India, April 4 -- Hikaru Nakamura sat there, shaking his head, looking befuddled and probably wishing he could teleport out of the agony. After a whopping 67 minutes, on move 13, he finally made a pawn push. It was then clear that he was on his own and in hot water. His opponent, 20-year-old Javokhir Sindarov, returned to the table, glanced at the puzzling 13.h3?! (instead of 13. Ne4) that the world No. 2 had played after over an hour's thought, and smelled blood.

Nakamura lost in a hopelessly one-sided game, allowing the Uzbek Grandmaster to continue his steamrolling run over the Candidates tournament field while sporting a business suit and boyish grin.

After five rounds of play to determine the challenger to reigning world champion G...