Javokhir Sindarov has every chance of becoming a challenger to world chess champion Gukesh Dommaraju. Victory in the Candidates Tournament can hardly be taken away from him.
With nine points from twelve games, Sindarov from Uzbekistan leads the tournament table undefeated. He is two points ahead of Dutchman Anish Giri, who has seven points. Two games each are still open for all eight players.
On Tuesday, Sindarov and Giri will meet at the tournament in Pegia, Cyprus. But even if Giri wins this game, he would need Sindarov’s defeat against fifth-placed Wei Yi of China and a win of his own against Matthias Blübaum of Germany in recent games to tie the score on points. An unlikely case given how the tournament has gone so far. Should this happen, tie-break games with a shortened time limit would be scheduled between Giri and Sindarov.
The winner will play against world chess champion Gukesh from India – the date and location for these games are not yet known.
World chess champion Dommaraju Gukesh
Bielefeld flowering tree with respectable success
Matthias Blübaum from Bielefeld still has the chance to at least improve his ranking in the last few games. In an interview with WDR at the end of March, Blübaum said that he saw himself as an outsider: “The fact that I even have a chance of qualifying for the World Cup match is a huge achievement for me.”
He can already look back on a decent record at the tournament. Of his twelve games he only lost one and defied Sindarov to a draw twice, and he also drew once against Giri. Now he will face Hikaru Nakamura from the USA on Tuesday and then again against Giri at the end.
