Candidates Round 12: Sindarov One Draw Away, Vaishali and Zhu in Joint First

Many thanks to @AdrianoNunesFX for writing this recap!

About the Candidates and What's at Stake?

The Candidates tournament is an eight-player double round robin whose winner earns the right to challenge the reigning world champion in a world championship match. Historically, the Candidates was an elimination knockout tournament, but since 2013, it has been conducted as a double round robin with eight players.

Lichess Coverage

Lichess will produce in-depth blog posts with annotations for each round of the 2026 FIDE Candidates. GM Axel Bachmann (@ABachmann) will annotate R1–7 and GM Maksim Chigaev (@Fandorine96) R8–14 + potential tiebreaks from the Open Candidates, while WGM Petra Papp (@cukus) will annotate R1–4, IM / WGM Lilit Mkrtchian (@Lilit-Mkrtchian) R5–7, and IM / WGM Ekaterina Atalik (@EkaterinaAtalik) R8–14 + potential tiebreaks from the Women's Candidates. Lichess will also create videos for each round of the tournament, with interviews and other types of content. Keep an eye on our socials for the videos!

Tournament Schedule

Pairings for Round 13

Open:

Women's:

Interviews

Make sure to check out all of our interviews from the Candidates on our YouTube channel! All our round 12 interviews are also embedded throughout this article.

Lichess Broadcast

The Lichess broadcast for the Candidates can be found here:

https://adjva4.dpdns.org/broadcast/fide-candidates-2026/oe4JqS3R

Open Leaderboard

Open Overview

GM Javokhir Sindarov had a quiet and quick draw against GM Hikaru Nakamura, keeping his lead. GM Matthias Bluebaum put some pressure on GM Fabiano Caruana for a while, but it ended in a draw. GM Andrey Esipenko was in severe time trouble against GM R Praggnanandhaa in a sharp position, but his stubborn defense was rewarded with a draw in the end. GM Anish Giri got many chances to win against GM Wei Yi both in the position and on time, and the dramatic draw greatly reduced Giri's chances of winning the tournament.

GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura 1/2-1/2

GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

With the possibility of winning the tournament with two rounds to spare, GM Javokhir Sindarov didn't lose control and once again took the sensible "safety first" approach. GM Hikaru Nakamura once again employed the 4... h6 QGD, after which Sindarov transposed to a Catalan Opening with 5. g3 and had no trouble reaching the risk-free scenario he wanted. Nakamura clearly didn't oppose a quick draw, as the players simplified the position and the result was clear well before move 20, but they played on due to the tournament's rules (no draw offers before move 41). They ultimately found a way to repeat moves and the game ended that way on move 33.

GM Wei Yi vs. GM Anish Giri 1/2-1/2

GM Wei Yi vs. GM Anish Giri; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

The most dramatic game of the round, as GM Anish Giri is now the only one who can catch up to Sindarov, and GM Wei Yi once again employed his Bishop's Opening/Vienna hybrid. Both players seemed to leave their preparation on move 13, and Giri won the opening battle by claiming a slightly better position. It didn't look much until Wei Yi started to critically fall behind on the clock, and on move 27 he had 14 minutes to play 14 more moves. That didn't stop the 2025 World Cup's runner-up from finding a strong exchange sacrifice to keep the balance, but he played inaccurately afterwards and Giri returned the favor when he missed a golden chance to grab a decisive advantage on move 32. Wei Yi even played his 40th move with just one second on the clock, and then both players started to miss their shots, with Giri starting to fall behind on the clock himself. The 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss winner made the last error on his 66th move, but the game only ended in a draw after Giri accidentally repeated the position three times, and then Wei Yi successfully claimed the draw on move 77.

GM Maksim Chigaev has annotated this game for you to learn from:

GM Matthias Blübaum vs. GM Fabiano Caruana 1/2-1/2

Watch our interview with GM Matthias Blübaum here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzNaB94id4k

With the game Sindarov – Nakamura quickly heading to a draw, GM Fabiano Caruana was mathematically out of contention for first place, so it was expected this game would also quickly end peacefully. Not so quickly, though, as GM Matthias Blübaum's solid play left his opponent with an isolated pawn on d5 on move 22, and it was expected that the American grandmaster would suffer for a few hours trying to hold the draw. However, on move 35 Blübaum allowed a trade on f3 that doubled his own pawns, and Caruana got enough room to breathe and return to safety. The game ended in a perpetual check on move 52.

GM Andrey Esipenko vs. GM R Praggnanandhaa 1/2-1/2

GM Andrey Esipenko vs. GM R Praggnanandhaa; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

Both players are out of contention for the tournament victory, but that didn’t stop GM R Praggnanandhaa from showing already on move three (3... d4, claiming space in the center) that he was out for blood. GM Andrey Esipenko’s time management indicated that he was out of the book early in the game, and in fact spent almost a whole hour to play his 12th move after boldly sacrificing a pawn. Needing to play 28 more moves in 37 minutes in a very sharp position, it seemed unlikely Esipenko would hold. However, the 2025 World Cup third place put up a heroic defense, and Praggnanandha’s huge lead on the clock wasn’t enough to make progress in the position. The game ended in a threefold repetition on move 46.

GM Maksim Chigaev has annotated this game for you to learn from:

Women's Leaderboard

Women's Overview

GM Anna Muzychuk came extremely close to scoring a win over GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, but a slip in the very end cost her a precious half-point. GM Zhu Jiner regains her place in the leading pack after defeating GM R Vaishali in a very sharp battle. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva is back to contention after winning a back and forth game against GM Kateryna Lagno. GM Tan Zhongyi gets her first win in the tournament after outplaying GM Divya Deshmukh in a closed game.

GM Vaishali Rameshbabu vs. GM Zhu Jiner 0-1

The choice for the Advance variation of the Caro-Kann Defense meant that a serious fight was ahead of GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and GM Zhu Jiner. Vaishali went for a rare recapture on move 5, but Zhu Jiner didn't flinch and the suspense continued to escalate. Both players started a maneuvering battle until Zhu Jiner decided to forfeit her castling rights by playing 18... Rg1 and attack her opponent's king. Vaishali's 23. bxc4 handed over the d5-square to Zhu Jiner, which was objectively fine but practically risky for White. From move 29 until the end of the game, Zhu Jiner and Vaishali were forced to play blitz chess as they both were very low on time. The two-time FIDE Women's Grand Swiss winner ultimately paid the price for her weaker king, and the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-25 winner caught up to the tournament's lead on move 39.

IM / WGM Ekaterina Atalik has annotated this game for you to learn from:

GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Kateryna Lagno 1-0

GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Kateryna Lagno; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

The game saw a revival of an opening variation that is almost as old as chess itself, the Greco Gambit of the Italian Game. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva and GM Kateryna Lagno didn't catch each other in the opening, but in the middlegame Assaubayeva went for the risky plan of gaining space at the expense of her king's safety. The Kazakh grandmaster got even more ambitious and gave her powerful light-squared bishop to grab a pawn, but grabbing the second pawn gave Lagno a serious advantage. The 2025 FIDE Women's Grand Swiss runner-up consistently held to her advantage, but being so low on time caught up to Lagno, who dropped her advantage on move 35 and even let Assaubayeva claim the advantage for herself on move 36. The game switched back and forth between a draw and a victory for White before the time control was reached, but on move 41 the three-time Women's World Blitz champion corrected her earlier mistake and found the winning sequence to end the game in her favor on move 49. Assaubayeva is now back in contention for first place.

GM Anna Muzychuk vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina 1/2-1/2

Despite the combative Ruy Lopez being on the board, both players seemed to be heading towards a draw until GM Aleksandra Goryachkina's blunder on move 37, giving GM Anna Muzychuk a winning rook endgame. On move 43, however, the Ukrainian grandmaster started to hesitate as she was working out the consequences of a battle between her rook and Goryachkina's connected passed pawns. The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024-25 runner-up didn't put up the best defense and everything indicated that Muzychuk would catch up to Vaishali in the tournament's race for first place. On move 65, however, the tide turned as Muzychuk included a wrong check that allowed Goryachkina to salvage a draw and critically impact the tournament's standings. The game ended by insufficient material on move 71.

IM / WGM Ekaterina Atalik has annotated this game for you to learn from:

GM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Tan Zhongyi 0-1

GM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Tan Zhongyi; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

The tournament hasn't been easy for both GM Divya Deshmukh and GM Tan Zhongyi, but their game quickly developed tension as Divya employed the rare Konstantinopolsky Opening (3. g3 in the Open Game) and the position started to get a closed character. The 2025 Women's World Cup gained a lot of space, but her doubled-edged decision of closing the center on move 21 allowed Tan Zhongyi to exploit the e5-square. Objectively speaking, the game was still within the drawing margin, but the former Women's World Champion kept building up the pressure with several maneuvers and ultimately broke through with 56... g6, decisively opening up the game to her advantage. Tan Zhongyi grabbed her first win in the tournament on move 62.

Simulations

Lichess ran 1 million simulations of round results to determine the Candidates winner. Here are our results after round 12:

Open Candidates:
Women's Candidates: