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India's R. Vaishali moved into the sole lead of the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament after a confident draw with the black pieces against Anna Muzychuk in Round 10 in Cyprus.
Her half-point was enough to put her ahead of the field, especially after Zhu Jiner suffered a crucial defeat with the black pieces against Bibisara Assaubayeva--an outcome that significantly impacted the standings at this stage of the tournament, as per ESPN. In Round 11 on Saturday, Vaishali will face Goryachkina with the black pieces, while Divya will have the black pieces against Zhu Jiner. In Men's Candidates, Javokhir Sindarov continued his dominant run on Thursday, defeating R Praggnanandhaa for the second time in the tournament. The game turned decisively in the middlegame, where Praggnanandhaa committed a costly blunder. With four rounds remaining, Praggnanandhaa now trails the leader by four points and is effectively out of contention for the title. In Round 11 on Saturday, he will face Matthias Blubaum with the white pieces in what appears to be a largely inconsequential encounter. Sindarov is now extremely likely to be the challenger to Dommaraju Gukesh's world championship crown. Sindarov's nearest challenger, Anish Giri, dropped half a point too, as he could manage only a draw against a resurgent Hikaru Nakamura. Divya Deshmukh, meanwhile, endured a difficult defeat after committing a costly endgame blunder against Aleksandra Goryachkina, leaving her 1.5 points adrift of the leader, R Vaishali. FIDE Candidates 2026 Women's Standings after Round 10: R Vaishali - 6 Zhu Jiner - 5.5 Anna Muzychuk - 5.5 Kateryna Lagno - 5 Bibisara Assaubayeva - 5 Aleksandra Goryachkina - 5 Divya Deshmukh - 4.5 Tan Zhongyi - 3.5 FIDE Candidates 2026 Open Standings after Round 10: Javokhir Sindarov - 8 Anish Giri - 6 Fabiano Caruana - 5 Hikaru Nakamura - 4.5 Wei Yi - 4.5 Matthias Blubaum - 4.5 R Praggnanandhaa - 4 Andrey Esipenko - 3.5. (ANI)
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