Chess player Zhavokhir Sindarov took third place at the Sinquefield Cup in the USA.

Chess player Javokhir Sindarov took third place at the Sinquefield Cup in the USA.

Uzbek grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov won third place at the 2026 Sinquefield Cup tournament in St. Louis, scoring 5 points out of a possible 9.

The Sinquefield Cup, with a $475,000 prize fund, was held in St. Louis using a round-robin format and featured 10 grandmasters. This tournament was the fifth and final stage of the Grand Chess Tour—a series of prestigious international competitions in which the top four chess players of the season advance to the final. Sindarov missed out on a spot among those four by just 0.5 points.

Sindarov began the competition with a draw against Levon Aronian. In this first game, the Uzbek player had an advantage in the opposite-colored bishops endgame, but was unable to capitalize on it. According to Chess.com, Sindarov considered the position with two extra pawns to be winning and was surprised to see the chess engine's evaluation.

In the second round, he suffered his only loss of the tournament, to Rameshbabu Pragnanandhaa. The Indian chess player won a pawn endgame after 95 moves. After the game, Pragnanandhaa noted the uncompromising nature of their rivalry, stating that they "almost never draw," as both strive to play to the end.

Sindarov's next four games ended in draws: against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Sam Sevian, and Fabiano Caruana. In the fifth round game against Sevian, the Uzbek tried to test the American's opening preparation, but the American handled the task confidently. "I'm not happy with my play. Perhaps it wasn't the best opening choice today," Sindarov commented after the game.

In round six, one of the central confrontations was his game against Caruana, the world number two. The American received a dangerous passed pawn, but Sindarov carefully traded queens and drew the game. After six rounds, the Uzbek had 2.5 points: five draws, one loss, and no wins.

The turning point came in round seven. Sindarov needed a win with Black against German grandmaster Vincent Keymer to maintain his chances of reaching the Grand Chess Tour final. He chose the Benko Gambit. "If I lose, I'll learn something, and if I win, maybe I'll have a chance," Sindarov explained his choice of the risky opening. At one point, Keymer gained the advantage, but then the German entered an endgame with opposite-colored bishops. Objectively, the position could have been held, but he made a mistake in time trouble. Sindarov won his first game of the tournament, bringing his score to 3.5 points.

In the eighth round, the Uzbek defeated Jorden van Foreest, securing his second consecutive victory. On his sixth move, Sindarov sacrificed a pawn, gained positional compensation, and subsequently converted his advantage. "When everyone is tired, I show my level!" Sindarov joked after the game.

In two rounds, he rose from the bottom of the table to the top contenders. As Chess.com noted, three days earlier, Sindarov was in third place from last, and before the final game, he already had a theoretical chance of winning the entire Sinquefield Cup. To do so, he needed to defeat Wesley So with Black. "I think Wesley will kill the game, but we'll see." "If I were in his place, I would have done the same," Sindarov said on the eve of the decisive match.

In the final round, Sindarov played the King's Indian Defense against So. However, on the 11th move, he launched the d5 breakthrough and simplified the game rather than continue the fight in a slightly worse position. The game ended in a draw.

So and Pragnanandhaa also failed to surpass each other in the standings and finished the classical part with 5.5 points. The winner was determined in a tiebreak: two rapid games ended in draws, after which a draw in Armageddon gave So, playing Black, the title. The American received $87,500.

Sindarov won two of the nine classical games, drew six, and lost one, scoring five points.

The Sinquefield Cup was especially important for qualifying for the Grand Chess Tour finals. Before the tournament, Sindarov was fifth in the overall standings with 20.5 points—just half a point behind Keymer. Earlier in St. Louis, the Uzbek player finished second in the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, behind only Pragnanandhaa.

Following the Sinquefield Cup, Pragnanandhaa, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, and Vincent Keymer advanced to the Grand Chess Tournament finals. Sindarov missed out on a spot in the top four by 0.5 points in the overall standings.

This year, 20-year-old Zhavokhir Sindarov has already achieved the biggest result of his career—in April, he won the FIDE Candidates Tournament and earned the right to play for the world championship against the reigning champion, Dommaraju Gukesh.

In September, Sindarov will also play in the fourth season of the Global Chess League, a team league created by FIDE and Tech Mahindra. The tournament will take place from September 3 to 13 in Bangalore. Six teams of six players will compete, and the matches will be played in rapid chess on six boards. The Uzbek will be the number one player for the FYERS American Gambits team.