Praggnanandhaa snaps Sindarov's undefeated run, says 'good thing' to defeat a player in 'terrifying form'

R Praggnanandhaa said it was a "good thing" to defeat Javokhir Sindarov at the 2026 Super Chess Classic Romania considering his "terrifying form", which has positioned the Uzbekistani Grandmaster as a favourite heading into his World Championship showdown against D Gukesh.

Praggnanandhaa had suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of Sindarov at the Fide Candidates in Cyprus, which the latter would go on to win in dominant fashion last month. The Indian GM, however, bounced back in style in the second round of the ongoing tournament in Bucharest, which is the second event of the 2026 Grand Chess Tour.

'I thought I played quite decently today'

Playing with black pieces in Round 2 after starting his campaign with a draw against Alireza Firouzja on Thursday, 'Pragg' defeated Sindarov in 42 moves, forcing a resignation from his celebrated opponent despite both players having their queens and both sets of rooks on the board.

"Of course, beating him is certainly a good thing. I think he’s losing after I don’t know how many games. Maybe the previous (lost) game was also against me. Or I don’t know if there was one in between. He has been in terrifying form," the former Indian No 1 told the tournament organisers following his victory over Sindarov on Friday.

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"I thought I played quite decently today. I don’t know what was happening at some point," he added.

The defeat was Sindarov's first in Classical chess in eight months. The world No 5 had last suffered a loss in the format at the hands of Bulgaria's Ivan Cheparinov on home turf during the third round of the Fide Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

He would then go on an undefeated run, winning the Fide World Cup in Goa, India and later clinching the Candidates with a round to spare, finishing with a final score of 10/14.

Sindarov had also lost to Gukesh in the Rapid section of the Super Rapid and Blitz Poland event in Warsaw. The Uzbekistani, however, had his revenge in the Blitz section of the event, registering back-to-back wins against the individual whom he will be facing in a mega showdown for the world title later this year.

As for the ongoing tournament, defending champion Praggnanandhaa is in the joint-lead alongside Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Vincent Keymer on 1.5 points while Sindarov finds himself sharing the bottom spot with Firouzja and Romanian GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac on 0.5 points.

The 10-man tournament is set to run till 23 May with Tuesday, 19 May being the only 'Rest Day'.