BENGALURU: There's a world of difference between how Javokhir Sindarov is preparing for his first World Championship match and how D Gukesh is preparing to defend his title later this year in Geneva from the third week of November.
The Indian 20-year-old, since the Chennai Grand Masters last month, has disappeared from the circuit. He has, just like in 2024 when he faced Ding Liren, gone into the deepest chess bunker with his team of seconds and coach, Grzegorz Gajewski. That's the conventional way of preparing for the gruelling mano a mano three-week, 14 game battle, one of the hardest across any sport.
The Uzbek, though, is very much active. And is staying true to what has worked for him previously. Across June and July, he was at the football World Cup watching his home nation. Post that, he featured in an exhibition tournament against US players in Miami before playing the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz as well as the Sinquefield Cup. Put it this way. Since the holder's last event, Sindarov, the Challenger, has played in three events across formats.
At the end of next week, he will be featuring in another event: the Global Chess League in Bengaluru (he will be playing for FYERS American Gambits.) While he did accept that he was playing a lot of matches, he said it helped him. The serious work for him will begin post the Olympiad at home in the first week of October. "I will be in camp from then," he tells The New Indian Express.
Firstly, what does he make of the title match with the Indian champion? "This tournament will be the hardest tournament in my life," he says. "I don't know if I will get a second chance. It's hard to play 14 games against the same person in three weeks."
It's generally why there has always been that suggestion that while preparing for the Candidates is harder (facing seven people, so more repertoires to consider, more variables to think about), just spending all those hours sitting within handshaking distance of your rival for 14 days brings with it other variables into the equation.
"(For the time being), completely leaving the preparation with Roman (Vidonyak). He's preparing for everything (smiles). I'm not going to be changing a lot of things for the World Championship when compared to the Candidates and the World Cup. I will be working on a few of the other things like physical and mental. I just want to come for this match with my best chess form."
When he says 'best chess form', there's a crucial distinction here. He explains. "Even if you are going to be surprised by the openings or other things, if you are in good shape and good chess form, you can work over the board and find the best moves. That's really what worked for me during the Candidates and the World Cup."
In the immediate term, Sindarov, one of the most popular athletes across Uzbekistan, will be an icon player for the first time. "I would say, right now, I'm now one of the top-10 chess players in the world but I'm not that old or that experienced to be an 'icon'..."
Over the last year, Sindarov has swept everything in his wake. A World Cup winner in 2025, he won the Candidates comfortably in a loaded field in April. At this moment, he's perhaps the favourite in the match against Gukesh but he's mindful of the one thing that the Indian has over him. The experience and know-how of playing the match.
"It will be my first time," he says. In terms of ratings, Sindarov's rise (2777.9 current; World No. 4) is in stark contrast to Gukesh's recent fall (2703 current; World No. 32). But both players are aware that the match exists in isolation.
It's why the youngest title match in history promises to be unlike any other.
