How Javokhir Sindarov brushed off a chess prep leak — and why it’s not the first time
4 min readApr 7, 2026 11:11 PM IST What is a big-ticket chess event without whispers of a player’s meticulously-concocted preparation being out in the open? On a day the rampaging Javokhir Sindarov ended his round 8 Candidates match against the bottom-placed Andrey Esipenko with a 24-move draw in Cyprus, he was asked repeatedly about his opening prep leaking. The rumours came from the fact that an account belonging to Sindarov on the chess platform Lichess had opening ideas left unguarded in its study feature. Soon after the discovery spread on social media — Reddit in particular — the studies were made private. In a sport where grandmasters go through extraordinary lengths to hide their preparation — protecting even the identity of their seconds — a player’s opening lines being visible to the world, including their opponents, is the chess equivalent of a wardrobe malfunction. Months of work rendered unusable overnight. The 20-year-old Sindarov, however, was nonchalant. “It was not a big deal because I don’t remember the last time I opened those studies,” he …
