In a dominant performance perhaps never seen before at the Candidates chess, Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov clinched victory in Cyprus to set up a World Championship match against the current champion, India’s D Gukesh.Winning six of his 13 games and no losses, the 20-year-old drew Dutchman Anish Giri in the 13th round on Tuesday and with that, sealed the Candidates chess tournament in Cyprus with a round to spare. He jumped to 9.5 points and Giri to 7.5. If Gukesh winning the Candidates in 2024 was a shocker, Sindarov in 2026 was all shock and awe. In 2024, Gukesh won, defeating China’s Ding Liren in the 14th and final game of their match.In the previous seven Candidates in this format since 2013, only V Anand (2014) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (2022) had won the event before the last round. Whether Sindarov’s challenge ends with a prize-winning move will be decided in some months from now through a new chapter of Indo-Uzbek rivalry with Gukesh and the new prince are expected to cross cerebral swords.The Gukesh-Sindarov clash will be the ‘youngest world chess championship matchup ever’, with a combined age of 40, breaking the record of Magnus Carlsen vs Swrgey Karjakin in 2016 when both were 26. Sindarov refused to tell the name of the two seconds he is working with remotely saying that can be done after his match with Gukesh. He is coached by IM Roman Vidonyak with GM Mukhiddin Madaminov being his second.Sindarov told the FIDE webcast: “Last week was hard. I could not sleep properly. I wanted to finish in the Top 3 and show that I was not lucky to qualify for this tournament.” Compared to the Indian players who work 10 hours a day, Sindarov said he did not work hard enough after becoming a GM in 2019. “I used to play a lot of Counter-Strike (video game). After quarantine, I started to work hard.”Asked about his preferred choice of the venue for the match against Gukesh, he said, “I don’t want to play the match in cold weather in Uzbekistan. I would like a hot country like Cyprus.”He told the FIDE broadcast that he is very happy that he could finish it before the last round.
