Did Sindarov Solve Chess?
The Uzbek 20-year-old is running away with 5.5/6 in the Candidates
My Dark Horse prediction is surprising even myself. The youngest player in the Candidates, GM Javokhir Sindarov, is leading the Candidates with a record-breaking score of 5.5/6!
What’s even more impressive is he totally outprepared the two Americans, Fabi & Naka, crushing both of them back-to-back. Just take a look at the time usage by Sindarov in these positions:
Black to play:
Black to play:
How does a 20-year-old youngster who loves videogames (Counter-strike is his favorite) outprepare the #2 and #3 seeds and very experienced GMs? Why isn’t he intimidated by the names of Caruana and Nakamura? How does he play so well under pressure once he gets an advantage?
Just as I’m writing this article, he outplayed Wei Yi in a complex middlegame. The Chinese GM used up 46 minutes on move 18, made a series of bad decisions and blundered on move 30 to lose the game. Perhaps Fabi, Naka, and Wei Yi should read my post about time management.
All of this begs the question: did Sindarov solve chess?
I guess it’s a bit early to try to answer this as the Candidates still have 8 more rounds to go. We’ve seen Gukesh do it in 2024, being the youngest winner at 17. Will Sindarov cruise to victory and meet the Indian superstar for the title?
While it’s too early to crown him, the secret to his current success isn’t magic. Kids like Sindarov grew up with neural-network engines. They don’t fear legends like Fabi or Hikaru because they trust the machine. They have the infinite time, energy, and memory required to memorize 25 moves of razor-sharp computer lines.
But here is the hard truth for adult improvers: You are not a 20-year-old chess professional.
You cannot play Sindarov’s game. If you try to memorize 20 moves of sharp, theoretical opening prep while balancing a full-time job, a mortgage, and a family, you are going to get crushed by the “whiz kids” at your local club. You will forget the move order, burn your clock, and blunder.
If you want to beat the kids, you have to drag them out of their computer preparation and into a position where experience and understanding matter more than memory.
For example, Pragg did this in round 1 vs the best theoretician in the world, Anish Giri, by playing my beloved Grand Prix Attack! By the way, Chessable is running the Candidates sale now. And if you haven’t already, you can get Grand Prix Reloaded or my other courses here.
Position after 10.f5:
Even though the engine doesn’t think highly of White’s setup, you can clearly see that Black would be uncomfortable facing the attack. Giri defended well for a while, but got low on time, misplayed the endgame and lost without a fight.
The GM Recipe: How to Handle the “Booked-Up” Kids
Avoid the Engine Battles: Stop playing directly into sharp, main-line theory. Use “Old Man Chess” structures to force your opponent to think for themselves on move 4, not move 20.
Let Them Burn Their Clock: Kids play fast when they are in their prep. The moment you steer the game into a quiet, strategic middlegame they haven’t studied, they will start burning their time.
Take Away the Chaos: If there are no fireworks on the board, young players get impatient. Play quiet, maneuvering chess and wait. They will almost always overextend and give you the game.
Stop Memorizing, Start Winning
You might not be playing in the Candidates, but you still need a bulletproof repertoire for your next weekend tournament.
I designed the “Old Man Chess” system to help busy adults reach comfortable, strategic middlegames where your intuition — not your calculation speed — wins the game.
When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:
The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.
The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps.
The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.
P.S. I’d love to hear your predictions in the comments: Can Sindarov hold onto the lead, or will Fabi catch him?
Sindarov is having a brilliant run of games. Yet, I’m still rooting for Fabi. I think it’s because it feels like the last opportunity for my generation. Not ready for them to lose their edge 😭.
GM-P, as an old adult improver, I think you’re right on about Sindherov’s talent, youth advantage and Old Man chess. I also think it might be too early to crown him as Candidates Champion or successor to Magnus, because there are 8 rounds left, and the other 7 will be gunning for him now that he is at the top. The final 8 rounds should be very exciting, unless Sindherov runs away with the rest of tournament. If he does win, and would beat Gukesh, it would be awesome to see him play a super-duper 3/5/7 game match against Magnus (we can dream).