Anish Giri is everything humane about Elite level chess

Candidates 2026 First Leg: The Sindarov Domination

A lot of people lost intrigue in this Candidates after GM Javokhir Sindarov scored five wins in the first six games. GM Fabiano Caruana was the closest on +2. However, players like GM Anish Giri & R Praggnanandhaa had shown solid play and were definitely in the contention for the second spot if not first. The seventh round was crucial as Sindarov, who was on a 4 game winning streak, was facing Giri with White and he needed to be stopped if at all the second half of the tournament had to have some meaning, which Giri managed to do in a tough game lasting more than 5 hours.

A Niche Hope

Although he was on 50%, if you listen to Giri's interviews in the first half, he had not lost hope like GM Hikaru Nakamura (perhaps everyone except for Fabi) and was determined to fight until there was a mathematical chance.

"... I just want to be somewhere within striking distance just to keep hope, and then sometimes miracles happen...We all sort of made a pact that we are here to fight, because otherwise if you don't fight then somebody else will win..." - Giri told Lichess after his win over GM Andrey Esipenko in Round 4.
https://youtu.be/6GNzKux2ggE?si=3CNGXAvgcJLBMSNN&t=226
Sindarov was on +3 after 4 rounds while Giri had only neutralized his First round loss to Pragg.

Second Leg begins

He got his chance in the first game itself of the second leg where Pragg got a worse position out of the opening in the Vienna which Giri converted, though not as cleanly as he would have liked.

Fabi on the other hand lost to Hikaru with Black. And the two then faced each other in the next round. Since he was playing with White, Fabi treated it as a must-win and overpushed, and got a worse position out of the opening.

Giri again kept putting pressure and eventually converted, resulting in him being the closest behind Sindarov at +2 who had increased his score to +6 by Round 10.

Fair Tale for Sindarov or Fairy Tale for Giri?

Next three rounds, Giri played Hikaru, Esipenko & GM Wei Yi with White, White & Black respectively. Although all these games ended in a draw, he had a chance to put serious pressure on his opponents in the first two and was winning twice against the Chinese Super GM. All these three draws (I would argue even the two wins preceding them) highlighted Giri's unclear calculation under pressure (whether time pressure or tournament pressure or pressure of an exposed king). This has been in my opinion his biggest (and some would argue perhaps only) weakness at least since COVID (when I started following chess). However, till Round 11, he was determined while being objective about the tournament situation. The 6-hour draw with Wei Yi however seemed to have broken him. He out-prepped him. Kept adding pressure in the middle game and was on the verge of converting had he played 32... Qe3 instead of 32....Qc5.

The game however, ended in a draw by unintentional three-fold repetition by Giri. The engine evaluation at that point, though, was anyway a draw.

The Road Ahead

Round 13 is Giri with White against Sindarov who is not only leading the tournament, but also has been unbeaten. He has only been worse twice in the first twelve rounds. Once in the first round against Esipenko with White which he went on to win.

Second in round 11 against Fabi with Black. He showed resilience to successfully draw that game.

Giri will surely play to win but won't go crazy like playing the King's Gambit which is also not his style. Instead, he will try to not give him a draw easily, which he will be desperate for as that seals the tournament for him. Thus, a long game can be expected. Sindarov hasn't faced 1. e4 in this tournament yet. It is safe to assume that he will reply to it with 1... e5. The Ruy Lopez will be responded to with the Berlin Defense and I don't think Giri will want to get into an Italian game. Can he along with his team come up with a novelty in either the Berlin endgame or the Anti-Berlin will be interesting to see.
If I had to put my money, I will put it on Giri not playing 1. e4 and instead opening with 1. d4 or 1. c4. The Catalan by this point has more than a dozen forced draw lines for Black. The fate of this tournament (rather the fate of an interesting Round 14) lies in what Giri and team can cook up after 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. Nf3 Nf6.