Is The Candidates We All Waited For Done And Dusted Already?

Hang on… is this already over?

That's what the chess world was left asking itself on Tuesday night as GM Javokhir Sindarov, the undoubted man of the moment, pulled even further into the lead at the all-important FIDE Candidates Tournament.

Sindarov has truly been on fire since arriving in Cyprus.

Now on 6.5/8, with a two-point lead with six rounds to go, the talented kid—ok, 20-year-old—from Uzbekistan looks nailed on to claim the tournament, and with it, a shot at the world title later this year.

As it happens, in Round 8, after the second rest day, he didn't even need fire—he just secured a calm, controlled draw with the black pieces against GM Andrey Esipenko.

Sindarov blitzed out his moves in a main-line Catalan, building up more than a 30-minute advantage on the clock. "I prepared very well. I expected a Catalan and a long game, and after the opening I reached a position from my preparation," he explained afterward.

How It Happened

On move 20, he made a well-judged pawn sacrifice to seize complete control of the light squares. Sindarov explained: "I understood that if I didn’t sacrifice a pawn, I would be slightly worse."

Esipenko spent nearly half an hour searching for a better continuation but ultimately found nothing more than a threefold repetition.

Sindarov had his result. And that was after he apparently had his prep leaked on the internet. Sindarov played that down afterwards saying, "It's not a big deal":

But that’s all that was required: calmness, because at this point Sindarov has already built the kind of lead that turns solid half-points into gold dust.

Commentators seem in shock. We are in shock. Sindarov is only in Cyprus because he pulled off a win no-one saw coming at the 2025 FIDE World Cup!

In an amusing aside, GM Magnus Carlsen was asked about him too while playing at the Grenke Chess Festival in Germany.

He said: "Actually, even my wife asked me the other day: 'What’s going on with Sindarov’s performance? Have you ever done anything like that?'

"And I was like: 'Thanks for asking! But not really…' Which just goes to show that his performance so far is very, very special!"

While others are trading punches behind him, the youngster is doing something far more ominous: not losing. And in a 14-round marathon, that's how tournaments get quietly wrapped up before anyone notices.

So far it's all falling into place for him. GM Hikaru Nakamura, disappointing in the event until now, did Sindarov a huge favour by taking down closest rival GM Fabiano Caruana. In doing so, Nakamura kept his world number-two spot.

GM Anish Giri, the Dutch number-one, also kept himself in the conversation by beating Sindarov's other big threat going into the round GM Praggnanandhaa R.

Caruana and Giri are currently in joint second place on 4.5, with Sindarov way out in front.

Let's not forget how we got here.

Sindarov didn’t just creep into the lead—he stormed into it. Early rounds saw him racking up wins with the best-ever start to a Candidates tournament and opening up a gap that the rest simply haven’t been able to close.

In Round 4 he downed Caruana, in brutal fashion.

By Round 6, Sindarov was already being described as "unstoppable." By Round 8, the conversation has shifted again to "how does anyone catch him?"

Something big has to happen now if he isn't going to win it. The next few rounds are going to be tense.

Round 9 starts on April 8 at 3.30pm (Cyprus).