Once again it was all about GM Javokhir Sindarov in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament as the Uzbek star won a difficult position against GM Wei Yi to move to a mind-blowing 5.5/6. He leads his closest pursuer GM Fabiano Caruana by 1.5 points after GM Andrey Esipenko held the U.S. champion to a draw. There were also draws in GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and GM Anish Giri vs. GM Matthias Bluebaum, though the latter game stretched to 84 moves.
Late replacement GM Anna Muzychuk took a full-point lead over five players in the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates after taking down GM Zhu Jiner to reach 4/6, while GM Kateryna Lagno was put to the sword by GM Vaishali Rameshbabu. It was a great day for India, as GM Divya Deshmukh also defeated GM Bibisara Assaubayeva for her first win. All the wins came with Black, and it could have been four, as GM Tan Zhongyi had to build a fortress to survive against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina.
Round seven is on Sunday, April 5, starting at 8:45 a.m. ET / 14:45 CEST / 6:15 p.m. IST.
FIDE Candidates: Sindarov Extends His Lead
Sindarov scored the only win in round six to emphasize his total domination.
Candidates Round 6 Results
Sindarov is out of reach for now, moving 1.5 points clear of Caruana and a whopping 3.5 points ahead of the trio in last place.
Candidates Standings After Round 6
It was Sindarov again who stole all the headlines for another round of the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Cyprus.
Wei Yi 0-1 Sindarov
Many of Sindarov’s wins have been built around opening preparation, but this time he was surprised early on by 5.a3.
Tania after Wei Yi’s 5.a3 gets Sindarov thinking: “This may be the first time in the #FIDECandidates the surpriser has been surprised!” pic.twitter.com/pNFURfjmm5
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 4, 2026
The position that soon arose was highly double-edged, but it was Sindarov who navigated the complications better. He would say afterward:
I’m a dynamic player. I understand for my tournament situation I need to play very solid, but if I get a chance to play for both sides in a dynamic position, I will always be very happy!
I understand for my tournament situation I need to play very solid, but if I get a chance to play for both sides in a dynamic position, I will always be very happy!
—Javokhir Sindarov Â
Wei has never been afraid of playing dynamic positions and explained he wanted to push for a win with White, but he was let down by his time management. When 27…Re8?! (27…Be5!) gave him a chance to get back into the game, he was down to six minutes to Sindarov’s 51.
Javokhir Sindarov rushes in a winning position and Wei Yi is back in the game! #FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/5f3uE8vl4X
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 4, 2026
Wei missed the narrow path and soon it was Sindarov notching up a fifth win in six games.
Sindarov’s staggering run continues as he beats Wei Yi to reach 5.5/6! #FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/UdtuL6K82H
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 4, 2026
That’s our Game of the Day, and it has been analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao below.
Sindarov’s out-of-this-world run continues, with 5.5/6 and only Giri to go before he’s played all his opponents.
Sindarov told FM Mike Klein this was only “maybe” the tournament of his life, before clarifying, “I’m only 20—I will play a lot of tournaments after this tournament, so that’s why I said maybe!”
The theme of age returned when Sindarov was told Nakamura was a fan (he said of Sindarov and Praggnanandhaa that it’s “a breath of fresh air to play and talk to people who on some level view the game differently than the older generation”):
Sindarov on learning Nakamura is a fan: “I was also one of the biggest fans of his! When I was young he was really my idol, I have a photo with him back in 2012 when I was a small boy. I was always loving his games, because he was playing the King’s Indian…”#FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/I5DSKp1tNa
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 4, 2026
For now the closest Sindarov’s rivals are coming to him is in selfies, as round six was frustrating for the chasing pack.
Caruana, the only other player in the field on a plus score, slipped 1.5 points behind the leader after a quiet game against Esipenko, who played an old line in the English and gave up a pawn, but equalized without any trouble.
With that draw, Caruana slipped slightly on the rating list and GM Magnus Carlsen became the only 2800-player, though on Sindarov’s current trajectory he should get there in the near future!
Nakamura’s game was the first to finish, after a draw by repetition in a double-edged position. Both players could come up with reasons to play on, but also to cut the action short. Nakamura told WIM Charlize van Zyl he felt the position was equal with correct play but: “It feels like what’s going to happen there is we’re both going to use time and somebody’s going to make a blunder, and I’ve made so many blunders at the end of games so I wasn’t really feeling it, and a draw seemed like a reasonable result.”
The evaluation seemed correct, though the draw helped neither player.
Check out Nakamura’s own recap of the day’s action:
The longest game of the day on this occasion wasn’t the most entertaining, with GM David Howell finding an alternative to counting sheep.
“I did count, maybe boredom was a slight factor, that this knight has moved 29 times out of 71 moves!”
— David Howell#FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/DjnsvMkLgM
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 4, 2026
The shuffling continued until move 84, but nothing changed.
The first half of the tournament ends on Easter Sunday with Sindarov playing White against Giri, while Caruana has a tricky test with Black against Praggnanandhaa.Â
FIDE Candidates: Round 7 PairingsÂ
FIDE Women’s Candidates: Muzychuk Leads As Indian Stars Grab 1st Wins
There were three wins for Black in the Women’s event, and it was very nearly four.
Women’s Candidates Round 6 Results
Muzychuk’s win saw her open up a full-point lead, but with so many players in pursuit and the gap to last place only 1.5 points, the Women’s Candidates remains wide open.
Women’s Candidates Standings After Round 6
While there were three relatively uneventful games in the Open tournament, it was mayhem everywhere you looked in the Women’s. In the one draw, Tan likely missed a stunning resource, …Nd4!!, spotted by Howell, the most beautiful move we didn’t get to see on the board.
That would have been a clincher due to back-rank mate threats on c1 and e1. Tan had to go for a desperate second choice, but in fact she managed to make a fortress and survive.
All the remaining games were decisive, with Anna Muzychuk’s win the most significant.
Zhu 0-1 Muzychuk
It’s been a similar story for Muzychuk, who replaced GM Koneru Humpy and had a slow start, but has now won two of her last three games to take a one-point lead—not bad considering the Ukrainian had gone 21 Candidates games without a win until defeating Lagno in round four.Â
In round six, Muzychuk faced Zhu and summed up: “She’d won the last two, she’s a very strong player, she’s the highest-rated, she’s playing with the white pieces, so it was kind of a dangerous game, but it finished well!”
It was kind of a dangerous game, but it finished well!
—Anna Muzychuk
The game turned when Zhu’s 22.Nh2? allowed 22…Nd4!, though there were still some twists ahead.
Muzychuk had defeated one co-leader, while the other fell to Vaishali.
Lagno 0-1 Vaishali
This was an absolutely wild game, which included Vaishali twice correctly sacrificing her bishop—on a different square each time!
The clock situation explains why those blows weren’t quite decisive, as soon afterward Vaishali blundered and would have lost if Lagno had been able to find the right path in time trouble. She didn’t, and Vaishali picked up her first win of the event to return to 50 percent, a point behind the leader.
It was a great day for India, since Divya also picked up her first win to return to 50 percent.
Assaubayeva 0-1 Divya
“I should definitely have stopped the pawn at some point,” said Divya after allowing Assaubayeva to send her h-pawn all the way to h6.
“I thought if I’m going to be worse, I might as well just be a pawn up and be worse!” said Divya of her double-edged decision to take the pawn. It eventually paid off, with Assaubayeva’s pawns becoming targets and the Indian Women’s World Cup winner joking, “Materialism is helpful!”
Assaubayeva has now lost two games in a row, and it doesn’t get any easier as with the black pieces she’s facing Muzychuk in round seven. For all eight players, it’s all to play for, however, and we have some big clashes to look forward to.
FIDE Women’s Candidates: Round 7 PairingsÂ
The FIDE Candidates Tournament is the most important FIDE tournament of the year. In the Open and Women’s events, eight players play each other twice for the right to challenge the FIDE World Champions Gukesh Dommaraju and Ju Wenjun to a match for the title.
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