Vaishali triumphs @ FIDE Women’s Candidates 2026 Cyprus

April 16, 2026

Indian Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu (8.5) emerged the champion ahead of Kazakh GM Bibisara Assaubayeva (8.0) after the 14th round of the FIDE Women’s Candidates 2026 at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus…

Sindarov (9.5/13) wins Candidates 2026 with a round to spare @ Cyprus

April 15, 2026

Uzbek Grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov with a stunning 9.5/13 score won the FIDE Candidates 2026 with a round to spare after the 13th round at Cyprus. In the women’s section, GMs Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) & Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) led the table with 7.5 points…

Zhu Jiner joins Vaishali in lead, Sindarov 9/12 @ Cyprus

April 13, 2026

GM Zhu Jiner & Vaishali Rameshbabu led the FIDE Women's Candidates 2026 while GM Javokhir Sindarov led the Open section after the 12th round at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort, Cyprus...

GMs Zhu Jiner & Vaishali Rameshbabu led the FIDE Women’s Candidates 2026 while GM Javokhir Sindarov led the Open section after the 12th round at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort, Cyprus…

Sindarov & Vaishali stay on top @ Cyprus

April 12, 2026

GMs Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan) and Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) led the FIDE Candidates 2026 after the 11th round at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus…

Giri downs Caruana, Vaishali & Zhu Jiner share lead @ Cyprus

Posted on April 9, 2026 BY R.R. Vasudevan

GM Anish Giri (Netherlands) beat GM Fabiano Caruana (USA) for his second win a row, cutting down the lead of GM Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan) to 1.5 points after the ninth round in the FIDE Candidates 2026 at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus. World Cup Goa winner GM Sindarov now leads with 7.0 points ahead of GM Anish Giri at 5.5 points, while GMs viz., Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) and Zhu Jiner (China) shared the lead with 5.5 points, in the Women’s section.

In the game of the day, Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri put paid to the hopes of US Champion GM Fabiano Caruana. Scoring his second win a row Giri came up with a positional beauty to out play the American. The position emerging for the ancient Italian game soon looked set for a domination by black pieces. Periodical trade offs saw the game moving into a queen and minor pieces ending with an awkard position for Caruana. Sensing white’s space constraint Giri finished the game with a fine bishop sacrifice, forcing imediate resignation. The 43 move win by the Grandmaster from Orange country is a kind of a statement that all is not over in the Candidates.

The other games between GMs Hikaru Nakamura vs Andrey Esipenko, Matthias Bluebaum vs Javokhir Sindarov, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu vs Wei Yi ended in draws. In a crucial tenth round encounter leader Sindarov takes on Praggnanandhaa, for whom it will be a make or break opportunity to stop the roaring Uzbek. Second placed Giri faces Nakamura, nursing bigger hopes to make it a hat-trick of wins to augment his qualification for the top spot.

Chennai based Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu took a positive towards the Candidates qualification defeating fellow Indian GM Divya Deshmukh in a powerful display of attacking chess. A game that evolved from Nimzo-Larsen attack saw Vaishali in her elements and little out of the opening black started feeling the heat. Divya did her best to stem the rolling white pieces but the battle was just beyond the Nagpur girl’s defence. With this 31 move win over the co-leader Vaishali finds herself on top of the leaderboard along with top seed GM Zhu Jiner. Every round counts in this closely packed field, but this leading duo have their nose ahead in the title race.

Similar to every Candidates Tournament since 2013, this event will be a 8 player double round-robin tournament. The winner of the Candidates 2026 tournament will earn the right to play the next FIDE World Chess Championship against the reigning World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju. The winner of the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates tournament will earn the right to challenge Women’s world champion Ju Wenjun.

Round 10 starts by Thursday, 9th April at 8:45 AM ET / 2:45 PM CEST / 6:15 PM IST.

Round 9 Results (Open): Hikaru Nakamura (4.0) drew with Andrey Esipenko (3.0), Fabiano Caruana (4.5) lost to Anish Giri (5.5), Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (4.0) drew with Wei Yi (4.0), Matthias Bluebaum (4.0) drew with Javokhir Sindarov (7.0).

Round 9 Results (Women): Tan Zhongyi (3.0) drew with Anna Muzychuk (5.0), Zhu Jiner (5.5) beat Kateryna Lagno (4.5), Aleksandra Goryachkina (4.0) drew with Bibisara Assaubayeva (4.0), Vaishali Rameshbabu (5.5) beat Divya Deshmukh (4.5).

Fabiano Caruana (2795) – Anish Giri (2753) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. O-O Nf6 5. d3 O-O 6. Nbd2 d6 7. c3 a5 8. h3 Be6 9. Bb5 Ba7 10. Re1 Ne7 11. d4 Ng6 12. Bd3 Nh5 13. Nf1 Nhf4 14. Ng3 Nxd3 15. Qxd3 a4 16. d5 Bd7 17. Bg5 f6 18. Be3 Bxe3 19. fxe3 b5 20. b4 axb3 21. axb3 Qb8 22. c4 Qb6 23. Nf5 Rfe8 24. N3h4 b4 25. Kh2 Ra3 26. Rab1 Ra2 27. Qd1 Nxh4 28. Nxh4 Rea8 29. Re2 Qa7 30. Rc1 Qb6 31. Nf3 h6 32. Ne1 Kh7 33. Rxa2 Rxa2 34. Nc2 Be8 35. Qd3 Bg6 36. Ra1 Rxa1 37. Nxa1 c5 38. Kg3 Qa7 39. Qb1 h5 40. Kf3 h4 41. Kg4 Qe7 42. Qd3 f5+ 43. exf5

43…Kh6 0-1

Vaishali Rameshbabu (2470) – Divya Deshmukh (2497) 1. Nf3 d5 2. b3 Nf6 3. Bb2 e6 4. c4 Bd6 5. g3 O-O 6. Bg2 c6 7. O-O Nbd7 8. d4 a5 9. Nc3 Ne4 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Ne5 f5 12. f4 Nf6 13. e3 Qe8 14. h3 b5 15. Rf2 Ba6 16. Rc1 bxc4 17. bxc4 Nd7 18. Nxc6 Rc8 19. d5 Nc5 20. Qd4 Rf6 21. Rd2 Rg6 22. Kh2 Nd3 23. Rxd3 exd3 24. c5 Rxc6 25. dxc6 Bc7 26. Qd7 Qb8 27. Be5 Bxe5 28. Rb1 Qf8 29. fxe5 h5 30. Qd6 Qf7