New Delhi: The fourth round was always considered a psychological hurdle. With the 2026 edition of the candidates unleashing a new level of competition, Wednesday was the final sprint before a previously scheduled rest day at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort in Cyprus. However, it seems as if the Indian contingent was already mentally evaluating their day off.Indeed, it was a day of missed opportunities and disappointing results for India. While the siblings of R Praganananda and R Vaishali managed to salvage the draws, the spotlight turned harsh on Divya Deshmukh, whose experimental drama fell apart due to basic mistakes.
For a nation that opened the tournament with sensible unanimity in the early rounds, Round 4 felt like a whisper, a frantic rush to the holy of holies of the Thursday break.Dry draw of PragananandaR Praganandha, who has been India’s only hope in the open section, looked uncharacteristically subdued against Germany’s Matthias Bilbaum. Playing with the black pieces, the Chennai prodigy seemed content to take the game to neutral territory, as his German opponent wanted, rather than testing his resolve.Veteran GM Praveen Thipse was critical of this approach. Analyzing the game, Thipse told TimesofIndia.com, “Blobam is playing very strongly, and he chose a simple opening, and with the white pieces, he just eased into the dry end.” “Pragnandha tried to open the game with a center break, but he lost a couple of pawn moves in 4…c6 and 5…c6, so by the time he played 6…c5, there was hardly any chance of winning.”The game ended in a triple repetition of 37 moves, a dry affair that lacked the aggressive Prague style, even defending with black pieces, that the chess world has come to expect.Sandroof set the tone.As the Indians struggled for rhythm, Uzbekistan’s Javakhir Sundarov kept the momentum going by eliminating world-class Fabiano Caruana. The result sent shock waves through the chess community, and firmly established the Uzbek as the man to beat.
Javakhir Sindarov (photo by Michel Walsza)
“The match between the two players leading the tournament with 2.5/3 was interesting,” Thipse noted. “Sundarov had a great victory against Fabiano Caruana to lead 3.5/4. It looks like a great score. At this stage, one can say that his quality and game or consistency is much better than others. If things continue like this, one can say that Sundarov is going to win this tournament.Escape of VaishaliIn the women’s section, R Vaishali faced off against Alexandra Gurichkina who turned in a 27-step survival act. Opting for a king’s pawn opening that turned into an Italian game (the modern bishop’s opening), Vaishali soon found himself in murky waters. “Vishali got out of a bad position. She played the opening badly,” Thapse said bluntly. “At one stage, a central exchange took place, and if her opponent had played exd4 (instead of 18…Nxd4), it would have been a huge positional advantage for her opponent. But when the opponent took the knight to d4, Vaishali recovered immediately, and the game ended in a draw with some interesting moments, but nothing serious.“FIDE Candidate Round 4 Results – 1st April 2026Open the section.
- Andre Espinco 0-1 Anish Giri
- Wei Yi 0.5–0.5 Hikaru Nakamura
- Javakhir Sundaroff 1-0 Fabiano Caruana.
- Matthias Blübaum 0.5–0.5 R Pragnananandhaa
Women’s section
- Anna Muzyczyk 1–0 Katrina Ligno
- Bibisara Assaubayeva 0.5–0.5 Tan Zhongyi
- Divya Deshmukh 0–1 Zoo Genr
- Vaishali Ramesh Babu 0.5–0.5 Alexandra Gorichkina
Divya Deshmukh’s positional disorder.The most terrifying result for India came on board Divya Deshmukh. Facing China’s Zhu Jin with the white pieces, Divya’s Slav defense was broken not by the opponent’s brilliance but by self-inflicted injuries.“The most disappointing game of the day was Divya Deshmukh’s,” Thapse said. Divya Deshmukh played the English opening. Early in the middle game, he had already established a two-pawn structure on d4 and d5 with 8. cxd5… exd4 and 9. exd4… Bb6.“He played a position that might not be easy to understand, but he took double pawns in the center to give him a pain effect. Apparently, she didn’t know the follow-up, because as soon as she had a slight advantage… she tried to push the pawns to the king for no reason, instead of focusing on the development.”
Divya plays 12.h4.
His first major mistake came with a premature kingside pawn push, 12. h4, which weakened his position. Taking advantage of this, Zhou Jenner made a decisive attack by capturing the d5 pawn with 17…Nxd5.“Divya also fortified on the same side that she had weakened, and in the process, she lost a pawn on the 17th move,” Thapse explained. “The lost time and pawn was irreparable. The later play was also very wrong. He lost another pawn… In the final position, he was threatened with losing the queen, threatened with mate, threatened with a pawn fork. A one-sided game between the two.”By the time Divya resigned after 36 moves, she was several pawns down in desperation. It was a clear case of a player losing the thread of the game while probably already thinking about the rest of the day.The Indian contingent needs more than comfort. They need a complete restoration.The play-it-safe mentality seen in Round 4 has done little but allowed the contest to move forward.Praganandha, Vaishali and Divya have to return on Friday. What they will need is the killer instinct that seems to have evaporated in the Mediterranean heat.Round 5 Pairing – 3 April 2026
- Open: Praganananda vs. Espinco; Caruana v. Bluebaum; Nakamura vs. Sandroff; Gary v. Wei Yi.
- Women: Gorychkina v Mozychak; Zoe Jenner vs Vaishali; Tan Zhongyi vs. Divya; Ligno v. Babysara.
