Candidates Chess: Rivals hope Sindarov fumbles in the jungle

Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri have probably realized that they would need a bit of philosophical mindset to keep going and try and deny Javokhir Sindarov (3.5/4 with 10 rounds to go) from winning the Candidates chess tournament in Paphos, Cyprus.

After missing a chance to draw against Fabiano Caruana in the first round, Nakamura said, “Not finding Kc7 (a key defensive resource against Caruana) was a shame and unacceptable from my side. But that's how life goes.” After failing to get a winning initiative against Wei Yi in the fourth round on Wednesday, the American said on his streaming channel: “The cookie simply hasn’t crumbled in my favour and that’s really just how life goes sometimes.”




After being at the receiving end of some jokes for losing in the opening round to R Praggnanandhaa in the Sicilian Closed - a variation in which Giri has made tutorials - the Dutch showed his prowess in the Sicilian Najdorf against Russian Andrey Esipenko by winning with black pieces in the fourth round.

When asked about finding the balance between keeping things secret and selling a course, Giri told Chess24 webcast: “It is very easy, I sell my secrets. There is collective intelligence. If you are going to sell rubbish, it’s not going to sell sooner or later. So you have to sell secrets. That's life. Everything has a price. Someti-mes, you sacrifice dignity for money.” Sindarov, the youngest participant in the tournament and playing his first Candidates like Gukesh in 2024, finds himself in a comfortable lead with three creditable wins.

He is accompanied by GM Mukhiddin Madaminov as his second. Plus other seconds are working remotely for the 20-year-old World Cup winner. He is not willing to make their identity public yet. But there is nothing secretive about his friendship with Kazakh GM and three-time Women's World Blitz champion Bibisara Assaubayeva, who is playing in the women's section in Cyprus. A couple of early wins had clearly made Sindarov confident. “When he thinks too much, time to do something,” said Sindarov when asked about the well prepared line against veteran Caruana who spent a lot of time on his clock -more than 110 minutes for his first 20 moves.

Leaderboard:

• Open: Javokhir Sindarov (3.5 points), Fabiano Caruana (2.5), Anish Giri, R Praggnanandhaa, Matthias Blubaum (2); Hikaru Nakamura, Wei Yi (1.5); Andrey Esipenko (1).
• Women: Anna Muzychuk, Bibisara Assaubayeva (2.5); Zhu Jiner, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno, R Vaishali (2); Tan Zhongyi, Divya Deshmukh (1.5)

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