Without an extra pawn: a favorite appeared in the candidates' tournament

The 2026 Candidates Tournament is still shaping up for Andrei Esipenko according to one of the worst scenarios. In the first round, the Russian grandmaster lost to Javokhir Sindarov, although he had a promising position, and in the second round he missed a clear scoring opportunity in the game with Hikaru Nakamura, who clearly does not justify the status of a rating favorite yet. This was followed by a quick draw with Matthias Bluebaum and a loss to Anish Giri. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to attribute such results to the pressure of the first candidates tournament in his career, but another debutant, Sindarov— confidently broke into the lead.

It always works out

Nodirbek Abdusattorov has been considered the main talent of Uzbek chess in recent years. This year, the 21-year-old native of Tashkent won three super tournaments in a row and was praised by the 14th world champion (and part-time captain of the Uzbek national team at the last Olympics). Vladimir Kramnik.

— Three consecutive wins in top-level classic tournaments, with a score of 2872 on the ELO scale in 31 consecutive games. Since Carlsen has not played classical chess for a very long time, based on the results and quality of his game, I sincerely consider Abdusattorov to be the best chess player in the world at the moment," Kramnik said.

Although Nodirbek could not make it to the candidates tournament. Neither through the "Big Swiss" (10th place), nor through the World Cup (he lost to Jospem in the third round), nor through the FIDE Circuit system, nor by rating (here Nakamura beat him, who took advantage of a loophole in the FIDE selection rules and scored points against semi-professionals in the USA).

Abdusattorov was not too upset about this fact and is already very close to overcoming the super elite mark of 2800. However, the second number of the national ranking, Javokhir Sindarov, can become the first Uzbek grandmaster who can play a match for the world crown. He's been playing a really incredible game for the last six months.

In November, Sindarov won the World Cup in brilliant style, beating Wei Yi in the final, and before that he had managed Yu Yangyi, Frederic Swannet, Jospem (avenging Abdusattorov) and another of his compatriots Nodirbek Yakubboev. Javokhir came to the 2026 Candidates tournament with the fifth starting number, but most experts ranked him above Nakamura and Giri. On the same level as Wei Yi, but below Caruana and Pragnanandha.

However, according to the first games, it can be said that Roman Vidonyak's ward is the main favorite of the tournament in Cyprus. After defeating Esipenko, he made an easy draw with Blubaum, and then beat Prague and Caruana. Javohir is now one point ahead of Fabiano. Prag is already 1.5.

"I don't want to think of this tournament as my first candidates tournament, I always try to play chess well, and somehow I always seem to succeed," Sindarov said in an interview with ChessBase India.

Already in the fifth round, Javohir can reach "+4" after a game with Hikaru, who is still playing extremely poorly. This will open a direct path to the final victory.

— At some points in the opening games, I wondered: what am I doing here anyway? I could just sit at home, do reviews and be much happier! But I'm here, it just so happens," Nakamura confessed to the FIDE press service.

Magnificent Eights: who will win the Candidates and Contenders tournament

Andrey Esipenko, Alexandra Goryachkina and Ekaterina Lagno face off against the best chess players in the world.

We need to play it out

The experienced American still has -1, but he had a very difficult situation in the games with Esipenko and Giri.

— Nakamura is clearly not in the "resource" yet, the lack of serious practice with strong chess players is affecting. I think he will play out and get into shape closer to the second round," Russian national team coach Alexander Ryazantsev told Izvestia.

Only Esipenko is worse than Nakamura. Andrey has "-2". The result is sad, but it's too early to get upset. There are still 10 rounds ahead, and the Russian will still have opportunities, if not to fight for victory, then to rattle the nerves of the favorites and improve his current position in the world rankings.

Among women, Bibisara Asaubayeva and Anna Muzychuk are in the lead (2.5 points each). Ekaterina Lagno, Alexandra Goryachkina, Zhu Jin'er and Rameshbabu Vaishali each scored two points. Divya Deshmukh and Tan Zhongyi, who won the last candidates tournament, each had 1.5 points.

Here the whole struggle is still ahead. If we talk about our chess players, Goryachkina has four draws so far, although she had promising positions in three games. Ekaterina Lagno beat Tan Zhongyi in the third round, but lost to Anna Muzychuk in black in the fourth. Goryachkina will play Muzychuk in the fifth round, Lagno will play Asaubayeva.