GM Javokhir Sindarov has ended the first half of the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament with a record 6/7, though GM Anish Giri built a fortress to deny him yet another win. GM Fabiano Caruana remains 1.5 points back after a draw against GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, while GM Matthias Bluebaum vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura was also drawn. Only Wei Yi broke the deadlock with a stylish attacking win over GM Andrey Esipenko.
GM Anna Muzychuk remains the sole leader of the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates after a draw against GM Bibisara Assaubayeva, though GM Vaishali Rameshbabu moved within half a point after pouncing on a blunder by GM Tan Zhongyi in a game the Chinese star looked on course to win. GM Divya Deshmukh let GM Kateryna Lagno escape in a mammoth 135 moves, while GM Aleksandra Goryachkina ended the first half with seven draws after being held by GM Zhu Jiner.
Round eight, after a rest day, is on Tuesday, April 7, starting at 8:45 a.m. ET / 14:45 CEST / 6:15 p.m. IST.
FIDE Candidates: Sindarov With Record 1st Half Score; Wei Yi Grabs Win
Blood was spilled in round seven only in the clash between the players in last place—Esipenko and Wei.
Candidates Round 7 Results
That means Sindarov takes a 1.5-point lead over Caruana into the second half of the tournament.
Candidates Standings After Round 7
The Sindarov show didn’t quite dominate the way it had in previous rounds, but it was close!
Sindarov ½-½ Giri
Sindarov was mildly disappointed after a draw in round seven, but it was back to the familiar story of his winning the opening battle—this time against none other than the best prepared player in chess—and getting to push at no risk for a win.
Sindarov: “Today maybe an engine shows it’s equal, but for a human it’s really a very unpleasant position to play with Black, so I understand I’m playing for 2 results and why not push this position?” #FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/c7gHmz5Pxz
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 5, 2026
In the end a draw meant that Sindarov finished the first half of the tournament on a meme-worthy 6/7 and had achieved a score no winner had matched in the first half of a Candidates Tournament since the eight-player double round-robin format was adopted.
| Year | Winner | Halfway Score | Total Wins (in 14 Rds) | Final Score |
| 2013 | Magnus Carlsen | 5 / 7 | 5 | 8.5 / 14 |
| 2014 | Viswanathan Anand | 4.5 / 7 | 3 | 8.5 / 14 |
| 2016 | Sergey Karjakin | 4.5 / 7 | 4 | 8.5 / 14 |
| 2018 | Fabiano Caruana | 5 / 7 | 5 | 9 / 14 |
| 2021 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 4.5 / 7 | 5 | 8.5 / 14 |
| 2022 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 5.5 / 7 | 5 | 9.5 / 14 |
| 2024 | Gukesh Dommaraju | 4 / 7 | 5 | 9 / 14 |
| 2026 | Javokhir Sindarov | 6 / 7* | 5 (so far) | — |
As you can see, no winner of the tournament has ever scored more than five wins, while 6/7 is the best score anyone has ever reached at the halfway mark. The next best was GM Ian Nepomniachtchi’s 5.5/7 in 2022, but as Caruana pointed out, back then he trailed the leader by just half a point in second place, while this time he’s 1.5 points back. If Sindarov draws all his remaining games, he’ll match Nepomniachtchi’s 9.5/14 for the best-ever score.
The round-seven game was an exercise in control by Sindarov, whose position after 19.Nxb7 was described as follows by GM David Howell: “I think a draw is the most likely result, I trust Giri’s defensive skills, but he’s definitely not enjoying life. It’s almost zero risk for White, I don’t think Sindarov’s ever going to lose this game, maybe only two, three times out of 100!”
The key moment came when Giri was able to give up the exchange for an ending he judged to be holdable. So it proved, and in fact there was a beautiful way to force the draw earlier!
Giri is only the 2nd player to hold Sindarov to a draw, but Javokhir has still scored a historic 6/7 in the 1st half of the #FIDECandidates! https://t.co/maMAkZflqm pic.twitter.com/CdI0zOMvqH
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 5, 2026
The draw for Sindarov potentially gave an opportunity for pursuers to close the gap, but no one could take the chance.
Praggnanandhaa ½-½ Caruana
It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Caruana came up with a very interesting opening that gave him a 50-minute lead on the clock and an extraordinary position on the board—but it fizzled out to nothing. As he told WGM Anastasiya Karlovich, “I played a fighting opening, but it led to this endgame. I was hoping to get a bit more of a fight, but what can you do?”
Caruana reflected on the tournament situation: “Some people have very minimal chances at this point… most of us have minimal chances at this point! I’m the only one who’s within 1.5 points, so it’s not close, but the other players are even farther away. I do have a direct encounter with Javokhir, but 1.5 points is a very serious lead.”
Most of us have minimal chances at this point!
—Fabiano Caruana
Caruana noted that apart from the “opening disaster” against Sindarov, he hasn’t been “seriously worse” against anyone.
One player whose chances do currently look slim is pre-tournament favorite Nakamura, who had to work very hard to survive against Bluebaum.
Bluebaum ½-½ Nakamura
There was a suggestion of deja vu to this game, as Nakamura again found himself out-prepared and on his own by move 12. He once again needed to find only moves at the board to stay above water.
This time, however, Nakamura managed, finding 14…Ne5! here and navigating the position successfully even when he was hit by later blows such as 22.Bb6!.
In his recap, Nakamura summed up that a draw was “the best outcome I could have hoped for,” admitting he’d been “completely outprepared in the opening.”
The draw left both players winless and didn’t help toward the overall goal of qualifying for a world championship match, but it’s Bluebaum who can be more satisfied with a first half of the event in which he’s lost just once.
The one win in round seven was a first-ever in a Candidates Tournament for Wei.
Esipenko 0-1 Wei
Wei described himself as “so happy” to get a win in the first half of the event and before the second rest day. He credited his opponent for making it possible even in the rock-solid Petroff Opening: “Today we played sharply because my opponent chose an interesting idea and he decided to go for dynamic play, but he missed some moves and I had some chances to attack.”
Esipenko sprung a near total surprise on move four, but when he overlooked 14…Qe8!, preventing castling, Wei said he didn’t see a move for White. Esipenko came up with the best try, 15.Kd1!?, but it was a sad move to be playing.
Wei went on the attack and ultimately won in brilliant style.
That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.
“I think after the first half my chances are like zero percent,” Wei told FM Mike Klein, but while catching Sindarov will be tough for anyone, -1 is a respectable score in such a tough tournament. For Esipenko, meanwhile, even 7/7 in the second half might well prove insufficient.
Monday is the tournament’s second rest day. The second half of the event begins on Tuesday with Sindarov playing Black against Esipenko while Caruana will be looking to avoid one of the tournament-ruining losses he’s suffered regularly against Nakamura in recent years.
FIDE Candidates: Round 8 Pairings
FIDE Women’s Candidates: Vaishali Closes Gap On Muzychuk
After a big miss by Divya, we also had just one win in round seven of the Women’s Candidates Tournament.
Women’s Candidates Round 7 Results
Vaishali’s second win in a row sees her close the gap on Muzychuk to half a point going into the second half of the event, while former World Champion Tan finds herself in last place.
Women’s Candidates Standings After Round 7
The Women’s event is massively more wide open, though the one decisive result of the day did stretch the standings table.
Vaishali 1-0 Tan
Vaishali was brutally honest about this game, which had seemed destined to be a first win of the event for Tan, admitting:
It was a horrible game. I don’t deserve this point at all! She just blundered towards the end and it was just a bad game for me from the start. I think everything went wrong for me from the beginning.
It was a horrible game. I don’t deserve this point at all!
—Vaishali Rameshbabu
Instead the former world champion lost her way and then, in an endgame where only she could push for a win, blundered with 37…Ra1??. Tan, who had 16 minutes to her opponent’s 42 seconds, saw in horror what she’d done before pushing the clock.
Vaishali told Klein how she felt on seeing the blunder: “I was just blank, OK, if I’m winning this game, what is this? I just feel very bad for her!”
That could be a crucial point, however, since in the 2024 Candidates Vaishali bounced back from a run of four losses in a row by winning the final five games. A similar streak will give her a great chance of winning the 2026 event, while for now the win moved her to within half a point of leader Muzychuk, who made an uneventful 26-move draw against Assaubayeva.
Former Candidates winner Goryachkina pushed for 70 moves against Zhu, but was unable to break a drawing streak that now includes all games in the first half of the event.
The longest game of the day, meanwhile, was a whopping 135 moves!
Divya ½-½ Lagno
By the end of this clash, Lagno was visibly annoyed after Divya had stretched out a drawn endgame, though Lagno hadn’t helped matters by incorrectly claiming a draw by threefold repetition on move 117.
After 135 moves, Divya-Lagno ends in a draw and the 1st half of the 2026 #FIDECandidates is over! https://t.co/E6XEFABR5E pic.twitter.com/VhsvTFiOFk
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 5, 2026
Playing on to the bitter end was understandable, however, since Divya had been winning for most of the game after Lagno went astray in complications on move 21.
So Divya was denied a second win in a row, but still has a chance to catch the leader in round eight, since with the black pieces she plays Muzychuk.
FIDE Women’s Candidates: Round 8 Pairings
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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