Did Dubov Beat the World's Best Prep'd Grandmaster From His Bed? He Did.

The broadcast showed Dubov in a Red Bull t-shirt, horizontal, playing through a 3-0 sweep of the recent Candidates winner. The internet supplied the correct word: aura. The chess internet, which agrees on nothing, agreed he should stay in bed as long as he can.

The games backed it up. The first featured a positional exchange sacrifice that the engine didn't approve and Sindarov couldn't handle. Dubov wasn't lucky. He was precise and, apparently, comfortable.

Sindarov had just come off a Candidates performance Fabiano Caruana called one of the strongest in the tournament's history — an unbeaten run that earned him the right to challenge Gukesh Dommaraju for the World Championship. He arrived at the bracket as the field's most dangerous player. He left it having dropped three straight to a man who could not locate a desk.

Nihal Sarin knocked Dubov out in the quarterfinals 3-2 via Armageddon. Carlsen advanced unbeaten. Denis Lazavik upset Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The semifinals are Carlsen–Lazavik and Duda–Sarin.

The bed didn't make it past the quarterfinals. It still had a better day than Sindarov.