NEW DELHI: The fourth round was always supposed to be a psychological hurdle. With the 2026 edition of Candidates unlocking a new level of competitiveness, Wednesday was the final sprint before the first scheduled rest day at Cyprus’s Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort. However, it appeared as if the Indian contingent was already mentally checking into their day off.It was indeed a day of missed opportunities and disappointing results for India. While the sibling duo of R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali managed to salvage draws, the spotlight turned harsh on Divya Deshmukh, whose experimental play collapsed under the weight of fundamental errors.
For a nation that started the tournament with the sensible solidity in the opening rounds, Round 4 felt like a whimper, a desperate rush toward the sanctuary of Thursday’s break.Praggnanandhaa’s dry drawR Praggnanandhaa, who has been India’s only hope in the Open section, looked uncharacteristically subdued against Germany’s Matthias Blübaum. Playing with the black pieces, the Chennai prodigy seemed content to steer the game toward neutral territory, as his German opponent would’ve wanted, rather than testing his resolve.Veteran GM Pravin Thipsay was critical of the approach. “Blübaum has been playing very solidly, and he chose a simple opening, and with white pieces, he just simplified into a drawish ending,” Thipsay told TimesofIndia.com while analysing the game. “Praggnanandhaa did try to open up the game with a centre break, but he had wasted a couple of pawn moves in 4…c6 and 5…c6, so by the time he played 6…c5, there was hardly any chance of winning.”The game ended in a 37-move threefold repetition, a dry affair that lacked the aggressive Pragg-style, even when defending with black pieces, the chess world has come to expect.Sindarov sets the toneWhile the Indians struggled for rhythm, Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov continued to set the pace, dismantling the world-class Fabiano Caruana. The result has sent shockwaves through the chess fraternity, firmly establishing the Uzbek as the man to beat.
Javokhir Sindarov (Photo by Michal Walusza)
“The match between two players who were leading this tournament with 2.5/3 was interesting,” Thipsay noted. “Sindarov scored a crushing victory over Fabiano Caruana to take lead 3.5/4. Looks like a fantastic score. At this stage, one can say that his quality and play or the consistency is much better than the others. If things go on in the same manner, then one can say that Sindarov is going to win this tournament.”Vaishali’s escapeIn the women’s section, R Vaishali faced Aleksandra Goryachkina in what turned into a 27-move survival act. Opting for a King’s Pawn opening that evolved into an Italian Game (Modern Bishop’s Opening), Vaishali found herself in murky waters early on. “Vaishali survived a bad position. She played the opening badly,” Thipsay remarked bluntly. “At one stage, there was a central exchange, and if her opponent had played exd4 (instead of 18…Nxd4), it would have been a great positional advantage for her opponent. But after the opponent took Knight into d4, Vaishali immediately recovered, and the game ended in a draw with some exciting moments, but nothing really serious.“FIDE Candidates Round 4 Results – April 1, 2026Open Section
- Andrey Esipenko 0–1 Anish Giri
- Wei Yi 0.5–0.5 Hikaru Nakamura
- Javokhir Sindarov 1–0 Fabiano Caruana
- Matthias Blübaum 0.5–0.5 R Praggnanandhaa
Women’s Section
- Anna Muzychuk 1–0 Kateryna Lagno
- Bibisara Assaubayeva 0.5–0.5 Tan Zhongyi
- Divya Deshmukh 0–1 Zhu Jiner
- Vaishali Rameshbabu 0.5–0.5 Aleksandra Goryachkina
Divya Deshmukh’s positional meltdownThe most harrowing result for India came on Divya Deshmukh’s board. Facing China’s Zhu Jiner with the white pieces, Divya’s Slav Defense fell apart not because of an opponent’s brilliance, but due to self-inflicted wounds.“The most disappointing game of the day was by Divya Deshmukh,” Thipsay said. Divya Deshmukh played the English Opening. Early in the middlegame, she had already established a two-pawn structure on d4 and d5 with 8. cxd5… exd4 and 9. exd4… Bb6.“She played a position which is probably not easy to understand, but she took doubled pawns in the centre so that she would have the cramping effect. Apparently, she did not know the follow-up, because as soon as she got a slight advantage… she tried to push the pawns on the king’s side unnecessarily for no reason, instead of concentrating on the development.”
Divya plays 12.h4
Her first major misstep came with the premature kingside pawn push, 12. h4, which weakened her position. Capitalising on this, Zhu Jiner struck decisively by capturing the d5 pawn with 17… Nxd5.“Divya also castled on the same side which she had weakened, and in the process, she lost a pawn on the 17th move,” Thipsay explained. “The time lost and the pawn lost were sort of irreparable. Thereafter also, the play was very inaccurate. She lost another pawn… In the final position, she was threatened with a loss of queen, threatened with mate, threatened with a pawn fork. A very one-sided game between the two.”By the time Divya resigned after 36 moves, she was multiple pawns down in a hopeless position. It was a clear-cut case of a player losing the thread of the game while perhaps already thinking about the rest day.The Indian contingent needs more than just rest. They need a total recalibration.The playing-for-safety mindset witnessed in Round 4 has done little but allow the competition to pull ahead.Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali, and Divya will need to return on Friday. What they would need is the killer instinct that seems to have evaporated in the Mediterranean heat.Round 5 Pairings – April 3, 2026
- Open: Praggnanandhaa vs. Esipenko; Caruana vs. Blübaum; Nakamura vs. Sindarov; Giri vs. Wei Yi.
- Women: Goryachkina vs. Muzychuk; Zhu Jiner vs. Vaishali; Tan Zhongyi vs. Divya; Lagno vs. Bibisara.
