Candidates 2026: R Praggnanandhaa Draws Hikaru Nakamura As Javokhir Sindarov Keeps Winning And Lead

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa settled for a quick and uneventful draw with Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, while Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan continued his winning streak by defeating Wei Yi of China in the sixth round of the Candidates chess tournament here on Saturday.

With each passing round, Sindarov is pulling away from the pack, and this is already one of the greatest performances in the history of Candidates tournaments. With his fifth victory in six games, Sindarov moved to 5.5 points and now awaits the remaining results.

R Praggnanandhaa, on 3 points, is 2.5 points behind Sindarov, and it remains to be seen whether the last eight games can change the fortunes of the other players in the event. For now, Sindarov appears

to be out of reach.

Praggnanandhaa, with the black pieces, chose the Nimzo-Indian Defence against Nakamura, who was clearly upset after his previous-round loss. The American, now more famous as a streamer and often called the richest chess player, avoided complications, and a couple of minor pieces were exchanged early in the opening.

Praggnanandhaa then decided to repeat the position quite early in the middle game.

Sindarov was pleasantly surprised by Wei Yi’s Bishop’s Opening and had no difficulty equalising early with the black pieces. The Uzbek sacrificed a pawn in the middlegame that turned out to be poisoned, and then launched a series of threats, forcing Wei Yi into complications. The game lasted just 36 moves.

Divya And Vaishali Win

The two Indians in the women’s section also had excellent results. Divya Deshmukh scored her first victory at the expense of Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan, while R Vaishali cruised to a win over Kateryna Lagno of Russia. Both Divya and Vaishali have now jumped to joint second place on 3 points.

Anna Muzychuk, who was not even sure she would be playing the tournament a week before it began, produced another sterling effort to beat Jiner Zhu of China. The Ukrainian moved to 4 points out of a possible 6 and now enjoys a full-point lead over Zhu and Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina, who drew with Zhongyi Tan of China.

Candidates 2026 Results Round 6

Open: Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 2.5) drew with R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 3); Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 1) Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 2.5) drew with Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 2); Anish Giri (Ned, 2.5) playing Matthias Bluebaum (Ger, 2); Wei Yi (Chn, 2) lost to Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 5.5).

Women: Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 2.5) lost to Divya Deshmukh (Ind, 3); Kateryna Lagno (Rus, 3) lost to R Vaishali (Ind, 3); Bibisara Assuabayeva (Kaz, 2.5); Zhongyi Tan (Chn, 2.5) drew with Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus, 3); Jiner Zhu (Chn, 3) lost to Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 4).

(With inputs from Agencies)