4 min readAug 6, 2026 10:42 PM IST
For four straight days in Saint Louis, Javokhir Sindarov chased R. Praggnanandhaa with everything he had. Despite his best efforts, catching the Indian felt like hunting a shadow. The Uzbek had done everything right too, staying unbeaten throughout the Rapid section, but Pragg was always one step ahead at every turn. But on Thursday, when he finally had his foot on the Indian’s throat, he blinked to snatch a draw from the jaws of what looked like a certain victory.
On Day 1 of the Blitz section, Sindarov turned up the heat from the start. A hat-trick of wins from rounds four to six accelerated his pursuit, and then came the moment he had been waiting for.
In the penultimate round of the day, Sundarov finally had the man he was hunting across the board. After days of chasing, the World Championship challenger had the Indian in his sights with one full point up for grabs.
Praggnanandhaa may have been in inspired form, but a red-hot Sindarov is as relentless an opponent as they come. The two were evenly matched: their earlier Rapid clash had ended in a draw, and both had identical win counts in Blitz heading into this clash. The colours, too, suited the script as Sindarov wielded white, a colour with which he had already dismantled Fabiano Caruana and Leinier Domínguez Pérez. Praggnanandhaa, on the other hand, had black, the colour of all three of his wins.
It was the perfect battlefield for two warriors ready to test their blades and they proved worthy of each other. In the English Opening, both went for quick exchanges, with knights and light-squared bishops being the first minor pieces to leave the board.
Soon, the other knight and bishop were traded, and the game drifted into a draw-prone rook endgame. But this was Blitz, and the clock was always going to have the final say. The script also played out perfectly as Praggnanandhaa made not one but two costly mistakes, trading both rooks at the wrong moment. Suddenly, the writing was on the wall for him. Sindarov was marching his pawns forward, backed by an active king. It seemed only a matter of time before the Indian would taste his first loss of the day.
Both players were deep in a severe time scramble when Sindarov found the winning move: 41… c5. The final nail was seemingly in the coffin. Praggnanandhaa was on the ropes.
Story continues below this ad
Big blunder
Then came an almighty collapse, out of the blue. With just one second left on the clock, Sindarov retreated his king back to f4. Praggnanandhaa could not believe his luck. He was right back in the fight, handed a lifeline he had no right to expect.
The winning chances disappeared in an instant. Sindarov, forced to share the spoils, pulled the plug on a game that would have stung the Indian more than the loss he had endured against Jorden van Foreest.
Explaining his decision to play 43.Kf4?, Sindarov said “I saw I’m winning with any move.”
Except he played the only move that cost him his win.
Story continues below this ad
Praggnanandhaa ended his day as the sole leader of both the Blitz event and the overall tournament, having already won the Rapid section earlier. His wins over Vincent Keymer, van Foreest, and Pérez, combined with six draws, gave him six points from nine Blitz rounds. He remained on top, with Levon Aronian and Sindarov trailing just half a point behind.
On the overall leaderboard, Praggnanandhaa sits comfortably with 18 points from 18 rounds. Sindarov is second with 16.5 points, while Wesley So occupies third spot with 15 points.
The Indian, who recently won a historic maiden Norway Chess title, will face the entire field one final time with nine more Blitz rounds remaining. His strategy for the last day is simple, as he put it on Wednesday: “Just don’t lose.”
Just as he did against his biggest rival in their first two encounters.
