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 move, I would have spent 20 minutes. But I played so quickly,” he told Lichess.

However on the line f5, of Fabiano, Sindarov said there was no preparation. The calculating mind then stepped in, though he knew the broad contours of where he would like to be. “After rook g8 I forgot about the bishop e4, but in file I remember if you take queen d4 at some position, and if I need to play g3f3, so I thought rook g8, g3 also cannot be so bad and also h7 pawn was hanging so I thought I have a bit of advantage. But after f5. I realised I’m already very good, and after bishop c4 it should be a very good advantage,” Sindarov said.

The Uzbek, a winner at World Cup and bronze medallist from last Asian Games, said it was one of his finest. “This game will make my list of 60 best games because I played really well and in all critical moments I found best moves.”

His pre-meditation of what Caruana was likely to do meant Sindarov collected previous minutes on the clock to store them away to put time pressure on Fabiano. “My idea was to play solid, but after he forgot his lines I knew I needed to put pressure. I was playing with white so ofcourse I needed to put pressure. If he played well, then it should be draw. But I was lucky to get 16 moves with my preparation and a big time advantage at the same time,” he told Lichess.

Sindarov has used up two whites against two lowest seeds, but also beaten two favourites Caruana, and Praggnanandhaa. The Indian surprised him with queen a4, pinned him fair bit too, but Sindarov who had lost plenty to the Indian as junior came fighting in Round 3 to hand the Indian an avenging defeat, where the usually adept at time trial Indian, was caught scrambling 10 moves in 5 minutes.

Pragg was one of only two players to defeat Sindarov in 2025, a loss the Uzbek overturned at the big stage. “Pragg is very strong. In juniors he used to always beat me. This game was tricky and I was lucky to have easier position in time trial,” Sindarov had told FIDE.

When asked by Lichess if it bothered him that his two whites were gone, he said, “No I don’t think about this a lot. I am just playing chess and walking in tournament hall too much. That’s all I was thinking during the game.”

Mid-game through his match against Pragg, Sindarov’s team also accepted the invite to play Grand Chess Tour, in place of D Gukesh. “I didn’t know who it was, I just heard somebody had backed out. I thought it was Alireza (Firouzja) because it’s esport and he has his contracts. But I was very surprised Gukesh had pulled out. I’m very happy to step in,” he said.