India, April 8 -- Eight rounds into the Candidates tournament and 20-year-old Javokhir Sindarov is unbeaten, lounging comfortably with a two-point lead. Fabiano Caruana, who was in hot pursuit, tripped up in Round 8 with the Black pieces, losing to Hikaru Nakamura. It's the first win of the tournament for the world No.2 American. One that's put Caruana's hopes of fighting for first place (he needed a win to close the gap with Sindarov to one point) in an all-or-nothing tournament like this one, off balance.

Caruana is now joined in second place by Anish Giri, who avenged his Round 1 defeat to R Praggnanandhaa.

The only Indian to win on Tuesday was Divya Deshmukh. She took down tournament leader and former women's world champion Anna Muz...