Uzbekistan's Javokhir Sindarov beat India's R Praggnanandhaa in round three of the FIDE Candidates 2026 in Cyprus, joining Fabiano Caruana in the lead with 2.5 points. Caruana defeated Wei Yi after the Chinese grandmaster blundered. In the women's section, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Kateryna Lagno secured wins.
R Praggnanandhaa, playing white in a Queen's Gambit Declined, faced time pressure in a sharp position against Javokhir Sindarov. With less than 10 minutes for 14 moves before time control, Praggnanandhaa lost a pawn-up advantage and resigned after falling an exchange down. The loss marked the end of Praggnanandhaa's nine-year unbeaten streak in classical games against Sindarov, who previously noted Praggnanandhaa's dominance in their early encounters, saying, “I think if he had not played, I would have won at least a few more cadet tournaments. In 2013, I lost to him twice or thrice in a row. At that time, I knew he would be one of the strongest players in the world.” This result highlighted the ongoing India-Uzbekistan chess rivalry, which traces back to clashes between former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the early 2000s and continues with younger talents like Nodirbek Abdusattorov and D Gukesh at recent Olympiads. Fabiano Caruana capitalized on Wei Yi's blunder in their game. Wei Yi, who sacrificed two pawns for initiative, admitted, “I sacrificed two pawns to fight for the initiative, but after Queen B5, I was out of the book. I played a few terrible moves and then just blundered my piece.” The game ended in 19 moves. Other open-section games saw draws between Matthias Blübaum and Andrey Esipenko, and Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri, the latter in just 19 moves. In the women's event, Bibisara Assaubayeva defeated Zhu Jiner after turning the tables under pressure, while Kateryna Lagno prevailed in a rollercoaster against defending champion Tan Zhongyi. R Vaishali drew with Anna Muzychuk after solid play, and Divya Deshmukh held Aleksandra Goryachkina for another draw.
