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

