FIDE Candidates 2026 Round 14: Vaishali Wins Women’s; Sindarov Breaks Record

IM Roman Vidonyak, who has been coaching Sindarov since January of 2025, spoke briefly to FIDE about their training and remaining goals. He said that they trained for 15 days, eight hours per day, with zero computer use. “It’s new training for him, but it’s a very important training.”

He said that Sindarov has a “universal talent,” a word that was used repeatedly to describe the late World Champion Boris Spassky but can now be attributed to just about any super-grandmaster. He also laid out the goals, saying that they have accomplished two out of four:

• Qualify for the Candidates
• Win the Candidates
• Win the World Championship
• Dominate the chess world like Karpov, Kasparov, and Carlsen (the examples he gave)

Speaking more about the last step, he said, “Also for Gukesh, for example, it’s very important to go to this fourth step,” adding that not many world champions have been able to dominate the chess world. 

Praggnanandhaa vs. Nakamura was the only other game to end in a draw. It was an unusual Catalan Opening that looked to be one of the sharpest games early on, but judging by the speed of both players, they both knew the variation inside and out. Nakamura briefly sacrificed his queen, won it back, and the players made a draw in a same-color bishop endgame.

Nakamura ended with 6.5/14, and Praggnanandhaa a half-point behind. You can watch Nakamura’s recap of the day:

Giri’s +3 score, with just one loss in the first round, would nearly have won the most recent Candidates. In 2024 and 2022, it would have put him in second place, and in 2020-21 that score won the event. He quipped at the press conference, “Everything is epic, just a small little detail: I didn’t qualify for the world championship match. Otherwise, it’s epic!”

Everything is epic, just a small little detail: I didn’t qualify for the world championship match. 

—Anish Giri

Bluebaum, who played solidly to score 12 draws and just two losses, departed from his solid repertoire to go for blood in the final round. Giri commented on the aggressive 9.Ng5!?, “I’m impressed to see Matthias to go for it this way,” while also saying that after this move “there’s no way back” to a solid game.

Bluebaum 0-1 Giri

It was a short game, lasting just 28 moves, but such things happen in opposite-sides castling positions. Bluebaum’s 14.0-0-0?? was a losing move at once, though Giri didn’t realize it was that bad, and the Dutch GM converted without any mistakes. He remarked about the endgame, where White did have three pawns for a bishop, that it was still dead lost. “Somehow, this bishop on d6 is amazing,” controlling all the important dark squares on the board. 

Giri said that €45,000, for second place, is probably the most he’s earned from a tournament, though he ranked his first-place finish in Tata Steel Chess 2023 higher. He, Sindarov, and Bluebaum are the only players to go up in rating after the event (respectively, +10, +31, and +6). He also quipped: “Maybe this second place gives me quite a lot of FIDE Circuit points, which is kind of funny, to start qualifying for the next Candidates!”

Asked by IM Irene Sukandar whether he’d second Gukesh or Sindarov, he had positive things to say about the players. He remembered taking a selfie with Sindarov at the 2021 FIDE World Cup when the then-15-year-old knocked out GM Alireza Firouzja and said, “I find him a very fun, cheerful guy, I always enjoy his company a lot, but we never really worked,” despite the wish to train together at some point.

He’s had small interactions with Gukesh, but they haven’t worked together either, he said. “I like them both, but I somehow didn’t think that they would both go so fast, so high. They are so young, I thought they would have a promising career, but it would take much longer to get to the top.”

I like them both, but I somehow didn’t think that they would both go so fast, so high.

—Anish Giri on Javokhir Sindarov and Gukesh Dommaraju

In the other decisive game, Caruana’s Sicilian Dragon breathed fire.

Esipenko 0-1 Caruana

Although the game started as a Najdorf Sicilian, Caruana responded to the sideline of 6.Qd3 with 6…g6, the hybrid “Dragondorf” pawn structure. Esipenko’s key mistake was allowing the thematic exchange sacrifice 13…Rxc3!!, an explosive move Caruana played two years ago against Nepomniachtchi in a similar position, in St. Louis.

Caruana continued with a decisive attack, though the sacrifice is justified on positional grounds as well.

Caruana ends the tournament a point behind Giri, while Esipenko’s in last place. Both players lost rating, and one consequence of this super-tournament is that GM Magnus Carlsen is the only 2800-player in the world on the live rating list.

That’s it for our daily coverage of the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. Congratulations to Sindarov and Vaishali, and we wish everybody all the best as we wait for the world championships!

NM Anthony Levin contributed to this report.

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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