2026 FIDE Candidates Round 9
A lot of near-misses. And some dynamite wins.
Caruana - Giri
Giri got the better of Caruana in a rather heartbreaking ending for the American.
Black has just played 37…c5, potentially freeing up White’s position for some counterplay. After 38.dxc6, White is able to put pressure on the d6 pawn. However, Caruana chose 38.Kg3, and it’s not really clear to me why this move was chosen, though I suspect he was trying to support the e4-pawn. In any case, Giri’s dismantling of the position thereafter is extremely instructive.
38…Qa7! hit the knight on a1 with tempo, so White now has to further discoordinate his army.
39.Qb1 h5! Giri continues to flush the king out away from all protections
40.Kf3 h4 41.Kg4 Qe7
Fabi’s attempt to attack the h4-pawn is failing.
42.Qd3??
42…f5+! 43.exf5 Kh6!
White resigns due to the following:
44.e4 Bh5#
44..fxg6 e4 loses the queen due to Qe5+ and/or Qg5#
44.Kf3 (evading Qg5+ and Bh5) e4+ 45.Qxe4 Bh5+ loses the queen and White will be mated regardless.
Great win for Giri, who has now arisen as the most likely person to stop Sindarov’s rampage. This really hurts as a Fabi fan, though.
Praggnanandhaa - Wei
Wei put on an absolutely monstrous defense effort from a positionally poor position where it looked like Pragg was definitely going to win. Both sides found great tactics, but Wei’s dogged unwillingness to lose the game was the star. The gif of the game shows how frenetic and frantic things got.
Bluebaum - Sindarov
Here’s another game where a player got away with a near-miss.
Sindarov’s attack was rolling quite powerfully, but a miscalculation ended up costing him half a point in a position where he otherwise probably would have won the way he normally has this entire tournament.
24…Bxa4?
A very unfortunate choice, considering that Sindarov had 55 minutes in this comfortable position and spent a mere 11 seconds allowing this queen trade to allow White to escape the worst with 25.Qxb6!, at which point the endgame was quite drawn.
Tan - Muzychuk
In this game Muzychuk spent most of her time with a nice advantage over Tan, whose main form of counterplay was her clock plus. The timestamp here is 26:11 Tan, 1:50 Muzychuk. And while this is a technical advantage for Black on the board, the choices are not equal nor easy to figure out without time on the buzzer.
38…Kxg5
This is the obvious move, and it feels so unfair that it’s also the one that led to a draw after a subsequent rook trade, as the opposite color-bishop endgame held no potential for Black. Being under time pressure, it makes sense to make the game as least complicated as possible, and so eliminating a potential future problem like this is the more immediate idea. Anna had a chance to create a protected passed pawn with the urgent 38…f5! and avoiding any rook trades, to try to nurse this pawn plus into a full point; but to do this on demand with two minutes on the clock is a task I don’t think any human could figure out.
Zhu - Lagno
Zhu won a very nice endgame against Lagno, being able to go up a pawn and consolidate very handily with some rook maneuvers.
White is playing according to the normal principle of moving the king toward the center. Kateryna goes for a trade.
23…Rxd1? A far better and more natural choice was the simple 23…Rd4. White is still pressing, but Black’s plan to get rid of her only active piece in the game was dubious. Perhaps she feared losing the pawn on c5, but the rook on d1 is hanging with check if such a thing were to occur.
24.Rxd1 a5 25.Rd5
Now it’s clear White is going up a pawn.
25…a4 26.Rxe5 axb3 27.axb3 Rb8
Now Black is threatening to win this pawn.
28.Rg5+! Kh8 29.Rg3
Perfect coordination. Zhu went on to win with a clinical treatment until her opponent’s resignation.
Vaishali - Divya
Vaishali found a nice series of moves to crush Divya in a very oppressive middlegame.
Divya’s knight has found some juicy targets: the c1-rook and b2-bishop. The DSB would be great trade, because then White has no pressure on the g7 square. And of course, an exchange of knight for rook isn’t bad either. However, this idea is tactically flawed, and the shakiness in her position is about to be completely exposed.
23.Rxd3!
Vaishali gives up an exchange on her terms, which includes opening up the long diagonal for her light square bishop further; it also means the destruction of Black’s most active piece in the game, leaving White in the driver’s seat with no hope of rest for Divya.
23…exd3 24.c5!
Already, Black is compelled to give back the rook.
24…Rxc6 25.dxc6
Thanks to the open diagonal, White’s bishop reigns absolutely supreme and the passed pawn on c6 is already cutting Black’s position in half.
25…Bc7 26.Qd7! Qb8
Black can’t accept the queen trade: 26…Qxd7? 27.cxd7 Bd8 28.c6!
The threat is c7, and there’s not much Black can do about it. Even after 28…d2, White can still play 29.c7! Bxc7 30.Rxc7!
White can even allow Black their queen first. 30…d1=Q 31.Bd4! This interference tactic seals the win. Black has no meaningful threats, the d-pawn is going to queen, and escape attempts by Black run into problems on the h-file, the f8-square, and the 7th and 8th ranks.
Back to the game:
27.Be5 Bxe5
28.Rb1!!
Offering a whole rook. Divya cannot accept the gift due to 28…Qxb1?? 29.Qe8#
28…Qf8 29.fxe5 h5 30.Qd6 Qf7 31.Rb7 1-0
I think what surprised me about the Bluebaum-Sindarov game was how Bluebaum seemed ready to go for it in the opening and then just tried to pull the ripcord and into a scary looking position.
I’m definitely not a GM but I’m pretty sure I learned somewhere that once you commit to the opposite side castling and pawn storms, your only true defense is counter threats.