Viswanathan Anand loses on time to Javokhir Sindarov (GCL Photo) BENGALURU: Viswanathan Anand’s difficult start to the 2026 Global Chess League took another turn for the worse on Tuesday as the five-time world champion suffered two defeats in a day, the second coming in painful fashion against 20-year-old Javokhir Sindarov. Playing for Alaskan Knights, Anand had already endured a tough Monday, losing on time to World No.

1 Magnus Carlsen before holding Triveni Continental Kings’ Alireza Firouzja to a draw. Tuesday brought little relief.

Anand first resigned against Ian Nepomniachtchi earlier in the day and then, in the evening, ran out of time against Sindarov despite having chances to win. The defeat was particularly frustrating because Anand, playing White, had held the advantage at one stage.

With the clock becoming an increasingly important factor in this rapid format, however, the veteran struggled to keep control of the position. To make matters worse, Sindarov had offered a draw.

“It’s just a comedy of errors. Re4+.

“And then, it’s madness. I think even at the very end, I must have had a draw, but I went with 70.

Kxd4+. I already blundered allowing 73.

Rc4+, and I can’t take on B4,” he explained. Asked what was going wrong for him, Anand could offer little explanation.

“I don’t know. If I knew, I would do something,” he remarked.

“Yeah, general happy with the performance but not happy with the game. But, I mean, in the opening, I played very well, but then, like, I made big mistake.

I start thinking for five minutes to find the best moves, but in this time control, it’s always hard to find all the best moves,” he said. “I saw the screen.

I was just hoping, like, my draw will be, I mean, not so bad. But then I saw they’re just losing, and I was very happy when he didn’t accept my draw.

“I started to understand he felt a little bit nervous when his time was going to less than one minute, and then, somehow, I took this psychological advantage, and I started trying to push, and he missed my last trick,” he said. Despite beating Anand twice in two games, Sindarov played down any suggestion that he has a particular edge over the legend.