The wages of Sindarov
Javokhir Sindarov, Uzbek Chess player, during the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary
Uzbekistan’s triumph at the 2022 Olympiad was not, as so many triumphs are, a mere culmination, but rather a curious beginning—a starting gun fired not for one race, but for three, each runner taking a different road, yet all somehow converging upon the same high plateau of chess mastery. What seemed at first a single national success has since unfolded into three sharply diverging, yet mutually reinforcing, careers, as if Providence had decided to conduct an experiment in variation upon a theme.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov was, in this sense, the most classical of the three—the first to take the raw material of prodigious promise and refine it into something resembling permanence. There is always something faintly miraculous, and yet reassuringly methodical, in the player who does not merely dazzle but endures. By 2024 he had entered the world’s top five, that austere aristocracy of the chessboard, and his victory at the Prague Masters in 2026 did not so much announce as confirm what had already become evident: that he was no longer a phenomenon but an institution, a fully established super-grandmaster, moving with steady authority around the 2780 mark.
Nodirbek Yakubboev, by contrast, has advanced in a manner far less predictable, and therefore in some ways more dramatic. His path has not been a straight ascent but a series of sudden illuminations—Qatar Masters 2023, the Uzbek Chess Cup 2024, and a World Cup semi-final in 2025—all of them marked by a peculiar and almost paradoxical habit of defeating those who, by the cold arithmetic of rating, ought to have defeated him. There is something of the duellist about him, the man who may not command the entire battlefield but who is always capable of striking down the strongest opponent at the decisive moment. Thus, despite residing in the high 2600s, he has acquired that most dangerous of reputations: not consistency, but consequence.
And then there is Javokhir Sindarov, who arrived last and yet, with a kind of youthful impatience, travelled fastest. His surge has about it the quality of a sudden storm—first glimpsed on the horizon during his 2025 World Cup run, and then, almost before one has properly taken its measure, breaking overhead with full force. His rapid climb past 2750, carrying him to world rank eleven, might already have sufficed to mark him as exceptional; but it was his dominant performance in the 2026 Candidates that transformed promise into impending reality. His victory had been nigh-inevitable with two rounds to spare and he won this prestigious gathering by a clear point-and-a-half, with Anish Giri coming in second and former world championship finalist, Fabiano Caruana in third. Sindarov now stands ready to issue the challenge in a World Championship match, contemplating with entirely justifiable confidence the ailing title-holder, Gukesh.
Taken together, this Uzbek triumvirate presents a phenomenon at once modern and timeless: three young men, shaped by the same moment, yet expressing it in wholly different ways—one by stability, one by disruption, and one by acceleration. It is precisely this combination that has elevated them beyond mere contemporaries into what must be regarded as the most successful young trio in modern chess.
FIDE World Chess Championship, 2026 Open Candidates tournament, Paphos, Cyprus
| Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Sindarov (UZB) | X,X | ½,½ | 1,½ | ½,1 | ½,1 | ½,½ | 1,1 | 1,½ | 10 |
| 2. Giri (NED) | ½,½ | X,X | ½,1 | ½,½ | ½,½ | ½,1 | 1,0 | ½,1 | 8½ |
| 3. Caruana (USA) | ½,0 | 0,½ | X,X | 1,½ | 1,0 | 1,½ | ½,½ | ½,1 | 7½ |
| 4. Wei (PRC) | 0,½ | ½,½ | ½,0 | X,X | ½,½ | ½,½ | ½,½ | 1,1 | 7 |
| 5. Nakamura (USA) | 0,½ | ½,½ | 1,0 | ½,½ | X,X | ½,½ | ½,½ | ½,½ | 6½ |
| 6. Blübaum (GER) | ½,½ | 0,½ | ½,0 | ½,½ | ½,½ | X,X | ½,½ | ½,½ | 6 |
| 7. Praggnanadhaa (IND) | 0,0 | 1,0 | ½,½ | ½,½ | ½,½ | ½,½ | X,X | ½,½ | 6 |
| 8. Esipenko (FIDE) | ½,0 | 0,½ | 0,½ | 0,0 | ½,½ | ½,½ | ½,½ | X,X | 4½ |
Javokhir Sindarov vs. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa
World Championship Candidates, Paphos, 2026, round 10
- d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bf4 Bb4 6. cxd5 exd5 7. e3 Ne4 8. Qc2 g5 9. Bg3 h5 10. Bd3!?
Through this provocation, white gambits his entombed g3-bishop. A more staid approach is available with 10. h4, and after 10…Nxg3 11. fxg3 gxh4 12. gxh4, white enjoys material parity and better development.
10… h4 11. Bxe4 dxe4 12. Qxe4+ Kf8 13. Be5 f6
13… Bxc3+ 14. bxc3 f6 transposes.
- Nxg5 Bxc3+ 15. bxc3 Nxe5 16. dxe5 fxg5 17. f4 h3 18. Rd1 TN
This is a new move, deviating from the previous theory of 18. O-O [Agdestein-Tari, Norway Team championship, 2023-24]. Engines assess the position as roughly equal, but Sindarov proceeds to demonstrate why black’s additional bishop is wholly insufficient compensation for his two pawn deficit and an unsheltered king that now cannot castle.
18… Qe7 19. g3 gxf4 20. O-O Rh6 21. Rxf4+ Kg8 22. Rdf1 Bd7??
Although the game will map another thirty moves, it is this gross inaccuracy that dooms Praggnanandhaa to eventual oblivion. This piece is not only unprotected on d7 in some later lines, but 22… Be6 was essential to deter Rf7, which rather than prevent, it now encourages.
- Rf7! Qxf7 24. Rxf7 Kxf7 25. Qf4+
But not 25. Qxb7? Rc8 26. Kf2 Rb6 27. Qe4 Rf8 28. Ke1 Kg7, when black holds the advantage.
25… Kg7
No better is 25… Kg6 26. Qf6+ Kh7 27. Qe7+ Kh8.
- Qg5+ Kh7 27. Qe7+ Kg8 28. Qxd7 Rf8 29. Qg4+
White stands well, but even stronger is 29. Qd5+! Kg7 30. Qxb7.
29… Kh8 30. a4 a5?!
Degrading black’s position further still. Better is 30… Rh7, or …c6; but best is 30… Rf7 31. Qd4 Kh7 32. Qd5 Re7 33. Qxb7 Rhe6 34. Qe4+ Kg7 35. Qg4+ Kf8 36. Qxh3 Rxe5, when despite standing much worse, black’s position is more coherent than after the move played.
- Qg5 Rh7 32. e6 Re8 33. Qxa5 b6 34. Qe5+ Kg8 35. Qg5+ Rg7 36. Qf5 Rge7 37. Qg4+ Kf8 38. Qxh3 Rxe6 39. Kf2 R8e7
This inaccuracy (and those that follow it) are noted accumulations in white’s advantage rather than critical stages in the outcome, which was set by black’s disastrous 22nd move mistake. Black could avoid further deterioration with 39… Re4 40. Qh7 R8e7 41. Qh8+ Kf7 42. h4 R7e6 43. Qh7+ Ke8 44. Qxc7 Rf6+ 45. Ke2 Rfe6 but white’s advantage remains sizable.
- Qh8+ Kf7 41. g4 Re4 42. Qh5+ Kg7 43. Qg5+ Kf7 44. Kf3 Rxa4
Slightly better is 44… R4e5 45. Qf4+ Ke8 46. Qd4 Rf7+ 47. Kg3 Rfe7 48. Kf4 R5e6.
- h4 Ra5 46. Qh6 Rae5 47. Qh7+ Kf8?
This is a significant error, that removes any last vestige of survival. Preferable is 47… Ke8 48. Qg8+ Kd7, but only in deferring the inevitable.
- Qh8+ Kf7 49. e4 b5 50. h5 c5?
This error accelerates black’s decline; any of 50… Rg5, …b4, or …Re8 being preferable.
- h6 Rg5 52. Qd8 Rg8 53. Qd5+ Black resigns 1-0
It is mate in 10 after 53… Ke8;
It is mate in 25 after 53… Kf8;
It is mate in 31 after 53… Re6.
Meanwhile, in a parallel theatre of intellectual combat, the contest to find a challenger to the incumbent Women’s world champion, Ju Wunjun of China, was a more closely fought affair. In the final analysis, Rameshbabu Vaishali of India, secured her place as challenger with a firm final round performance, where Kateryna Lagno’s Sicilian Dragon was put to the sword in a clinical demolition of a speculative pawn sacrifice turned bad.
FIDE World Chess Championship, 2026 Women’s Candidates tournament, Paphos, Cyprus
| Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Vaishali (IND) | X,X | ½,½ | ½,1 | 0,0 | ½,½ | 1,1 | 1,½ | 1,½ | 8½ |
| 2. Assaubayeva (KAZ) | ½,½ | X,X | ½,½ | 1,1 | 1,½ | 1,0 | ½,½ | 0,½ | 8 |
| 3. Goryachkina (FIDE) | 0,½ | ½,½ | X,X | ½,1 | ½,½ | ½,0 | 1,½ | ½,1 | 7½ |
| 4. Zhu (PRC) | 1,1 | 0,0 | 0,½ | X,X | 0,½ | 1,½ | ½,1 | ½,1 | 7½ |
| 5. Muzychuk (UKR) | ½,½ | ½,0 | ½,½ | ½,1 | X,X | 1,½ | ½,½ | 0,½ | 7 |
| 6. Lagno (FIDE) | 0,0 | 1,0 | 1,½ | ½,0 | ½,0 | X,X | ½,1 | 1,½ | 6½ |
| 7. Tan (PRC) | ½,0 | ½,½ | ½,0 | 0,½ | ½,½ | 0,½ | X,X | ½,1 | 5½ |
| 8. Deshmukh (IND) | ½,0 | ½,1 | 0,½ | 0,½ | ½,1 | ½,0 | 0,½ | X,X |
Ray’s 206th book, “ Chess in the Year of the King ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his 207th, “ Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) can be ordered from both Amazon and Blackwell’s. His 208th, the world record for chess books, written jointly with the late chess playing artist, Barry Martin, Chess through the Looking Glass , is now also available from Amazon.
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