TWIC is 31. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE World Cup 2025 (8)
Javokhir Sindarov wins the FIDE World Cup 2025
Mark Crowther - Wednesday 26th November 2025
Winner Javokhir Sindarov, photo credit: Michal Walusza, FIDE World Cup Goa 2025. | https://worldcup.fide.com
Javokhir Sindarov beat Wei Yi in the final of the FIDE World Cup. The two classical games were drawn taking the match to a final tie-break. The first classical game was a Petroff Defence where Wei Yi as black briefly had a small advantage, the second game was a 30 move draw in a Four Knights that only took a few minutes to execute. The rapid games were not of the highest quality, both players were almost certainly very tired, and they'd also achieved their main objective, qualifying for the Candidates. In the first rapid game Wei Yi blundered with 30...g5? and this could have been met by 31.Be4! winning. The second game was a fluctuating struggle where Wei Yi suddenly found his king under attack and couldn't find the only move to save himself.
Andrey Esipenko was the third and final player to qualify for the Candidates by beating Nodirbek Yakubboev 2-0 in the 3rd-4th place match. Esipenko had endured many disappointments on the way to this qualification, not least going from winning to losing against Wei Yi the day before. Somehow he found enough resilience to convincingly defeat Yakubboev.
The FIDE Candidates take place in Pegeia, Cyprus, between 28 March and 16 April 2026. The field is going to be Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Matthias Bluebaum, Javokhir Sindarov, Wei Yi, Andrey Esipenko and almost certainly Praggnanandhaa and Hikaru Nakamura, the last two awaiting a final rubber stamp of their FIDE Circuit and rating qualification.
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