Bengaluru: Hikaru Nakamura sat there, shaking his head, looking befuddled and probably wishing he could teleport out of the agony. After a whopping 67 minutes, on move 13, he finally made a pawn push. It was then clear that he was on his own and in hot water. His opponent, 20-year-old Javokhir Sindarov, returned to the table, glanced at the puzzling 13.h3?! (instead of 13. Ne4) that the world No. 2 had played after over an hour’s thought, and smelled blood.
Nakamura lost in a hopelessly one-sided game, allowing the Uzbek Grandmaster to continue his steamrolling run over the Candidates tournament field while sporting a business suit and boyish grin.
After five rounds of play to determine the challenger to reigning world champion Gukesh, it’s Sindarov who’s taken a crushing 4.5/5 lead, trampling all in his path. He is also the only unbeaten player in the Open section. Such a commanding lead early in the Candidates tournament is rare in recent memory. He has now defeated both the world No 2 and 3 in a row and remains a full point ahead of the rest of the field. His win on Friday also moved him up to world No 5 in the live ratings.
Playing with the White pieces on Friday, Nakamura went with the Queen’s Pawn opening (1.d4), went on to bring up the Marshall Gambit, sacrificed two pawns and on move 12, Sindarov short castled. To his surprise, it completely threw Nakamura off.
“It’s completely straightforward. Either I forgot it was in my file or it is on my team and they probably might have looked at something where castles is not a move. I suspect it’s the latter and I didn’t forget. It’s very, very unfortunate. I considered 13.Ne4 during the game but without any preparation it’s impossible to play that position,” Nakamura told Fide, squarely laying the blame on his team of seconds.
So far, Sindarov has been the most impressive player – both with his thorough preparation and precise play. “I actually didn’t spend much time preparing before the tournament,” he told Chess.com, “but I have an idea on how to play against everyone. I’m always working a lot before rounds. It’s working.”
Sindarov seemed surprised that Nakamura chose a line in which he wasn’t sure of the details. “I was expecting he will choose Italian, Ruy Lopez, but when he chose this line I thought maybe he prepared some new ideas. Maybe he didn’t remember the move castle. He thought for an hour and played the wrong move. After that, I took advantage and played well.” Sindarov spotted the winning moves like a machine – playing 21.g6 with Nakamura staring at a lost position with just 16 minutes on his clock.
Playing with the White pieces in round 5, world No 3 Fabiano Caruana ended Mattias Bluebaum’s run of draws and is placed one point adrift of the leader, Sindarov. As the tournament nears its halfway mark, endurance and nerves will be put to the test.
“Do not underestimate the boost that confidence plays after a strong start. You trust your instincts more, a positive cycle of intuition and performance. Meanwhile your opponents doubt themselves against you,” former world champion Garry Kasparov wrote on X, in praise of Sindarov’s incredible start.
Caruana spoke of playing padel on the tournament rest day (Thursday) and running into Sindarov. “We played on adjacent courts. Neither of us is very good.” Asked if they would play with each other at some point during the tournament, Caruana replied: “He has a big team so I would be shy to suggest it.”
None of the Indian players found a win in Round 5. Praggnanandhaa played out a draw against Russia’s Andrey Esipenko with the White pieces while his sister Vaishali R lost to Zhu Jiner, putting the latter in a three-way tie for first place in the Women’s Candidates. Divya Deshukh drew her game against former women’s world champion Tan Zhongyi.
