ChessBase India

With every passing round, it seems more and more probable that Javokhir Sindarov will win the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026. Even though he just made a solid draw against Andrey Esipenko today, he is now a full 2 points ahead of the field!

World no.2 Hikaru Nakamura scores his first win! Hikaru took down his compatriot Fabiano Caruana with the White pieces in Round 8 today. Anish Giri won a spectacular game with the White pieces against Praggnanandhaa, finishing with a Rook sacrifice! Matthias Blübaum drew against Wei Yi.

Here are the pairings for the 9th round tomorrow. What are your predictions?

Hikaru Nakamura vs Andrey Esipenko
Fabiano Caruana vs Anish Giri
R. Praggnanandhaa vs Wei Yi
Matthias Blübaum vs Javokhir Sindarov


After 8 rounds of play at the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026, there are no less than 5 players in joint lead!

Divya Deshmukh turned around a close to lost position against Anna Muzychuk with the Black pieces. Kateryna Lagno scored a dominating win against Aleksandra Goryachkina, and Zhu Jiner defeated her countrymate Tan Zhongyi! Vaishali had a slightly better position against Bibisara Assaubayeva, but Bibisara held the game to a draw.

Both Divya and Vaishali are now in the leaders pack with 4.5/8 points. Here are the pairings for Round 9 tomorrow- what are your predictions?

Tan Zhongyi vs Anna Muzychuk
Zhu Jiner vs Kateryna Lagno
Aleksandra Goryachkina vs Bibisara Assaubayeva
Vaishali Rameshbabu vs Divya Deshmukh

Photos: FIDE/Yoav Nis, Michal Walusza
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1 day ago | [YT] | 1,638

ChessBase India

Rest Day at the FIDE Candidates 2026 - Amruta Mokal with the man in form, Javokhir "6/7" Sindarov!

2 days ago | [YT] | 5,591

ChessBase India

Javokhir Sindarov's 4-game winning streak finally came to an end! It was Anish Giri who made a hard-fought draw against Sindarov with the Black pieces. Sindarov was pushing for a long time in a slightly favorable ending, but the game finally ended in a draw with Anish's staunch defense.

The only decisive game of the round was played by Wei Yi! Wei Yi won a brilliant game with the Black pieces to defeat Andrey Esipenko in just 30 moves.

Matthias Blübaum and Hikaru Nakamura made a solid draw, while Praggnanandhaa had to fight against Caruana's excellent opening preparation and figure out his way to make a draw.

Going into the 2nd rest day, Sindarov still keeps a 1.5 points lead - he is on 6/7 points. Here are the pairings for Round 8, starting from 6:15 PM IST on 7th April:

Andrey Esipenko vs Javokhir Sindarov
Wei Yi vs Matthias Blübaum
Anish Giri vs R. Praggnanandhaa
Hikaru Nakamura vs Fabiano Caruana

The 7th round of the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026 saw perhaps the biggest blunder of the tournament so far. Tan Zhongyi outplayed Vaishali to create a winning position, made a mistake, and in a completely equal position blundered a full piece against Vaishali Rameshbabu! Vaishali took the chance immideatly and won the game, scoring her 2nd win in a row.

The leader Anna Muzychuk drew against Bibisara Assaubayeva, and Goryachkina drew against Zhu Jiner. Divya had a winning position against Kateryna Lagno, but couldn't convert it - Kateryna went on to hold the draw in a marathon struggle.

After the first half of the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026, the late replacement Anna Muzychuk is still the sole leader with 4.5/7 points. Vaishali is just half a point behind with 4/7 points, while Divya is on 3.5/7 points. Here are the pairings for Round 8 tomorrow - what are your predictions?

Anna Muzychuk vs Divya Deshmukh
Bibisara Assaubayeva vs Vaishali Rameshbabu
Kateryna Lagno vs Aleksandra Goryachkina
Tan Zhongyi vs Zhu Jiner

Photos: FIDE/Michal Walusza, Yoav Nis
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2 days ago | [YT] | 1,635

ChessBase India

Even on days where every other game ends in a solid draw without much action, you can count on one player to score a win. For Candidates Tournament 2026, that player is Javokhir Sindarov - he scored his 4th win in a row, now taking down Wei Yi with the Black pieces in Round 6!

With Praggnanandhaa making a solid draw against Nakamura, Fabiano drawing Esipenko, and Anish trying for a long time but drawing against Bluebaum, Javokhir's win is all the more significant- he now has a 1.5 point lead on the field.

Tomorrow is the 7th round, which signifies the end of the first half of the Candidates. Here are the pairings:

Andrey Esipenko vs Wei Yi
Javokhir Sindarov vs Anish Giri
Matthias Blübaum vs Hikaru Nakamura
R. Praggnanandhaa vs Fabiano Caruana

The 6th round of FIDE Women's Candidates 2026 was an amazing one for the Indian players. Both Vaishali and Divya won their games! Divya Deshmukh defeated Bibisara Assaubayeva with the Black pieces, outplaying her from an equal Major piece ending. Vaishali Rameshbabu came out on top against Kateryna Lagno in a completely wild game!

Anna Muzychuk became the sole leader, scoring a very important win with the Black pieces against Zhu Jiner. Anna is now leading with a full point margin! Tan Zhongyi made a solid draw against Aleksandra Goryachkina.

Here are the pairings for Round 7 - what are your predictions, who will take the lead?

Anna Muzychuk vs Bibisara Assaubayeva
Divya Deshmukh vs Kateryna Lagno
Vaishali Rameshbabu vs Tan Zhongyi
Aleksandra Goryachkina vs Zhu Jiner

Photos: FIDE/Michal Walusza, Yoav Nis
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4 days ago | [YT] | 1,894

ChessBase India

This is simply an inhuman performance by Javokhir Sindarov. The Uzbek Superstar just scored his 4th win in a row at FIDE Candidates 2026 - this time taking down Wei Yi with the Black pieces in Round 6!

After 6 rounds of play, Javokhir Sindarov is on an unbelievable 5.5/6 points. What a guy!

Photo: FIDE/Michal Walusza
#chess #ChessBaseIndia #sindarov

4 days ago | [YT] | 4,413

ChessBase India

Javokhir Sindarov is easily playing the best chess of his life. The Uzbek Superstar has now scored 3 wins in a row at the FIDE Candidates 2026! In the 5th round, Sindarov scored a superb win with the Black pieces against Hikaru Nakamura. He is now the sole leader with 4.5/5 points - on a +4 score, which is generally considered to be enough to win!

Fabiano Caruana is on his toes though - he keeps the gap just 1 point by scoring a beautiful win against Matthias Blübaum, checkmating him on the board! Fabiano is on 3.5/5 points.

The other two games in Round 5 were both solid draws - Praggnanandhaa drew against Andrey Esipenko, and Anish Giri drew against Wei Yi. Here are the round 6 pairings:

Fabiano Caruana vs Andrey Esipenko
Hikaru Nakamura vs Praggnanandhaa
Anish Giri vs Matthias Blübaum
Wei Yi vs Javokhir Sindarov

While the Open section has a clear leader with a huge lead, things are far from clear in the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026! After 5 rounds of play, there are 3 leaders - Kateryna Lagno, Anna Muzychuk and Zhu Jiner.

In the 5th round, Kateryna Lagno and Zhu Jiner defeated Bibisara Assaubayeva and Vaishali Rameshbabu respectively in quite comfortable fashion. It was a solid short draw between Aleksandra Goryachkina and Anna Muzychuk, while Divya Deshmukh saved a tough position to draw against Tan Zhongyi.

Here are the pairings for Round 6 starting from 6:15 PM IST today. What are your predictions?

Zhu Jiner vs Anna Muzychuk
Tan Zhongyi vs Aleksandra Goryachkina
Kateryna Lagno vs Vaishali Rameshbabu
Bibisara Assaubayeva vs Divya Deshmukh

Photos: FIDE/Yoav Nis, Michal Walusza
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4 days ago | [YT] | 3,921

ChessBase India

After 3 rounds of play at the FIDE Candidates 2026, there are now 2 players leading - Javokhir Sindarov and Fabiano Caruana. Both of them scored wins today, moving to 2.5/3 points - they will face each other in the 4th round.

Fabiano Caruana took just 19 moves to defeat Wei Yi after the latter made a big mistake, blundering a full piece to a tactical sequence. Javokhir Sindarov played an inspired game with the Black pieces, sacrificing a piece and defeating R. Praggnanandhaa!

Both Anish Giri and Andrey Esipenko had slightly favorable positions with the Black pieces against Hikaru Nakamura and Matthias Bluebaum today, but both the games ended in a draw. Here are the pairings for Round 4 starting 6:15 PM IST tomorrow:

Andrey Esipenko vs Anish Giri
Wei Yi vs Hikaru Nakamura
Javokhir Sindarov vs Fabiano Caruana
Matthias Bluebaum vs R. Praggnanandhaa

After 2 rounds of no decisive results, Round 3 turned out to be a highly exciting one at the FIDE Women's Candidates! Bibisara Assaubayeva and Kateryna Lagno scored wins with the Black pieces against Zhu Jiner and Tan Zhongyi respectively.

The games of both the Indian players ended in a draw - Divya Deshmukh saved a lost Rook endgame against Aleksandra Goryachkina, and Vaishali Rameshbabu had a solid draw against Anna Muzychuk.

Bibisara got into serious trouble out of the opening against Zhu Jiner, but managed to find her way out. Soon she got a winning advantage, and went on to convert smoothly!

The game between Tan Zhongyi and Kateryna Lagno was a real Rollercoaster battle. Both players had winning positions multiple times in the game! But it was Tan Zhongyi who made the final mistake- Kateryna Lagno went on to win.

Here are the pairings for the 4th round today, starting from 6:15 PM IST. What are your predictions?

Anna Muzychuk vs Kateryna Lagno
Bibisara Assaubayeva vs Tan Zhongyi
Divya Deshmukh vs Zhu Jiner
Vaishali Rameshbabu vs Aleksandra Goryachkina

Photos: FIDE/Yoav Nisenbaum, Michal Walusza
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1 week ago | [YT] | 2,135

ChessBase India

After a fiery first round, it was a peaceful round 2 at the FIDE Candidates 2026. All four games ended in a draw, with their fair share of interesting moments!

Praggnanandhaa played the French against Wei Yi, and showed impressive preparation just like Round 1 - taking an almost 1 hour advantage on the clock! Pragg's position was slowly getting better, but he missed a key move to increase the pressure. Wei Yi, as sharp as he is, quickly found a way to untangle and went on to hold a draw.

Andrey Esipenko managed to put some pressure on Hikaru Nakamura in the endgame, but it was not enough - Hikaru defended well, and the game ended in a draw after a marathon battle.

Anish Giri made a relatively short draw against Fabiano Caruana, and Matthias Bluebaum drew his 2nd game in a row - this time against Javokhir Sindarov. Here are are the pairings for Round 3 tomorrow:

Matthias Blübaum vs Andrey Esipenko
R. Praggnanandhaa vs Javokhir Sindarov
Fabiano Caruana vs Wei Yi
Hikaru Nakamura vs Anish Giri

After 2 rounds of play, the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026 is yet to see a decisive game - all 8 games have been drawn so far. But that hardly means a lack of excitement- in fact, the most exciting game of the tournament so far was played today between Divya Deshmukh and Vaishali Rameshbabu!

Both players were under serious time trouble - and then Vaishali made a tactical mistake. The refutation was very difficult to find in such low time! Divya calculated it all correctly, but Vaishali was one step ahead - she found a beautiful Queen sacrifice which Divya had missed, and forced a draw soon! What an amazing game.

Zhu Jiner perhaps had an even bigger chance to win today against Kateryna Lagno with the Black pieces. But one mistake, and it all turned - Kateryna found a nice Rook sacrifice to force a perpetual, and the game ended in a draw.

The two other games ended in relatively short draws - Tan Zhongyi drew against Anna Muzychuk, and Bibisara Assaubayeva drew Aleksandra Goryachkina. Here are the pairings for Round 3:

Vaishali Rameshbabu vs Anna Muzychuk
Aleksandra Goryachkina vs Divya Deshmukh
Zhu Jiner vs Bibisara Assaubayeva
Tan Zhongyi vs Kateryna Lagno

Photos: FIDE/ Yoav Nis, Michal Walusza
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1 week ago | [YT] | 2,576

ChessBase India

It'll be the second time for Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the Candidates Tournament- after Toronto, he'll fight again in Cyprus just 4 days from now. Here is Pragg's head-to-head score against the 7 other players of FIDE Candidates 2026 ( including Classical, Rapid, Blitz and online games):

1. Pragg vs Fabiano Caruana: 14 draws
Wins: 10
Losses: 14

2. Pragg vs Hikaru Nakamura: 8 draws
Wins: 7
Losses: 13

3. Pragg vs Anish Giri: 22 draws
Wins: 10
Losses: 13

4. Pragg vs Wei Yi: 12 draws
Wins: 13
Losses: 21

5. Pragg vs Javokhir Sindarov: 9 draws
Wins: 8
Losses: 6

6. Pragg vs Andrey Esipenko: 2 draws
Wins: 3
Losses: 3

7. Pragg vs Matthias Bluebaum: 1 draw
Wins: 0
Losses: 1

What are your predictions for Praggnanandhaa in the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026? Let us know in the comments!

Graphic: Anmol Bhargav
[Chess] [ChessBase India] [Candidates] [Praggnanandhaa]

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 3,024

ChessBase India

"Candidates must not fear"

DUNE X FIDE CANDIDATES 2026

8 players. 14 rounds. 1 Winner, who will challenge the World Champion. Who are you rooting for?

Created by: @sunle_anmol
[Chess] [ChessBase India] [FIDE Candidates] [Dune 3]

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2 weeks ago | [YT] | 6,477