International chess coach Roman Vidonyak commented on his protégé Javohir Sindarov’s victory at the Candidates Tournament and revealed the team’s long-term strategy. According to him, there is a clear “four-step” strategy, with the win in Cyprus being only an intermediate stage. “The first step was to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The second was to win it, and we managed that. The third step is to become world champion. But the fourth, perhaps the hardest, is to firmly establish oneself at the 2800 rating level and dominate tournaments like Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, or Magnus Carlsen. That is a very, very big step,” the coach said in an interview with ChessBase Deutschland.

As a result of this tournament, Sindarov grew by 30.5 points in the online rating, reaching 2775.5, and rose to fifth place in the world ranking. According to the coach’s calculations, achieving the 2800 rating goal will require at least two more years of hard work. He emphasized that past great champions were ready for full dominance at Javohir’s age, so the team is now working precisely on reaching that level.

Vidonyak also detailed the preparation methodology. It was revealed that as part of the preparation for the Candidates Tournament, nine training camps were held in Munich over a year, each lasting up to two weeks. “The work is mainly done at the board, without using a computer. Of course, we also use ChessBase, but the main part is about 40,000 problems I composed myself. We develop various topics based on a specific system and hone precise skills,” said Vidonyak.

Commenting on the successes of Uzbek chess players, Roman Vidonyak, who also coaches Nodirbek Yakubboyev, highlighted the players’ diligence. “I am training Nodirbek Yakubboyev—he is very diligent and works a lot. Nodirbek Abdusattorov has been fully focused on success since childhood and works even harder. There are other strong grandmasters in the Uzbek national team, I know them a bit less,” he said.

Roman Vidonyak started working with Javohir Sindarov at the beginning of 2025. During this time, the chess player won the World Cup, took second place in the Tata Steel Chess super-tournament, and won the Candidates Tournament ahead of schedule, setting a record with six victories in the tournament’s modern format. In addition to the title, Sindarov also secured at least 165,000 euros in prize money (70,000 euros for first place and 5,000 euros for every half-point).

Now the young grandmaster will participate in the match for the world chess crown against reigning world champion Dommaraju Gukesh. The match is expected at the end of the year, with its exact date and venue to be announced later by FIDE. The newspaper previously published an interview with Roman Vidonyak when Javohir Sindarov and Nodirbek Yakubboyev participated in the World Cup. At that time, they simultaneously reached the semi-finals of the tournament in Goa, becoming the main sensation.

Source: www.gazeta.uz