Sindarov misses a big opportunity and Giri beats Caruana in Candidates Round 9 - 9

The 9th Round of the FIDE Candidates tournament in Cyprus saw some very consequent action. First of all the leader by two points Javokhir Sindarov missed a clear winning chance against Matthias Bluebaum and had to settle for a draw. No disaster but nevertheless a chance. Fabiano Caruana dropped out of contention when he lost to Anish Giri, who is now 1.5 points behind Sindarov and is surely the only player that can catch the leader.

In the women's event there was another very wild day that finished with Zhu Jiner and Rameshbabu Vaishali sharing the lead, Anna Muzychuk missed a chance to join them.

Round 9 (of 14) Standings: 1st Javokhir Sindarov, 7/9. 2nd Anish Giri, 5½. 3rd-5th Matthias Bluebaum, R Praggnanandhaa and Yi Wei, 4. 6th Fabiano Caruana, 4½. 7th Hikaru Nakamura, 3½. 8th Andrey Esipenko, 2½. 8 players. FIDE Women Candidates DRR.

Round 9 (of 14) Standings: 1st-2nd Jiner Zhu and Rameshbabu Vaishali, 5½/9. 3rd Anna Muzychuk, 5. 4th-5th Bibisara Assaubayeva and Aleksandra Goryachkina, 4. 6th-7th Deshmukh Divya and Kateryna Lagno, 4½. 8th Zhongyi Tan, 3. 8 players.

Round 10 13:30GMT 9th April 2026 FIDE Candidates Andrey Esipenko vs Matthias Bluebaum, Javokhir Sindarov vs Praggnanandhaa R, Wei Yi vs Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri vs Hikaru Nakamura.

FIDE Women’s Candidates Round 10:

Anna Muzychuk vs Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh vs Aleksandra Goryachkina, Bibisara Assaubayeva vs Zhu Jiner, Kateryna Lagno vs Tan Zhongyi.