FIDE Chess Candidates 2026 Live, Round 11: Vaishali aims to keep lead intact as Divya chases, Praggnanandhaa in action from 6:15 PM IST

Sindarov currently holds a good two-pointlead over the rest of the field. Praggnanandhaa is 4 points behind the leader with only four rounds remaining.

R Praggnanandhaa enters Round 11 after a defeat to open-section leader Javokhir Sindarov. Praggnanandhaa opened well, but a mid-game error under pressure led to the Indian’s resignation.

Divya Deshmukh’s campaign has been hindered in the last two rounds following losses to R Vaishali in Round 9 and to Aleksandra Goryachkina in Round 10. She is playing Zhu Jiner tonight, against whom she lost in Round 5 earlier.

Vaishali is closely followed by Anna Muzychuk. Zhu Jiner is in second place with 5.5 points, and Goryachkina sits third with 5 points.

R Vaishali enters the Round 11 contest tonight as the sole leader with 6 points. She will play Aleksandra Goryachkina with the black pieces today.

Kateryna Lagno — Anna Muzychuk
Tan Zhongyi — Bibisara Assaubayeva
Zhu Jiner — Divya Deshmukh
Aleksandra Goryachkina — Vaishali Rameshbabu

Anish Giri — Andrey Esipenko
Hikaru Nakamura — Wei Yi
Fabiano Caruana — Javokhir Sindarov
Praggnanandhaa R — Matthias Bluebaum

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s coverage of the FIDE Candidates 2026 taking place in Cyprus.