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