Javokhir Sindarov's chess, by the numbers
October 12, 2026 · 244 games: 44 classical from 2026, and the last 200 blitz on chess.com, October 2025 to June 2026
Sindarov's 44 classical games of 2026, from the Candidates to the Olympiad, and their last 200 blitz games on chess.com, every move checked by Stockfish, counted the way anyone's games are. Here is what the count found.
On October 11, 2026, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Sindarov's teammate on the Uzbekistan side, said of Sindarov: "In my opinion, he's among the five most talented players in chess history, alongside Kasparov and others" (as quoted by Endgame AI on X, October 11, 2026). Talent isn't countable. What Sindarov did with it this year is: 44 classical games across the Candidates, the Sinquefield Cup, the Superbet Classic, the Olympiad and the Bundesliga, with every move checked by the engine, and 200 blitz games on chess.com against the strongest online opposition there is.
How they play
Every player gets one of four profiles from two measures: how often they force matters with a check or a capture, against what the position asks for, and how rarely one of their pieces is left loose. Sindarov sits exactly on the forcing line in both sets of games (50 in blitz, 51 in classical; the line is at 52), and their pieces are almost never loose (89 in blitz, 99 in classical; the line is at 64). The Steady Hand at both paces, in the same corner as Carlsen's blitz.
When the best move was a hard one, they found it.
153 of 153 times the best move was a retreat, in 44 classical games, they played it
The reports keep count of the moves club players miss most: a sacrifice, a retreat, declining a recapture. In Sindarov's 44 classical games of 2026, when the best move was a sacrifice (10 times), a retreat (153 times) or declining a recapture (40 times), they played it every time. Of 816 moments where the best move was a quiet one, they found 815. Their average loss per move against the engine's choice was a tenth of a pawn, least in the opening and most in the endgame. The yardstick, from the same source and the same checks: in Carlsen's 57 classical games from 2023 to 2026, sacrifices 11 of 11, retreats 199 of 200, declined recaptures 40 of 40, and 0.12 of a pawn a move.
Their answer to 1.d4 is a pawn sacrifice.
15 of 34 blitz games as Black after 1.d4 went into the Benko Gambit
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5: the Benko Gambit. Black gives up a pawn on move 3 for open lines on the queenside, and most of the top players set it aside years ago. In Sindarov's last 200 blitz games on chess.com it was their reply to 1.d4 in 15 of 34 games as Black, against opponents with a median rating of 3084: 9 points from 15, with a win over Nihal Sarin. They played it in classical too: at the Sinquefield Cup in August 2026, against Vincent Keymer, and won in 60 moves. Carlsen's Benko count in their last 200 blitz games: zero.
Two extra minutes change the result.
81% in 5-minute blitz, against 51% in 3-minute
Sindarov's 3-minute games on chess.com score 51% (127 games); their 5-minute games score 81% (73 games). Against the same band of opponents, rated 3000 to 3199, it is 57% against 79%, and their average loss per move improves from 0.27 to 0.24 of a pawn. It isn't form over time: the 3-minute games of 2026 score 50%, the same as 2025's. The yardstick is Carlsen, same opponents, same split: 85% and 88%. Two minutes move Sindarov's result by 20 points and Carlsen's by 3.
Every classical loss this year was a slow one.
3 of 3 classical losses had no blunder in them; in blitz, 31 of 65
Sindarov lost three classical games in 2026: to Praggnanandhaa twice and to Wesley So once. In none of them did a single move cost 30 or more points of winning chances; they were outplayed over many moves. In blitz the share is 31 of 65 losses. And of the 211 moments in classical where a piece of theirs was attacked with nothing defending it, the engine found one that cost anything.
The Candidates, unbeaten.
10 of 14 at the 2026 Candidates: six wins, eight draws, no loss
At the FIDE Candidates 2026, Sindarov scored 10 of 14 without losing a game, with wins over Caruana, Nakamura, Wei Yi, Praggnanandhaa and Keymer. Across all 44 classical games of the year: 16 wins, 25 draws, 3 losses, against a median opponent rated 2750.
The full reports
- Sindarov's classical report
44 classical games in 2026: the FIDE Candidates (14), the Sinquefield Cup (9), the Superbet Classic Romania (9), the Olympiad (10), the Bundesliga (2), from Lichess's broadcasts. 16 wins, 25 draws, 3 losses. Download the games (PGN) - Sindarov's blitz report
200 blitz games (3+0 and 5+0) on chess.com as Javokhir_Sindarov05, October 2025 to June 2026: 112 wins, 23 draws, 65 losses. Download the games (PGN)
Each report opens as a deck of slides, one finding to a slide, with the positions behind every number. A blunder is a move that cost 30 or more points of winning chances; winning chances are the engine's estimate of how likely a player is to win, from 0 to 100.
How this was measured
Plysight analyzes games the same way for everyone: Stockfish evaluates every move, and the findings are counted from those evaluations. The reports compare a player with others at their rating where a fair comparison exists; at Sindarov's rating there is none, so those lines are left out. Advice lines, written for a player reading their own report, are left out too. Carlsen's numbers on this page come from Carlsen's page, the same checks on the same site. The six house words the reports use are defined on each report's last slide.
Classical games from Lichess's broadcasts of the 2026 events; blitz games from chess.com's public archive of Javokhir_Sindarov05. Plysight is independent of Lichess, chess.com and Sindarov. Sindarov's FIDE profile. Published October 12, 2026; updated October 12, 2026.
Piece art by Cburnett, CC BY-SA 3.0.