Chess · Worth knowing

Javokhir Sindarov extended his lead to two points at the Candidates Tournament in Cyprus after drawing with Andrey Esipenko in round eight. Fabiano Caruana, his closest challenger, fell further behind after losing to Hikaru Nakamura, while Anish Giri joined Caruana in second place by defeating Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in a 46-move technical victory. With six rounds remaining, Sindarov's position has strengthened significantly, with his most critical upcoming matches against Caruana and Giri scheduled for later rounds. A preparation leak from Sindarov's Lichess account surfaced before the round, though the grandmaster downplayed its significance, and Esipenko did not capitalize on it, agreeing to a draw by repetition.

After round 3 of the Dortmund Festival 2026, defending champion Matthias Bluebaum secured his third consecutive win to maintain his position among the leaders in the A Open, though the leading group has narrowed to seven players with perfect 3/3 scores. FM Luka Schwitkowski, a young German player, earned the Game of the Day award by exploiting a blunder from Chinese IM Kaifan Xie on move 11, winning cleanly to also reach 3/3. The round featured several notable tactical oversights by top seeds, including GM Milos Pavlovic's costly rook move that allowed Bluebaum an immediate winning continuation, and GM Kacper Piorun's aggressive attack against FM Bayastan Sydykov which succeeded despite objectively non-forced play. In the International Women's Tournament, tournament leader Nataliya Buksa maintains her half-point advantage over Klaudia Kulon after both players drew their second-round games, with Buksa having won a sharp Najdorf opening the previous day.

After 9 rounds of the 2026 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament, GM Praggnanandhaa (India, 2750) leads the rapid section with 12 points, followed by GM Sindarov (Uzbekistan, 2745) with 11 points and GM So (USA, 2754) with 10 points. A four-way tie for fourth place includes GMs Dominguez, Giri, Keymer, and Aronian, each with 9 points. Caruana and Van Foreest share eighth place with 8 points each, while Liang trails with 5 points. The tournament features ten of the world's elite players with ratings ranging from 2696 to 2793, competing under rapid and blitz formats.