Javokhir Sindarov[a] (born 8 December 2005) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he became a grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 8 days.[1] He is a two-time national champion, and was part of the Uzbek team that won the 44th Chess Olympiad.[2]
He qualified for the Chess World Cup 2021. Ranked 121st, he caused a major upset by defeating 8th-ranked Alireza Firouzja in tiebreaks in the second round, and made it to the final 32 before being knocked out in the fourth round by Kacper Piorun.[7][8]
In October 2023, Sindarov played in the Asian Games. He won bronze at the individual, and played on board 2 for Uzbekistan in the team event, scoring 6/8 while his team earned a bronze medal behind India and Iran; after that, he took part in the Qatar Masters Open tournament, in which he scored 6.5/9 and went undefeated; he gained 22 rating points between the two tournaments.[citation needed]
In November, Sindarov entered the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament and finished eighth with 7/11. He was among the leaders until round 7, when he was defeated by Vidit Gujrathi, the eventual winner, in his only loss of the tournament. Nonetheless, he managed to win four games, including one against former world number two Levon Aronian.[citation needed]
After the Grand Swiss, Sindarov crossed the 2700 Elo mark for the first time in his career. In June 2024, he played in the UzChess Cup Masters and finished fifth overall, obtaining a notable win against fellow Uzbek and world number five Nodirbek Abdusattorov.[citation needed]
As the sixteenth seed in the 2025 World Cup, Sindarov defeated players including adjacent seed Yu Yangyi, Frederik Svane, and José Martínez Alcántara to reach the semifinals against fellow countryman Nodirbek Yakubboev. After winning in the tiebreaks, Sindarov advanced to the finals against Wei Yi and qualified for the 2026 Candidates Tournament.[11] He then drew the first two classical games, also the first game of the tiebreak, and then defeated Wei Yi in their second tiebreak game and became both the first Uzbek and the youngest World Cup winner ever at 19 years, 11 months, and 18 days.[12][13]
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