World Chess Weekly: Gukesh Still Searching For Form As Sindarov Lines Up Challenge

There's no doubt what the big news of the week was: Uzbek sensation GM Javokhir Sindarov sealing the deal at the FIDE Candidates Tournament a day early to secure a shot at the world title later this year.

When that match exactly happens, we don't know yet. It's probably December. But until it does, all eyes will be on Sindarov and the reigning champ GM Gukesh D for what will be the youngest classical World Chess Championship match in history.

GM Vaishali R was a popular winner of the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates and pictures of her being embraced by her mother were a fitting end to a titanic tournament in Cyprus.

For FIDE, the event was a success: the fireworks were on the board, not on the venue as feared by some before it started. FIDE was proved right to press on despite war in the Middle East.

Looming in the background, of course, is GM Magnus Carlsen, the world number-one and five-time World Champion. Carlsen continues to take little interest in FIDE's classical World Championship Cycle, which he won five times in a decade of dominance.

And What About Magnus?

Would a win for new and exciting Sindarov tempt him back?

In an interview with the Saint Louis Chess Club, chess legend GM Garry Kasparov seemed to think so.

He said: "The current World Champion is 19. The challenger is only 20. But I still want to emphasise that the strongest chess player is 35. With all due respect.

"I would love to see Sindarov playing Magnus, because Carlsen is still around. Maybe if Sindarov beats Gukesh, then there will be a chance to bring Magnus back and see how things go."

The 20-year-old Sindarov is in the form of his life. He out-prepared everyone at the notoriously tough Candidates and stormed through the field unbeaten. It was a distinctly Carlsen-like tour de force.

Most commentators had the two U.S. heavyweights GM Fabiano Caruana or GM Hikaru Nakamura, both long-time adversaries of Carlsen, as their favourites. The pair occupy numbers two and three in the world rankings, after all.

But Sindarov blew them away with aplomb to follow up his 2025 World Cup win with another huge tournament scalp that qualified him for the game's ultimate prize. It felt like a changing of the guard. For Caruana and Nakamura it was a blow.

While this was happening, Sindarov's upcoming opponent, Gukesh, was also in action in the Mediterranean, on the Spanish island of Menorca. But it was a very different story: his miserable 2026 continues.

Gukesh had a brief moment when he looking like he might be regaining some form, but ultimately ended with a -1 score finishing fourth with 4.5 points at the Cerrado Chess Menorca Masters.

It's better than his joint last at the Prague Masters in March, but he'll need to find some form before the title match. Gukesh has already said he's planning to step back to rediscover his game.

Instead, it was his fellow Indian GM Nihal Sarin who was victorious, winning a clear first place with 6/10 points. The event was a 10-round Round Robin featuring six world-class players with an average rating of 2705.

Sarin finished half a point ahead of former World Champion GM Ruslan Ponomariov and GM Richard Rapport, who both ended on 5.5 points.

GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who last week triumphed at the Semana Santa Open, also in Spain, won the Open A section on tie-breaks. Mishra, the youngest-ever GM in history, finished top in a 42-GM field with 7.5 points.

Afterwards, he posted this on X complaining about not getting open event invites:

Elsewhere, the rise of Turkish GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus shows no sign of stopping.

The 14-year-old has broken another record by becoming the youngest 2700-player in history after reaching a new peak live rating of 2704 points. That will need to be confirmed in the next FIDE ratings release at the end of this month, however.

Erdogmus chalked up the points aged 14 years and 10 months playing a match with former World Champion Veselin Topalov in Monaco titled Topalov vs. Erdogmus: Clash of Generations III.

Erdogmus won three of the encounters with the Bulgarian legend and surpassed the previous mark held by Chinese GM Wei Yi who became 2700+ at 15 years and eight months.

Headlines From The Week:

• What Does Viktor Orban's Election Defeat Mean For Chess? Quite A Lot Actually, Just Ask FIDE
• Should FIDE's New Partnership Raise Questions? Freedom Holding's Growing Role in Funding Chess
• Sindarov Sets Up Youngest-Ever World Title Match With Stunning Win At FIDE Candidates
• Indian Joy As Vaishali Wins Women's Candidates To Earn World Title Shot