Sindarov defends confidently against Caruana, Vaishali moves a point clear in the women's event. Candidates Round 11 - 11

Javokhir Sindarov moved a step closer to winning the FIDE Candidates tournament in Cyprus. Sindarov was put under serious pressure for the first time in the event. Sindarov made a number of inaccuracies 22...Rc8! would probably have avoided all difficulty, I'm not sure Sindarov was lost but after Caruana's 31.g4?! he realised immediately that he should save the position which he did fairly easily from then on. A two point lead with three rounds to go means Sindarov is almost there.

The other games were drawn, Anish Giri had his chances against Andrey Esipenko, Praggnanandhaa was flat out winning against Bluebaum and Wei Yi easily held Nakamura.

In the women's event Vaishali Rameshbabu now leads by a point. It's hard to know what to say without sounding mean spirited but she's been gifted a lot of points. Today Goryachkina self-emolliated her own rook, there was no real reason to do that. The other games were drawn. Lagno-Muzychuk quiet draw, Zhu Jiner escaped with a draw against Divya Deshmukh and Tan Zhongyi allowed Bibisara to escape with a draw after late blunders from both players.

Round 11 (of 14) Standings: 1st Javokhir Sindarov, 8½/11. 2nd Anish Giri, 6½. 3rd-5th Matthias Bluebaum, Hikaru Nakamura and Yi Wei, 5. 6th Fabiano Caruana, 5½. 7th Andrey Esipenko, 4. 8th R Praggnanandhaa, 4½. 8 players. FIDE Women Candidates DRR.

Round 11 (of 14) Standings: 1st Rameshbabu Vaishali, 7/11. 2nd-3rd Anna Muzychuk and Jiner Zhu, 6. 4th-5th Deshmukh Divya and Aleksandra Goryachkina, 5. 6th-7th Bibisara Assaubayeva and Kateryna Lagno, 5½. 8th Zhongyi Tan, 4. 8 players.

Round 12 Sunday 12th April 13:30 BST: Andrey Esipenko vs Praggnanandhaa R, Matthias Bluebaum vs Fabiano Caruana, Javokhir Sindarov vs Hikaru Nakamura, Wei Yi vs Anish Giri.

Women’s Candidates Round 12: Anna Muzychuk vs Aleksandra Goryachkina, Vaishali Rameshbabu vs Zhu Jiner, Divya Deshmukh vs Tan Zhongyi, Bibisara Assaubayeva vs Kateryna Lagno.