Candidates 2026 Round 13 Preview: Giri's Last Stand and a Four-Way Women's Thriller
Rest day in Limassol. The pool is open, the prep laptops are humming, and somewhere in a hotel room Anish Giri is staring at a screen trying to find something that five wins in eleven rounds have not revealed: a way to beat Javokhir Sindarov.
Tomorrow at 15:30 local time, Round 13 of the 2026 Candidates Tournament begins. It is the penultimate round. In the Open section, the outcome of the entire tournament hinges on a single game. In the Women's section, four players are separated by half a point in a race that has been blown wide open.
Open: Giri - Sindarov, the Only Game That Matters
Round 13 pairings, Open section:
| White | Black | |-------|-------| | Giri | Sindarov | | Caruana | Praggnanandhaa | | Nakamura | Bluebaum | | Wei Yi | Esipenko |
There is one game on the schedule. The other three are footnotes.
Anish Giri (7/12) has White against Javokhir Sindarov (9/12). The gap is two full points with two rounds remaining. Sindarov needs a draw. A draw in this game and he is the 2026 Candidates champion, the youngest player to win the tournament in the modern format, and the man who will sit across from Gukesh for the World Championship later this year.
Giri knows all of this. He also knows his situation is nearly impossible. Even if he wins tomorrow, he would trail by one point heading into Round 14. He would then need to win his last game too while Sindarov loses his. Given that Sindarov has not lost a single game in twelve rounds, the phrase "long shot" is generous.
But Giri has earned the right to try. He is the only player in the field with a plus score besides the leader. His three wins include a Round 5 victory that restarted his tournament after a shaky first four rounds. He ground out points when nobody was watching. If someone is going to make Sindarov uncomfortable on Tuesday, it is him.
What to watch for
The preparation battle is everything. Giri is one of the most prepared players in elite chess. He will come armed with something specific, likely aimed at Sindarov's pet lines on the black side. The question is whether Sindarov is ready for it.
Here is the thing about Sindarov's position: he does not need to win. He does not even need to play well. He needs to not lose. That is a fundamentally different task. A player defending a two-point lead can accept slightly worse positions, trade pieces early, and steer towards endgames where the draw is the natural result. He did exactly this in Round 12, settling for a quick draw against Nakamura with the white pieces.
Giri's challenge is to create the kind of position where a draw is not easy to achieve. He needs imbalance, complexity, and a clock advantage. Anything symmetrical or simplified gives Sindarov exactly what he wants.
The historical parallel that keeps coming up: Fischer in 1971, Kasparov in 1985, Carlsen in 2013. Dominant performances where the leader clinched before the final round. Sindarov could join that list tomorrow. At age 20, with six wins and zero losses, he would be adding his name to a very short list.
The rest of the Open
Nobody else is playing for the title, but there is still pride and rating points on the line.
Caruana - Praggnanandhaa pits two underperformers against each other. Caruana (6/12) arrived as many people's favourite and has been inconsistent all tournament. Pragg (5/12) has struggled even more. Neither is the player they were expected to be.
Nakamura - Bluebaum features the world's most popular chess streamer against the man who has drawn eleven of twelve games. Bluebaum's 0 wins and 1 loss make him the steadiest player in the field, for better or worse.
Wei Yi - Esipenko is a battle between two players who will remember this Candidates as a learning experience.
Women's: Four Players, Half a Point, Two Rounds
If the Open section is a coronation waiting to happen, the Women's section is the opposite. Round 12 blew the race apart. Here is where things stand:
| # | Player | Points | Wins | |---|--------|--------|------| | 1 | Zhu Jiner | 7/12 | 5 | | 2 | Vaishali | 7/12 | 4 | | 3 | Assaubayeva | 6.5/12 | 3 | | 4 | Muzychuk | 6.5/12 | 2 |
Zhu Jiner leads on tiebreaks (most wins) despite being level on points with Vaishali. Assaubayeva and Muzychuk are half a point back. Goryachkina at 6/12 is technically alive but would need results to go perfectly.
Round 13 pairings, Women's section:
| White | Black | |-------|-------| | Vaishali | Tan Zhongyi | | Zhu Jiner | Goryachkina | | Assaubayeva | Muzychuk | | Lagno | Deshmukh |
Every single game except Lagno-Deshmukh has direct implications for the title race. This round was designed by a screenwriter.
Vaishali (White) vs Tan Zhongyi
Vaishali is reeling. Twenty-four hours ago she had a one-point lead and the tournament in her hands. Then Zhu Jiner beat her with the black pieces, and now she is second on tiebreak. The rest day could not have come at a better time for her.
She has White against Tan Zhongyi, who just won her first game of the entire tournament yesterday (beating Deshmukh). A newly confident Tan is a more dangerous opponent than the Tan who was sleepwalking through draws for eleven rounds.
Vaishali needs to win. A draw keeps her at 7.5 and leaves her dependent on other results in Round 14. A loss would be catastrophic. She should be the favourite here, but after yesterday, nothing feels guaranteed.
Zhu Jiner (White) vs Goryachkina
Zhu Jiner is the in-form player. Her win over Vaishali was her fifth of the tournament, the most in the women's field. Now she has White against Goryachkina, who drew Muzychuk in Round 12 in what turned out to be an incredibly dramatic game.
A word on that Muzychuk-Goryachkina game that our Round 12 recap did not fully capture: Muzychuk had a winning position after Goryachkina played 37...Rc6, found five consecutive only-moves through move 43, but with a single second on her clock at move 65, she missed the one winning continuation and Goryachkina escaped via a stalemate trick. That kind of narrow escape takes a toll. Goryachkina knows she was lucky.
If Zhu wins, she takes sole first place at 8/12 and would be very difficult to catch. If she draws, she stays at 7.5 and the race remains open. Goryachkina is fighting for survival but could play a spoiler role.
Assaubayeva (White) vs Muzychuk
This is the game between the two players on 6.5 who both need to win to stay in contention. Only one of them can get the full point. The loser (or the player who draws while others win) is effectively eliminated.
Assaubayeva has been peaking at the right moment. Her win over Lagno in Round 12 was her first classical victory of the event, and she has momentum. Muzychuk, meanwhile, is coming off the heartbreaking near-miss against Goryachkina. The psychological contrast could not be sharper: one player is riding confidence, the other is processing what might have been.
A decisive result here dramatically changes the shape of the final round.
The Big Picture
In the Open: Sindarov clinches with a draw. That is the headline. Anything else is a surprise. Watch Giri's preparation and Sindarov's willingness to suffer a slightly worse position for the sake of the draw. If Sindarov accepts anything resembling an inferior position, you will know he is playing for the half point. If he fights for an advantage, it means he wants to finish in style.
In the Women's: This is a four-player race that could go in any direction. The most likely scenario is that one or two decisive results tomorrow thin the field to two players heading into the final round. But the most exciting scenario is that all four contenders win or draw in a way that keeps everyone alive for Round 14.
Round 13 starts Tuesday, April 14 at 15:30 EEST (Cyprus time). The final round is Wednesday, with tiebreaks on Thursday if needed.
Watch Giri vs Sindarov and every Women's Candidates game live with engine analysis and expert commentary on Chess.com.Play on Chess.com
For the full tournament bracket and format details, see our Candidates 2026 guide. For background on how Sindarov got here, read our profile of the Uzbek prodigy.
Want to know where these players rank among all chess players worldwide? Check our rating percentile calculator to see where any FIDE rating falls on the global bell curve.