Uzbekistan's Javokhir Sindarov beat China's Wei Yi to win the FIDE World Cup here on Wednesday, becoming the youngest ever player to achieve the feat at 19 years of age.
The Uzbek was an overwhelming favourite of Grandmaster Sahaj Grover, who minced no words while placing his money on Sindarov once the quarterfinals arrived.
As it turned out, Wei Yi played out another easy draw with white pieces, but Sindarov was at his best as he cracked through white's defences in the second game itself.
The Uzbekistan youngster went home richer by US $1,20,000 (over Rs 1 crore) despite starting as the 16th seed in a competition that is known for its heartbreaks.
Both Sindarov and Wei will play in the Candidates. Wei earned US $85,000 for his performance here over the last few weeks.
As things stand, Sindarov, Wei Yi and Andrey Esipenko of Russia are the qualifiers from this World Cup, and they will be joined by Fabiano Caruana of the USA, Anish Giri of Holland and Matthias Bluebaum of Germany. R Praggnanandhaa and Hikaru Nakamura are almost certain to make it unless a hurricane hits the chess circuit.
Sindarov has come out as the second biggest star from Uzbekistan after Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and it seems that the Russian dominance in the sport has finally ended. It remains to be seen how far the Uzbek stars continue to dominate, but for now, it is clear that it is not Europe sans Magnus Carlsen but Asia that dominates the chess world.
Sindarov simply dominated Wei Yi right from the early stages of the middle game, even though the computer gave a different evaluation. As the game took shape in the middle game out of an Italian open from the second game, Sindarov had things to worry, but he activated his rooks just in time to cause the final damage.
Earlier in the first game Wei Yi seemed secure enough to go for another solid draw, but clearly his tactics did not work out well.
Results of Final, Game 2:
Wei Yi (Chn) lost to Javokhir SIndarov (Uzb) 1.5-2.5.
Results for third place:
Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb) lost to Andrey Esipenko (FID) 0-2.
Also read: Wei-Sindarov final goes into tiebreak
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