All posts tagged: Fabiano Caruana

‘Everyone’s letting Javokhir Sindarov do whatever he wants with them at Candidates’, says Levon Aronian | Chess News

‘Everyone’s letting Javokhir Sindarov do whatever he wants with them at Candidates’, says Levon Aronian | Chess News

Published by Webster

3 min readApr 10, 2026 06:41 PM IST After 10 rounds of the Candidates tournament in Cyprus, Uzbek phenom Javokhir Sindarov holds a significant edge heading into the last four rounds. A cushion of a two-point lead over the rest of the field means that at the end of the year, we may very well have a World Championship battle between two of the youngest contenders at the World Championship in history with the 20-year-old Sindarov taking on a 19-year-old Gukesh. One of the men impressed by Sindarov’s rampaging run at the Candidates is chess legend Levon Aronian. “I feel like somehow everybody’s kind of collapsing and just letting Sindarov do anything he wants with them,” Aronian told the St Louis Chess Club’s YouTube channel in an interview while Sindarov was playing against Praggnanandhaa in the 10th round on Thursday. “I think this Candidates tournament is not as exciting as we all were hoping for. Especially for our boys (US stars Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura).” Talking about what makes Sindarov a lethal player, Aronian …

Anish Giri’s witty self-praise after beating Fabiano Caruana in Candidates

Anish Giri’s witty self-praise after beating Fabiano Caruana in Candidates

Published by Webster

5 min readApr 9, 2026 07:14 PM IST Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri never fails to charm his way with his usual quick wit and humour. After beating American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in the ninth round of the Candidates Tournament, Anish moved into second place and within striking distance of the top spot, where Uzbek phenom Javokhir Sindarov has almost cemented his place with an extraordinary start to the event. Anish won his second game in a row after beating India’s R Praggnanandhaa in the eighth round. He now has 5.5 points from 9 rounds, 1.5 points behind Sindarov, who has seven points. When asked about his two back-to-back wins in the post-match press conference, Anish, with his usual quick wit, called himself “mini Sindarov.” “Two wins in a row! Mini Sindarov, yeah! It’s my own 50 percent version of Sindarov, I guess,” he said, referring to Sindarov’s four consecutive wins in the tournament. While analysing the game he won against Caruana, Anish repeatedly called himself lucky. When Grandmaster Maurice Ashley pointed this out, he said: …

‘Nice to shut up all the idiots’

‘Nice to shut up all the idiots’

Published by Webster

4 min readApr 8, 2026 04:31 PM IST American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura didn’t shy away from taking a dig at those who were doubting him after a poor start at the Candidates Tournament 2026 in Cyprus. After defeating Fabiano Caruana in the eighth round on Tuesday, Nakamura said it felt nice to “shut up all the idiots who think I can’t play chess anymore.” Caruana, who was fighting for the top spot against leader Javokhir Sindarov for the entirety of the first half of the Candidates, was handed a shock loss by his countryman Nakamura in the all-American clash in the first round after the midway break with reversed colours. When asked how he felt after the win against Caruana, Nakamura said: “I feel pretty good. It’s quite nice to shut up all the idiots who think I can’t play chess anymore. Even if I don’t win another game, I’ve at least proved that I belong here. So generally, I’m pretty happy with this game,” he said in the post-match press conference. ALSO READ | …

‘Everyone’s letting Javokhir Sindarov do whatever he wants with them at Candidates’, says Levon Aronian | Chess News

Magnus Carlsen explains why Javokhir Sindarov’s Candidates performance leaves Uzbek GM in ‘hard position to be in’ | Chess News

Published by Webster

3 min readUpdated: Apr 7, 2026 10:51 AM IST At the halfway stage of the Candidates tournament in Cyprus, Uzbek phenom Javokhir Sindarov has coursed into the lead in the open section with a score of 6/7, holding a clear 1 and a ½ point advantage over Fabiano Caruana. His dominance at the event has impressed even former world champion Magnus Carlsen. And while the world no 1 has pointed out that it is “more than likely that Sindarov will win” the Candidates, it is also “hard to be in the position in which he is.” When Carlsen was asked on the sidelines of the Grenke Chess Festival if he thought Sindarov will win the Candidates, he replied: “I think it’s more than likely that he will win, but it is hard to be in the position in which he is, especially if you are in it for the first time. Because when you get to this point, thoughts start creeping into your head and anything but first place is probably going to be a …

Candidates: Javokhir Sindarov’s red-hot form continues with fourth win, Pragg and Co now have to shed safety-first approach | Chess News

Candidates: Javokhir Sindarov’s red-hot form continues with fourth win, Pragg and Co now have to shed safety-first approach | Chess News

Published by Webster

5 min readNew DelhiApr 4, 2026 12:08 AM IST In the history of the Candidates Tournament in its current format, no player had ever scored 3.5 points from the first four rounds. Uzbek sensation Javokhir Sindarov not only matched that mark but has gone one step ahead, surging to 4.5 points in five rounds while casually tearing down Hikaru Nakamura’s defences as if for fun in Cyprus on Friday. The 20-year-old, the youngest in the 8-player lineup, is toying with the world’s elite in what is widely considered the most brutal gauntlet in chess, the final step before a shot at the World Championship title. If his win against Fabiano Caruana in the previous round was a lesson in calculated domination, his game against Nakamura was an outright dismantling. Playing at the picturesque Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, perched above the deep blue Mediterranean, Sindarov made the extraordinary look routine to secure his fourth win. The colours don’t matter to Sindarov anymore. With all the stars aligning, he caught Nakamura in his …

How Javokhir Sindarov out-prepared the preparation master and Candidates favourite Fabiano Caruana

How Javokhir Sindarov out-prepared the preparation master and Candidates favourite Fabiano Caruana

Published by Webster

It’s still early days in the chess candidates, but Uzbek Javokhir Sindarov, just 20 like R Praggnanandhaa, is troubling the big names, with stellar preparation. One of the many GMs with teen Seconds – Sindarov trains with Mukhiddin Madaminov, 19 – Sindarov impressed with outsmarting Caruana with this particular line, playing Queen’s Gambit Accepted, playing literally 16 moves on sheer preparation. Usually, preparations run for 12-14 moves at best. “We worked very good with my seconds and we prepared very well and I checked every line which he can play, I thought he would play GA (Queen Gambit Accepted), I thought I needed to repeat the line and I was lucky to get this until move 16 and everything went fantastic,” Sindarov who leads with 3.5/4 told Lichess.org. All the by-hearting and preparation came in handy with his stellar combination of c6, and bishop takes knight d4 – a move played in seconds, which had he sat down to calculate might’ve taken considerably longer. “It was my preparation. If I needed to think about this …

Catch him if you can: Javokhir Sindarov lays down the marker at Candidates, with resounding win against Fabiano Caruana; Pragg plays out safe draw | Cricket News

Catch him if you can: Javokhir Sindarov lays down the marker at Candidates, with resounding win against Fabiano Caruana; Pragg plays out safe draw | Cricket News

Published by Webster

Javokhir Sindarov defies the very idea of a conventional chess player. He lacks the stoic composure of a Fabiano Caruana, doesn’t possess the sharp wit of a Hikaru Nakamura, and is far from the introverted nature of a Wei Yi. He exists as a complete anomaly. He’s the kind of player who will happily lean into someone else’s analysis, buzzing with energy, always smiling but invariably ready to fight over the board. He is the quintessential new-age chess star. After taking down India’s lone hope, R Praggnanandhaa, in the third round while doing so with the black pieces, the newly minted World Cup winner delivered another statement performance on Wednesday, dismantling one of the event’s most experienced favourites, Caruana, in the fourth round. A few months ago at the FIDE World Cup in Goa, Sindarov captured the hearts of chess fans with his dynamic style, sparkling quality of play, and irrepressible charm. Now, he is hogging the spotlight in Cyprus, tearing through a formidable field and storming to such a dominant start at the Candidates …

Catch him if you can: Javokhir Sindarov lays down the marker at Candidates, with resounding win against Fabiano Caruana; Pragg plays out safe draw | Cricket News

Javokhir Sindarov lays down the marker at Candidates, with resounding win against Fabiano Caruana; Pragg plays out safe draw

Published by Webster

Javokhir Sindarov defies the very idea of a conventional chess player. He lacks the stoic composure of a Fabiano Caruana, doesn’t possess the sharp wit of a Hikaru Nakamura, and is far from the introverted nature of a Wei Yi. He exists as a complete anomaly. He’s the kind of player who will happily lean into someone else’s analysis, buzzing with energy, always smiling but invariably ready to fight over the board. He is the quintessential new-age chess star. After taking down India’s lone hope, R Praggnanandhaa, in the third round while doing so with the black pieces, the newly minted World Cup winner delivered another statement performance on Wednesday, dismantling one of the event’s most experienced favourites, Caruana, in the fourth round. A few months ago at the FIDE World Cup in Goa, Sindarov captured the hearts of chess fans with his dynamic style, sparkling quality of play, and irrepressible charm. Now, he is hogging the spotlight in Cyprus, tearing through a formidable field and storming to such a dominant start at the Candidates …

Candidates 2026: R Praggnanandhaa goes down to Javokhir Sindarov in latest installment of India-Uzbekistan chess rivalry | Chess News

Candidates 2026: R Praggnanandhaa goes down to Javokhir Sindarov in latest installment of India-Uzbekistan chess rivalry | Chess News

Published by Webster

It was never meant to be just about two individuals when R Praggnanandhaa and Javokhir Sindarov sat down across the board in the third round of the 2026 Candidates Tournament in Cyprus. Their duel was the latest installment of the India-Uzbekistan rivalry that has come to define a new era in chess, and this time it was Sindarov who emerged victorious, handing Pragg a painful loss. The two nations have spent the better part of half a decade establishing themselves as the rising powerhouses in the game. Their young talents keep clashing at every major event. At the last two Olympiads, it was Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs D Gukesh. In the Candidates, it’s Praggnanandhaa and Sindarov. The foundation of the dynamic was laid two decades ago by two former world champions, Viswanathan Anand and Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Their rivalry ignited in the early 2000s. Anand beat Kasimdzhanov to claim the 2002 World Cup in Hyderabad. The Uzbek returned the favour at the 2005 World Championship before Anand packed another punch. Then, in that very same year, Kasimdzhanov …

FIDE Candidates: Praggnanandhaa beats Anish Giri in the opener

FIDE Candidates: Praggnanandhaa beats Anish Giri in the opener

Published by Parlour News

Paphos , Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa got off to a flier and crashed through the defenses of Dutch GM Anish Giri in the first round of the Candidates chess tournament here on Sunday. On a very eventful first day of the tournament, World Cup champion Javokhir Sindarov used his excellent tactical skill to turn the tables on Russian Andrey Esipenko, while pre-event favourite Fabiano Caruana of the United States was close to a victory over fellow American Hikaru Nakamura. The other game of the eight-player double round-robin tournament is between Matthias Bluebaum of Germany and Wei Yi of China. In the women’s section being played simultaneously, Indian grandmaster and world women’s cup champion Divya Deshmukh drew with last-minute replacement Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine and R Vaishali survived some anxious moments before splitting the point with Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan. It was in fact all-draw day in the women’s event as Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia drew with compatriot Katerya Lagno and all Chinese duel between Jiner Zhu and Zhongyi Tan also ended in a draw. Praggnanandhaa …