Javokhir Sindarov

Javokhir Sindarov (Жавоҳир Синдаров/Javohir Sindarov; born 8 December 2005) is an Uzbek chess prodigy. He earned the title of grandmaster in October 2018, at the age of 12 years, 10 months and 5 days.

Chess career
Sindarov was awarded the title of International Master in October 2017. He achieved his first grandmaster (GM) norm at the Alekhine Memorial in June 2018. He achieved the second at the World Junior Chess Championship in September, improving his rating to 2500 in the process. In October 2018, he scored his third GM norm at the First Saturday tournament, becoming the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time. The title was awarded by FIDE in March 2019.

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.

In the Chess World Cup 2023, Sindarov again caused a major upset, defeating the tournament's 10th seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the third round. , before being eliminated from the tournament by Arjun Erigaisi. In October 2023, Sindarov played on board 2 for Uzbekistan in the Asian Games, scoring 6/8 while his team earned a bronze medal behind India and Iran; after that, he took part in the strong Qatar Masters Open tournament, in which he scored 6,5/9 while not losing any game, thus gaining 22 rating points between the two tournaments.

In November, Sindarov entered the FIDE Grand Swiss and performed very well, finishing eight overall with 7/11. He was among the leaders until round 7, in which he was defeated(his only loss in the tournament) by Vidit Gujrathi, the eventual winner. Nonetheless,he managed to win four games, including one against former world #2 Levon Aronian. After the Grand Swiss, Sindarov crossed the 2700 Elo barrier for the first time in his career. In June 2024, he took part in the first ever UzChess Cup Masters, a ten-player round robin super tournament in Uzbekistan, and finished fifth overall, obtaining a notable win against fellow Uzbek and world #5 Nodirbek Abdusattorov.