NAGPUR: World Cup winners Javakhir Sandroof are four wins and three draws away from the candidates’ victory in Cyprus.With five wins, two draws and six points from seven games, the 20-year-old youngest contender from Uzbekistan has achieved their best score halfway through the tournament since the eight-player double round-robin format was adopted in 2013.Go beyond limits with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!Even if Sindarov splits the points over the next seven games, he will match the tournament’s best ever score, which was achieved by Ian Nepomani Acchi with 9.5 points from 14 rounds to win the 2022 Candidates. In his Candidates debut, the way Sandarov performed in the first half, the change of ending against the remaining seven candidates looks like a cakewalk for the youngest winner of the Chess World Cup in Goa six months ago.While Tournament of Candidates veteran Fabiano Caruana follows Sandarov with 4.5 points, India’s Praganandha R and veteran Dutch GM Anish Giri are joint third with 3.5 points. If the trio of Caruana, Prag and Gary manage to get a full point against Sindarov with some luck from the other four, the open field will look like a battlefield.In his post-game interview with the St. Louis Chess Club after the draw with Prague, Kirovna said he was not under pressure in Cyprus.Will Cyprus prove lucky again for Ukraine’s ego?Anna Muzyczak qualified just a week before the start of candidates, after Indian No. 1 Hampi Konero withdrew. The 36-year-old top-ranked Ukrainian GM is now undefeated among the women’s candidates and leads the field by half a point.The luckiest place Vaishali R follows Anna on four points while Divya Deshmukh and Russia’s Kateryna Ligno and Alexandra Gorichkina share third place with China’s Zhu Jenner.
