Candidates: Javokhir Sindarov takes commanding lead; Zhu Jiner beats Divya Deshmukh

Javokhir Sindarov created daylight between him and others in Cyprus on Wednesday. If others don’t catch up, this could turn out to be one of the most one-sided Candidates chess tournaments as the Uzbek may need only 5.5 points in the remaining 10 rounds to earn a right to challenge D Gukesh for the world crown.If anyone thought that Sindarov would take it easy after outplaying R Praggnanandhaa with black pieces in the previous round, he came out all guns blazing and humbled joint leader Fabiano Caruana with a deadly offensive that forced resignation after 36 moves in Queens Gambit Accepted.The 20-year-old, the youngest participant in the eight-player event, jumped to 3.5 points in four rounds. Caruana is on 2.5 points and Praggnanandhaa, Anish Giri and Matthias Blubaum are on two points each.Sindarov seemed to have outprepared the American and got the upperhand in the middle game fight. He offered his rook which Caruana correctly did not take. Instead, knights were exchanged but the youngster probably knew the nuances of the position better than the veteran American. A clock advantage of almost an hour after 20 moves (with Caruana needing to make 20 more moves in less than 7 minutes for the first time control without increment) was an additional headache for the second seed.

With only both knights out of the board and Sindarov having an extra pawn (6 vs 5) in the a-file, the advantage materialistically was not huge. But Sindarov showed the potential of his attack by sharp play and simplified liquidation. He first exposed the black king, then cornered it to h8 square and forced Caruana’s resignation with the dominant rook and bishop also joining the attack.Caruana had touched a live rating of Elo 2800-plus after his win over China’s Wei Yi in the previous round but now he has to pick pieces after this defeat when the tournament resumes on Friday after Thursday’s rest day.Though siblings Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali drew their fourth-round games against Blubaum and Aleksandra Goryachkina respectively, lowest seed Divya Deshmukh suffered her first defeat in the women’s section against top seed Zhu Jiner of China.Divya had overlooked some major tactics in the previous two games against Vaishali and Goryachkina. She had chances to win the initiative against Vaishali and almost lost against the Russian but the latter showed poor technique.Jiner too had messed up against Bibisara Assaubayeva in the third round to suffer defeat. The Chinese had missed a winning chance in the earlier rounds too. Hence winning against Divya, and avenging her world cup defeat to the Indian, was crucial for Jiner’s points tally and mental stability. She is now on 2/4 with overnight leader Kateryna Lagno, now representing Russia, losing to her former Ukrainian compatriot Anna Muzychuk for the latter’s maiden win in this event.

Muzychuk, who replaced K Humpy in this event, is now joint leader of the women’s event with Bibisara Assaubayeva.