The 2026 FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament is upon us. Some of the sport’s best players will assemble at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus to play in the Open and Women’s Candidates tournaments in their bid to challenge the world champions later this year.
Both tournaments will begin on March 29, Sunday, and will feature eight players in Open section and eight more in the Women’s Candidates.
Here’s all you need to know about the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2026:
The importance of Candidates
The Candidates Tournaments, organised by FIDE, is one of the most important events in chess. The winners of the tournaments will earn the right to challenge the world champion.
The current world champions are India’s D Gukesh and China’s Ju Wenjun. The winner of Candidates 2026 will play them at the respective World Chess Championship matches, scheduled to take place later this year.
The eight players in open and women’s sections qualified through a two-year period which includes winners of 2024 and 2025 FIDE Circuit, top finishes at FIDE World Cup, FIDE Grand Swiss and the highest average rating.
The ‘Candidates’
The eight players in Candidates 2026 and their ratings as of March:
Fabiano Caruana (USA) – The current world no. 3 with a rating of 2795. He made it to Candidates after accumulating the most points in the 2024 FIDE Circuit.
R Praggnanandhaa (India) – One of India’s best players with a live rating of 2741. He qualified as the winner of 2025 FIDE Circuit.
Anish Giri (Netherlands) – World no. 8 with a live rating of 2753. He made it as the winner of 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament.
Matthias Blübaum (Germany) – A surprising run at the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss where he finished runners-up ensured his qualification. Rating of 2698.
Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan) – The 20-year-old with a rating of 2745 qualified after winning the 2025 FIDE World Cup.
Wei Yi (China) – World no. 7 with a rating of 2754. He finished second at the FIDE World Cup.
Andrey Esipenko (Russia) – With a rating of 2698, he finished third at the FIDE World Cup.
Hikaru Nakamura (USA) – The world no. 2 with 2810 rating qualified via highest average rating from August 2025 to January 2026.
The eight players in Women’s Candidates 2026:
Zhu Jiner (China) – World no. 2 with a rating of 2578. She qualified after winning the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024-25.
Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia) – Ranked world no. 7 with a rating of 2534, she qualified after finishing runners-up in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix.
Divya Deshmukh (India) – She pulled off a stunning win at the Women’s Chess World Cup 2025 to make it to the Candidates. Rating of 2497.
Tan Zhongyi (China) – The world no. 6 with 2535 rating. She finished third at the Women’s Chess World Cup 2025.
Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) – Another talented player from India with a rating of 2470. She qualified after winning the FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup 2025.
Kateryna Lagno (Russia) – World no. 10 with a rating of 2508. She finished second at the Women’s Chess World Cup 2025.
Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) – The 22-year-old world no. 9 with a rating of 2516 qualified by finishing on top of the FIDE Women’s Events 2024-25.
Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) – She came in as replacement for India’s Koneru Humpy. Her rating stands at 2522.
Humpy withdrew from the Candidates due to safety concerns with regard to the conflict in the Middle East. She had qualified after finishing second at the Chess World Cup. Muzychuk was the next best ranked player in the FIDE Women’s Events series.
Format and time controls
The Candidates are double round-robin tournaments with 14 rounds in total. Each player will play the other twice, once with white and the next time with black pieces. Each win will give a point while a draw will give half a point. At the end, the player with the most points will win the tournament.
If two or more players are on same points, then tiebreaks with faster time controls have to be played on April 16 to determine the winner.
The regular time controls for the open section is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the match with a 30-second increment for each move. The time control for Women’s Candidates is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the match.
Indian players’ schedule
All matches will start at 7 pm IST.
March 29: Round 1
R Praggnanandhaa – Anish Giri
Divya Deshmukh – Anna Muzychuk
Vaishali R – Bibisara Assaubayeva
March 30: Round 2
Wei Yi – R Praggnanandhaa
Divya Deshmukh – Vaishali R
March 31: Round 3
R Praggnanandhaa- Javokhir Sindarov
Vaishali R – Anna Muzychuk
Aleksandra Goryachkina – Divya Deshmukh
April 1: Round 4
Matthias Blübaum – R Praggnanandhaa
Divya Deshmukh – Zhu Jiner
Vaishali R – Aleksandra Goryachkina
April 2: Rest Day
April 3: Round 5
R Praggnanandhaa – Andrey Esipenko
Zhu Jiner – Vaishali R
Tan Zhongyi – Divya Deshmukh
April 4: Round 6
Hikaru Nakamura – R Praggnanandhaa
Kateryna Lagno – Vaishali R
Bibisara Assaubayeva – Divya Deshmukh
April 5: Round 7
R Praggnanandhaa – Fabiano Caruana
Divya Deshmukh – Kateryna Lagno
Vaishali R – Tan Zhongyi
April 6: Rest Day
April 7: Round 8
Anish Giri – R Praggnanandhaa
Anna Muzychuk – Divya Deshmukh
Bibisara Assaubayeva – Vaishali R
April 8: Round 9
R Praggnanandhaa – Wei Yi
Vaishali R – Divya Deshmukh
April 9: Round 10
Javokhir Sindarov – R Praggnanandhaa
Anna Muzychuk – Vaishali R
Divya Deshmukh – Aleksandra Goryachkina
April 10: Rest Day
April 11: Round 11
R Praggnanandhaa- Matthias Blübaum
Zhu Jiner – Divya Deshmukh
Aleksandra Goryachkina – Vaishali R
April 12: Round 12
Andrey Esipenko – R Praggnanandhaa
Vaishali R – Zhu Jiner
Divya Deshmukh – Tan Zhongyi
April 13: Rest Day
April 14: Round 13
Fabiano Caruana – R Praggnanandhaa
Kateryna Lagno – Divya Deshmukh
Tan Zhongyi – Vaishali R
April 15: Round 14
R Praggnanandhaa- Hikaru Nakamura
Vaishali R – Kateryna Lagno
Divya Deshmukh – Bibisara Assaubayeva
April 16: Tiebreaks (if required)
Previous experience at Candidates
In the Open section, Caruana is the one with the most experience in the tournament, marking his sixth appearance this year. He has been constantly featuring at the Candidates since 2016 and won it back in 2018.
Nakamura and Giri will be making their fourth appearances while Praggnanandhaa made his Candidates debut last time in 2024.
In the women’s section, five players have the experience of featuring in the Candidates. Tan Zhongyi, a former world champion, won the tournament last time in 2024.
Goryachkina is a former Women’s Candidates winner while Muzychuk had featured three times in the past.
Lagno has also competed in three Candidates before while Vaishali, like her brother, played for the first time in the tournament in 2024.
Where to watch?
The Candidates 2026 will be shown LIVE on FIDE YouTube channel. You can also follow the matches on our website.
