An Uzbek Chess Prodigy Is Laying Waste To The World’s Best Players

While Hikaru Nakamura was making an ignoble sort of chess history, Javokhir Sindarov yawned. Just 12 moves into their fifth-round match at the 2026 Candidates Tournament, the 20-year-old had tied the world's second-ranked player in quite the knot, forcing Nakamura to sit and think for over an hour. Nakamura, playing with the white pieces, attacked Sindarov with the Marshall Gambit, though the Uzbek player surprised the American by castling on the 12th move. Nakamura was down two pawns and clearly not prepared for Sindarov to counter him like this, so he thought for 67 minutes and 44 seconds, only to screw up. "He just thought one hour and played the wrong move," Sindarov said afterward. "And after this I take this advantage and played very well, in my opinion." Sindarov is currently taking the 2026 Candidates by storm. He got himself into big trouble in his first match against Andrey Esipenko, only to reverse a huge time disparity and win a stunner. By the sixth round, he had already tied the record for most match wins at a Candidates with five. He has drawn three times and has yet to lose, taking an extremely impressive two-point lead into the ninth round on Wednesday. Sindarov made his Candidates debut this year as the fifth-highest ranked player at the tournament and 12th-ranked player in the world, and he beat three of the four players ranked above him on the first time through the round robin. This is one of the strongest debuts possible, and it has even caught the attention of recently self-exiled chess king Magnus Carlsen.