World Chess Weekly: Sindarov Sizzles At The Candidates—But Carlsen's Also In Action In Karlsruhe
It's been an incredible week of chess—make no mistake. And we have a cheating controversy to get our teeth into.
First and foremost, the FIDE Candidates, the biggest most consequential tournament of 2026, kicked off in Cyprus on Sunday. What a spectacle it's been so far.
As we head into Round 5 on Friday, GM Javkohir Sindarov is a full point ahead of the field on 3.5/4—the best-ever start to a Candidates tournament in this double-round-robin format.
Drink that in: a 20-year-old playing in his first Candidates tournament has established a stranglehold already on the Candidates. The rest of the field now need to react.
On Wednesday, Sindarov took down tournament favourite GM Fabiano Caruana in a brutal Round 4 as the American found himself out-prepared and out of time.
The World Cup winner from Uzbekistan was near flawless in his execution of a smooth Queen's Gambit Accepted win. He is a dark horse no longer, now he is the man to beat.
"I never imagined I would go into the rest day with plus three," Sindarov said afterwards. Nor did anyone.
The other American in the field GM Hikaru Nakamura, having crumpled against his compatriot Caruana in Round 1, had an absolute thriller of a game against China's GM Wei Yi.
Wei, the former child prodigy, went from heading to an easy, safe draw to a game-losing blunder in any normal event. But this is the Candidates and the stakes are as high as they get.
Amazingly for a player of his strength, Nakamura couldn't see the path to victory and Wei escaped. The game ended in a draw leaving the two on 1.5/4—not where they hoped they'd be at this stage.
A Row Brews
Following his loss, Nakamura took aim at the anti-cheating measures at the Candidates which involve players being scanned before each round gets under way. On Kick, Nakamura called the security protocols "nonsense," arguing they’ve gone too far.
"At some point you have to ask… who are we? Mossad agents in Iran or what? We’re just chess players."
GM Hans Niemann, no fan of Nakamura, quickly responded on X:
Elsewhere, GM Anish Giri beat GM Andrey Esipenko in another exciting game, while GM Matthias Bluebaum against GM Praggnanandhaa R ended in draws.
In the Women's tournament, GM Anna Muzychuk, the last-minute addition to the tournament, joined GM Bibisara Assaubayeva in the lead. Surely Muzychuk can't do a Greece at the Euros in 2004 and win the thing?
Overall, the tension of the Candidates has been obvious to everyone watching. No surprise, perhaps, when this is the event which decides who gets a shot at the world title.
He are all the Round 4 battles analysed by GM Peter Svidler on FIDE's YouTube channel:
Play resumes for Round 5 of 14 in Friday. The players have had a rest. Will we see some calm draw or will the storm continue?
Catch live commentary and analysis on the FIDE Channel here:
Carlsen In Action
As the Candidates gets off to a flyer, competing for attention is the Grenke Freestyle Chess Open in Karlsruhe. But it has the biggest name in chess bar none, you guessed it, world best player and self-proclaimed GOAT (but nobody's arguing) GM Magnus Carlsen.
Grenke began on Thursday evening, the rest day for the Candidates before Round 5. It is in effect, the event with all the players who should be at the Candidates, but aren't for various reasons.
The world-class tournament is part of the Grenke Chess Festival at the Schwarzwaldhalle, where nearly 4,000 players compete across six events making it, the organisers claim, the largest chess tournament globally.
Play runs from April 2 to 6. The Freestyle Open A is the key event, with the winner qualifying directly for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship.
Play was just starting at the time of writing so we weren't able to recap, but Day 1 is available to watch here:
The field, packed with world-class players, reflects the competitive value of the event. Carlsen tops the bill, naturally, but there is another crowd-pleaser with Germany’s number one GM Vincent Keymer cpompeting along with the other seriously hot Uzbek GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the world’s number five.
If the Candidates wasn't going on, this certainly would be the event to start April with.
Nine rounds will be played. Each game begins with a newly generated starting position. Last year, Carlsen managed to win the Freestyle Open with nine wins out of nine games, a fabulous achievement that the Norwegian believes he will not be able to repeat. He’s trying anyway.
More than 200,000 euros in prize money will be awarded in the Freestyle Open A, with 60,000 euros going to the winner. The top three women will earn spots in the 2027 Women’s Freestyle Chess World Championship.