FIDE Candidates 2026, Round five: Sindarov crushes Nakamura to retain sole lead, Praggnanandhaa draws against Esipenko

Javokhir Sindarov continued his impressive run, as his win over Hikaru Nakamura marked a third consecutive victory and took him to 4.5/5 after Round Five of the FIDE Candidates 2026 in Cyprus on Friday.

Sindarov seized control with a well-timed central break and active rook play, before capitalising on Nakamura’s inaccuracy to force a resignation. He first punished White’s queenside expansion with 14…Nxb4, followed it up with the central break …c5 on move 16, and steadily improved his pieces.

The Uzbek then switched gears with a structured kingside expansion, playing …f6, …h6 and …g5 to squeeze White’s position. The decisive blow came on move 41 with …gxh4, which opened up the king and sealed the result.

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It was the second successive draw for R Praggnanandhaa, who settled for a threefold repetition against Andrey Esipenko in Round Five. Praggnanandhaa adopted a control-first approach with a stable setup, but neither player was able to create a pawn break or a tangible weakness, leading to a static position and a shared point.

After suffering her first defeat of the tournament in Round Four, Divya Deshmukh bounced back with a draw against Tan Zhongyi. The game remained balanced out of the opening, with both players castling early and operating on opposite wings.

Divya handled the middle-game well, as Tan attempted to build pressure with Ra5, Rfa1, Ra7 and knight manoeuvres, but Divya responded calmly with Nd6, Nd7 and timely king centralisation. After move 42, Divya forced a perpetual check to secure the draw.

Kateryna Lagno registered a key result, defeating Bibisara Assaubayeva, who had drawn with Tan Zhongyi in Round Four. Elsewhere in the Open section, Fabiano Caruana defeated Matthias Bluebaum to stay second on 3.5 points, while Anish Giri drew with China’s Wei Yi.

Published on Apr 03, 2026