Hikaru Nakamura blames his team for loss against Sindarov in FIDE Candidates 2026

After losing to Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov in the fifth round of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 in the Open section, American Hikaru Nakamura blamed his team for the defeat.

Speaking about the game on a Kick live stream, the Grandmaster said, “I can’t be mad at myself for this one. This is 100 per cent on the people working for me. I had a file and it didn’t have the move castles. Honestly, it’s a novelty, but it’s such a human move and as soon as Javokhir played that, I was like ‘What is this?”

“I guess you can say I had some way to figure it out, but it was impossible without knowing what the correct line is,” he added.

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.

During the game, there was a point where Nakamura took 67 minutes and 44 seconds to make a move, the second-longest move in FIDE Candidates history. “It’s pretty straightforward. I either completely forgot that it was in a file or it’s on my team. I suspected it’s the latter and I didn’t forget. It’s very unfortunate,” he said in the post-match interview.

Nakamura has had a lukewarm start to the Candidates as he finds himself joint-last in the standings with 1.5 points, drawing thrice and losing twice.

Published on Apr 04, 2026