The 20-year-old Sindarov, the youngest in the 8-player lineup, is toying with the world’s elite in what is widely considered the most brutal gauntlet in chess, the final step before a shot at the World Championship title.
The American World No 2 spent 67 minutes, 44 seconds thinking about a move, as Sindarov stomped to a win two days after defeating top American Fabiano Caruana
The 20-year-old Uzbek outsmarted the American having anticipated upto 16 moves on the Queen's Gambit Accepted, getting a good time cushion as a result of blitzing through the openings
Srinath isn't fully convinced of Pragg's chances. "It's far from hopeless. The Candidates rarely gets decided so early. But at the same time, the performance so far hasn't given the impression that Pragg is going to be an overwhelming favourite or dominate the field," he told The Indian Express.
The chess 'Second' used to be a grizzled grandmaster with decades of experience. In Cyprus, veterans whispering Soviet-era lines have been replaced by teenagers grinding engine lines at 3 am
The women's Candidates tournament leader has drawn with R Vaishali, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Tan Zhongyi but won with black against Chinese Zhu Jiner
For Gukesh, 2024 was a career defining year: he won the ultra-competitive Candidates in the first time of asking, became the youngest world champion in history and, in between those two feats, led India to a barnstorming gold-medal winning campaign at the Chess Olympiad.
After beating Anish Giri in first round, Indian Grandmaster comes out aggressive against Chinese GM, who holds on; R Vaishali & Divya Deshmukh draw all-Indian encounter.
Thrice runner-up at World Championships, the 2024 Candidates winning GM from Chuanyu reckons chess playing styles reflect history of home towns in China
The opening, a wild variant of Sicilian Defence, is favored by club players for its very straightforward plan of pushing the f-pawn and giving checkmate, as per Chess.com
Even as Giri laboured through the next 15 moves, the result was inevitable. Pragg walked away with a full point, marking an extraordinary start to his second Candidates.
When an online chess academy where Anish Giri is coach alongside GM RB Ramesh (coach of Pragg) on March 28, he had a thousand options running through his mind
The German, with one of the two lowest ratings in the 8-man field, only recently availed of a Second to help him out, and joked it was ok to drag Esipenko down because he supported Arsenal.
Cyprus might be too close to the West Asia attacks, but for the Candidates favourite, the hotel and playing hall being closeby makes the venue comfortable enough.
FIDE Candidates 2026 Schedule, Format, Top Players, Prize Money: The Indian Express provides all the information you need to know about the Candidates in Cyprus, set to start from March 28.
Her childhood coach Rahul Joshi recognized her potential and pushed her towards perfection; she acknowledges his contribution despite his demise a few years ago
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