other’s achievements. He’s one of the kindest people in the world, I think, and I’m very happy that he won—he absolutely deserves it."

He’s one of the kindest people in the world, I think, and I’m very happy that he won—he absolutely deserves it.

—Bibisara Assaubayeva on Javokhir Sindarov

Assaubayeva explained that Sindarov will likely now help her prepare for the final round, as he also helped her qualify for the Candidates:

He qualified first for the FIDE Candidates and I also had some nervous situation in the World Rapid and Blitz, and after the World Cup he said, 'now we will focus on your qualification, and then we will prepare for the Candidates.' That’s very good!  

Vaishali's escape against Tan proved enough to retain the lead. Photo: Niki Riga/FIDE.

Assaubayeva leads with Vaishali, who started the day half a point ahead and needed resilient defense, and some help from Tan, to make a draw.

While two players had reached 7.5 points, Zhu was enticed by the prospect of going into the final round in the clear lead on eight points. It would end in tears.

Zhu 0-1 Goryachkina

Goryachkina turned the game around. Photo: Niki Riga/FIDE.

This was a must-win game for Goryachkina, but on move 27 she was happy to take a draw by three-fold repetition to survive a tricky position. Zhu, who has now had nine decisive games in 13, chose to play on, and, at first, it looked as though fortune might favor the brave. She had an extra pawn and an advantage, but the commentators kept noting that with Goryachkina's outside passed pawn it remained a game for three results.

Nevertheless, no one could have expected the game to swing so suddenly. Polgar and Howell had only seconds to ponder why 51.Re5? was a losing mistake and wonder how unlikely Goryachkina was to find the killer 51...Kh8! before it was played.

Zhu Jiner's 51.Re5? is a losing blunder and Goryachkina instantly plays the key move, 51...Kh8! https://t.co/Yq55Zighyx#FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/KUZ2L30wG2

— chess24 (@chess24com) April 14, 2026

Goryachkina was suddenly winning and went on to pick up a win that dealt a huge blow to Zhu's chances while also keeping herself, Muzychuk, and Lagno in with an outside chance of winning the Candidates. 

Zhu Jiner's ambition proved her downfall. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

That's our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.

That meant that Lagno's win could still be more than a consolation.

Lagno 1-0 Divya

Two trends continued in this game. One is that Lagno has always returned to 50 percent after each decisive game. Three times she moved to +1 and lost the next game, while in round 12 she slipped to -1 and now followed up with a win. The other trend is that Divya's tournament has fallen apart since she won a lost position against Muzychuk in round eight—she's now lost four of the next five games.

Lagno has oscillated around 50 percent, but could end on a potentially winning +1. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The game was one-way traffic, with Lagno overwhelming Black's defenses.

So while Gukesh's challenger has been decided, who will face GM Ju Wenjun is completely in the balance, particularly as the players at the top aren't facing each other in the final round.

Vaishali (with White vs. Lagno) and Assaubayeva (Black vs. Divya) have their fate in their own hands, since if they win, they know they'll at least reach a rapid playoff for the title. If either draws, only Zhu can catch them with a win. If Goryachkina, Lagno, and Divya all win, however, and Zhu doesn't win, we'd have a five-way rapid round-robin for the coveted first place, with blitz potentially to follow.  

FIDE Women's Candidates: Round 14 Pairings 

Colin McGourty contributed to this report.

How to watch?
You can watch the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament on Chess24's YouTube and Twitch channels. The games can also be followed from our Events Page. 

The live broadcast was hosted by GM Judit Polgar, GM David Howell, and John Sargent.

The FIDE Candidates Tournament is the most important FIDE tournament of the year. In the Open and Women's events, eight players play each other twice for the right to challenge the FIDE World Champions Gukesh Dommaraju and Ju Wenjun to a match for the title.

Previous coverage: