Javokhir Sindarov will challenge for Gukesh Dommaraju’s world chess championship this fall after clinching the Candidates tournament with a game to spare on Tuesday afternoon in Cyprus.
The 20-year-old Uzbek grandmaster closed out an emphatic victory in the the 14-game double round-robin with a tame 58-move draw playing with the black pieces against Dutch star Anish Giri, moving to 9½ points and leaving the world No 9 two adrift with one round remaining at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort.
“After he exchanged queens [20 Qxa6] … I didn’t have any pressure,” Sindarov said afterwards. “I felt very comfortable during the game.”
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Giri, who remained in mathematical contention entering Tuesday’s penultimate round, had missed a chance to narrow the gap after failing to convert a winning position against China’s Wei Yi a day earlier.
Sindarov’s wire-to-wire triumph in the beach resort town of Peyia was built on a commanding, unbeaten run through the eight-man field: six wins and seven draws from 13 games, a level of control rarely seen on the cutthroat Candidates stage. He will close out his tournament with a dead rubber on Wednesday playing as white against Wei.
The tournament had been billed as a potential last stand for the established elite, but Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura never mounted a sustained challenge, underlining the accelerating shift toward a younger generation at the top of the game.
Gukesh became the youngest world champion in history when he dethroned China’s Ding Liren in Singapore two years ago, breaking the previous age record held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he defeated Anatoly Karpov in 1985.
Their showdown had marked the first time in the 138-year history of world championship matchplay that two men from Asia competed for the sport’s most prestigious title. Now it will happen for a second world title match in a row. Both players will be under 21 when they meet, likely in November, with Gukesh roughly six months younger than Sindarov.
Ding had claimed the crown by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi after Magnus Carlsen, the five-time champion who has been ranked No 1 for nearly 15 straight years, opted out of the title cycle, citing a lack of motivation to go through the months-long slog of preparation that world championship matches demand. While the rise of Sindarov and his contemporaries is likely to renew speculation over a comeback, Carlsen has repeatedly said he has no intention of returning.
The win marks the latest high in a career-best year for Sindarov, who has climbed to a career-best No 11 in the world rankings after following a breakthrough victory at last year’s Fide World Cup with a runner-up finish at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee. By contrast, Gukesh’s results have floundered, including a joint-last showing in March at the Prague International Chess Festival where he won only one of nine games.
“My performance in the last few events has been quite disappointing, not just for me, but for all of you who support me,” Gukesh wrote on Instagram last month. “In order to find my best form my team and I have decided that I should compete with slightly less intensity over the next few months.”
Sindarov brings home the winner’s share of €70,000 ($82,582) from the €700,000 prize fund, along with an additional €5,000 for each half-point scored. Asked whether it had sunk in that he will be playing for the biggest title in world chess, Sindarov was to the point.
“If you asked me this question a year ago, I would have never believed this,” he said. “But in the last year I’ve really improved my chess. I’m very happy with my chess skills. I will try to play better and better.”
The date and host city for the best-of-14-games world championship match have yet to be confirmed.
