2026 FIDE Candidates Round 10
Sindarov springs forward another full point and closes in on winning way ahead of time.
Sindarov - Praggnanandhaa
He can’t keep getting away with it…
What a fascinating position. Sindarov has a massive three-passed pawn majority on the kingside, but the structure isn’t particularly helpful as of right now. Pragg has a bishop for his two missing pawns, and it is unopposed, though not yet developed. One can imagine its sphere of influence gaining if the move Bc8-c6 were possible, but alas it is not, and must be made in a two move maneuver.
22…Bd7?? Pragg played in twenty seconds.
Sindarov spent about 9 minutes longer, and played 23.Rf7! in response, having spotted a successive series of double attacks that wins the game. Pragg had little choice: 23…Qxf7 24.Rxf7 Kxf7 25.Qf4!
The first deadly double attack. Black must defend the rook.
25…Kg7 26.Qg5+
Another double-attack. The rook is hanging so the king sticks close by.
26…Kh7 27.Qe7+!
The final double attack. White will pick up the bishop, and use the superior mobility of the queen and the exposed position of Black’s king and rooks to guide all of the passed pawns forward to victory. This was only the half-way point of the game; Pragg did not resign until move 53.
Divya - Goryachkina
In a minor piece endgame that was being held strong by both sides, Divya finally faltered on the 56th move of the game.
The position has a couple imbalances worth pointing out: The knight vs bishop, the pawns aret 2-on-1 on the queenside and 2-on-3 on the kingside. One pawn is passed, but Black has stopped its advance, making the knight on c4 feel a bit frozen in place. All in all everything is held in equilibrium. I think Black has a slightly more comfortable game, because bishops are usually better than knights when there are pawns on both sides of the board; but this position is a draw; it’s hard to imagine either side making more progress without the position breaking down with captures.
56.g3?
By making contact with Black’s position first, White is allowing Black to create a passed pawn in a more advantageous circumstance. Instead, 56.h4! kept the game going, as after 56…gxh4 Black has no hope of creating a passed pawn.
56…fxg3+ 57.Kxg3
57…Bb3?
Missing an opportunity to threaten the creation of the passed pawn with 57…h5! However, Divya was painfully low on time.
58.Nb2??
Missing Ne5+ followed by h4, successfully breaking up Black’s last resource in her connected pawns.
After Goryachkina played 58…h5, White’s position was finally doomed and Aleksandra was able to pick up a point five moves later after Divya resigned on her own
Assaubayeva - Zhu
Zhu had a comfortable position for most of the middlegame, having saddled White with an IQP that could never advance. But in a series of strange events and very slight inaccuracies, Bibisara was able to create a passed pawn on the queenside, and then another, as Black’s position became more tangled. As soon as the passers were on the board, the game became extremely sharp, and Bibisara eventually picked up a full point thanks to an extra queen. GIF:
