Yesipenko stumbled again at the Candidates Tournament

Esipenko Lost Again in the Candidates Tournament. What Have You Done, Andrey?!

You cannot afford a slow start in the Candidates Tournament. This is not the kind of event where you can quietly survive a couple of bad days and then slip unnoticed back into the race. Here, every round either lifts you toward the top or pushes you sharply backward. That is why Andrey Esipenko’s new defeat feels especially painful: after his setback in round one, he stumbled again, losing to Anish Giri in round four in Paphos. For Giri, it was his first win of the tournament. For Esipenko, it was already his second defeat in a very short opening stretch.

When the Tournament Starts Slipping Away

The most unpleasant part of this story is not even the defeat itself, but its context. Esipenko arrived in Paphos for his first Candidates Tournament as one of the most interesting and unconventional players in the field. Before the event, Chess.com singled him out as a dangerous, aggressive player capable of making life difficult for anyone. But the Candidates Tournament is cruel in one specific way: potential means nothing here without points. And right now, the standings show one simple truth — Andrey is losing too much too early.

After round one, Esipenko had already lost to Javokhir Sindarov. In round two, he produced a high-quality draw against Hikaru Nakamura, and in round three he peacefully split the point with Matthias Bluebaum. It seemed that the tournament could begin to be rebuilt from there. But round four hit him hard once again. Instead of returning to the fight near the top, he suffered another fall.

What Happened in the Game Against Giri

The loss to Giri was not some dull, colorless collapse. On the contrary, the game was sharp, nervous, and dynamic. Chess.com described it as a “wild Najdorf game” — a very tense clash in the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. That is an important detail: Esipenko was not crushed in a sterile positional manner, but even in this kind of complicated battle, he still failed to hold on to the end.

And that is where the main feeling of disappointment appears.
Losing a calm, balanced game after one inaccuracy is frustrating, but understandable. Losing in your natural element — in sharp, fighting, living chess chaos — is more alarming. Because exactly these kinds of games were supposed to be Esipenko’s chance, not his trap. He has always been valued for courage, imagination, and a willingness to play for a win. But so far in Paphos, that courage is not bringing him dividends. It is only increasing the price of every mistake.

Why This Defeat Feels Especially Bitter

There is another reason why it is tempting to cry out almost like a fan: “What have you done, Andrey?!” The point is that Giri himself badly needed a breakthrough. Before the game against Esipenko, he had no wins in the tournament, and his success in round four brought him back to the 50 percent mark. In other words, Esipenko lost to an opponent who was maximally motivated to latch onto the tournament at last — and who should not have been given that chance.

More than that, round four turned out to be a key moment for the entire standings. While Esipenko was losing, Sindarov defeated Caruana and moved into sole first place with 3.5 out of 4. On a day like that, any defeat from below feels twice as heavy: you are not only losing a point, you are also watching someone at the top pull away.

Esipenko’s Main Problem at This Stage

So far, his tournament is following a very uncomfortable script: there are good stretches of play, but no stable momentum. In round two against Nakamura, Esipenko actually looked very respectable — FIDE noted that he even won a pawn and pressed for a long time, but the American defended flawlessly in the endgame. That means Andrey’s chess is visible at times. The problem is that against the background of two defeats, those good stretches are not turning into an overall tournament impulse.

That is especially dangerous in the Candidates.
You can survive one loss here. But when you already have two defeats after four rounds, the room for maneuver shrinks sharply. You are no longer simply moving from game to game — you are constantly looking at the standings, forced to think about the chase, about risk, about the fact that one more fall could almost knock you out of the fight for the top.

And Yet It Is Still Too Early to Write Him Off

As tempting as it is to dramatize, the Candidates Tournament is still 14 rounds, not a four-game sprint. After round four, the schedule brought a rest day, which meant Esipenko had a chance to stop, breathe, and not carry this defeat straight into the next playing day. The official tournament structure confirms both the long distance and the break after the opening block.

That is why the main question right now is not that he lost to Giri.
The main question is how he responds to this defeat. Tournaments of this level often break players not because of one bad result itself, but because that result keeps living in their heads for several more rounds. If Esipenko can reset, his tournament can still be saved. If not, the opening failures will quickly turn into a prolonged crisis.

Conclusion

Esipenko’s new defeat in the Candidates Tournament is not just another line in the standings. It is a result after which the event becomes noticeably heavier for him. Two losses already at the start, a painful defeat against Giri in a sharp game, a leader beginning to pull away, and the growing pressure of every next round.

And yet this story still has no final period.
For now, it is not a sentence, but a very harsh warning. But it is exactly after days like this that it becomes clear who in the Candidates Tournament is truly ready to absorb a blow. For Esipenko, everything is now brutally simple: either he leaves this collapse behind and starts his tournament again, or the question “what have you done, Andrey?” will sound louder with every next round.