2026 Candidates: Everything You Need to Know

The Current World Champion is Gukesh Dommaraju. The winner of the Candidates Tournament will challenge Gukesh in the 2026 World Championship.

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The Current Women's World Champion is Ju Wenjun. The winner of the Candidates Tournament will challenge Wenjun in the 2026 Women's World Championship.

FIDE. Candidates Start times for Rounds (March 29th). You can watch live on FIDE, Lichess and Chessbase India.

Candidates Games will start on March 29th and last till April 15th. The winner is the one who gets the highest amount of points. If there is a tie then there will be a rapid and blitz playoff on April 16th. The Candidates will be held at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia (Peyia), Cyprus. The Women's Candidates is held in the same venue, concurrent with the Open Candidates.

Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort. Source: The Independent.

The format will be 2 hours for first 40 moves, and then an 30 additional minutes + 30 second increment from that point on. For the the Women's Candidates it's 1hr 30 mins for first 40 moves, and then an additional 30 minutes. The 30 second increment applies across the whole game.

The Candidates is a double round robin tournament, meaning that every player will play every other player twice. Since there are eight spots, and each player has seven opponents, that means there will be 14 rounds as they play each other twice (With White and Black pieces).

Cyprus Map

Peyia is the leftmost city, where the Candidates will be held. Source: Maps of India.

Timeline:

November 10th 2025: FIDE announces Candidates will be held in Pegeia (Peyia), Cyprus.
Feb 28th: U.S. and Israel launch missiles at Iran. Iran then launch missiles at Israel and Gulf countries. (Ongoing).
March 1st: Drone hits British military base in Akrotiri, Cyprus. Two later drones are intercepted.
March 4th: Two more drones heading toward Cyprus are intercepted.
March 17th: Koneru Humpy expresses concern about Candidates and considers withdrawing.
March 19th: Wadim Rosenstein (Chess Patron) offers to host Candidates in Germany.
March 22nd: Koneru Humpy withdraws from Candidates. Anna Muzychuk will take her place.
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March 28th: Opening Ceremony
March 29th: Round 1

“I am not sure (if I will play at the Candidates). It depends upon the situation. Right now, I am a bit concerned about safety with the drone attacks and warships deployed (in the Mediterranean Sea) coming into the picture. And very recently, there has been bombing happening between Israel and Lebanon because of Hezbollah. So I am a bit hesitant to travel because of this. If the situation continues like this, I am really doubtful of my participation.”

Koneru Humpy, March 17th, Indian Express

"After deep reflection, I have taken the difficult decision to withdraw from the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. No event, no matter how important, can come before personal safety and well-being. Despite the assurances provided, I do not feel fully secure under the current circumstances. This is a painful but necessary decision, and I stand by it."

Koneru Humpy, March 22nd, Tweet

“Plans haven’t changed. We are working in the final stages of preparing for the Candidates, which are supposed to start in two weeks’ time,” Sutovsky told Chessbase India in an interview. “Obviously, we’ve been monitoring the situation and Cyprus is not too far from the war zone or conflict zone. But at the same time, it is not directly involved in any way and it is not in a state of war. There is no emergency situation.”

Sutovsky continued: “Of course, there was some alarming news like 10 days ago or something like that. Since then, the situation seems to be rather quiet, but we are not just, you know, relying on the assumption that nothing will happen. We monitor and we are in touch also with government officials.”

“We plan for scenarios, no matter how unlikely they are. It is our firm belief that the current situation does not provide any grounds or any reasonable reasons to actually postpone or to remove the event from Cyprus.”

FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky, March 14th, Chessbase India Interview, Indian Express

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMehohJVVW4

2026 Candidates

FIDE

Pairings for Round 1:

The Candidates

2026 Women's Candidates

FIDE. Koneru Humpy withdrew from Candidates. Anna Muzychuk will take her place.

Pairings for Round 1:

The Candidates

Thoughts on the Candidates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct-MlGyInTE

Caruana has been named by various players as the most likely winner of the Candidates. But he has a far higher chance of not winning then winning overall due to how many players there are. He is a heavyweight when it comes to the Candidates having played in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024.

Caruana won the 2018 Candidates to challenge Carlsen for the World Championship. In Game 8 he had a big chance of winning but got bluffed out by Carlsen's counterplay. He was heavily criticized for playing 24.h3. Then he got smacked down 3-0 in the Rapid tiebreaker. It is a memory that is too painful for him. He said that he never even looked at the games he played after the match. It seems he's felt pressure to win Candidates even more after this. However his fans say that he often 'chokes' and has the 'anti-clutch gene'.

Nakamura's chances of winning are zero according to Nepomniachtchi. Niemann didn't put Nakamura in his top 3 favourites and pointed out Nakamura's lack of chess practice. Aronian opined that Nakamura's American open tour would hurt him as he was playing against weaker players. Nakamura has played in the 2016, 2022 and 2024 Candidates previously.

Nakamura's qualification to the Candidates was steeped in controversy as he had to reach the 40 games mark to be eligible for the rating spot. So he played against far lower rated players in various state and open tournaments against locals. He also conserved his no. 2 rating by limiting his classical tournaments in the previous year, only playing 18 games against top players from Jan 2025 onwards. Nakamura stumbled in a training match recently vs Awonder Liang, losing 3-1 in the Rapid and only tying in the Blitz and Classical sections.

Praggnanandhaa has slowed down in recent months according to Anand. But Anand suggested that it could be part of his 'mental peak'. This is a psychological phenomenon where before the Candidates, players can have worse performance as they want to conserve their energy and will for the Candidates tournament and not dissipate it on less important tournaments. Pragg has previously played in 2024 Candidates.

It is Wei Yi's first time in the Candidates. He could be a hidden force and cause a surprise. Yi was the youngest person to reach 2700, but he failed to break through to the elite of the elite. In the last few years he has had a resurgence and is now a solid top 10 player.

Giri has played in the 2016 and 2018 Candidates tournaments. Generally he is viewed as a middle of the pack contender, but he has had a big resurgence lately after recovering from a slump in 2024.

Sindarov is a dynamic young star on the rise. He is viewed as either a top contender or is put in the 'will do well' category. This is his first time.

Esipenko was a rising star, but then he faded. But now he has made a big return by qualifying for the Candidates. He and Blübaum are the 'underdogs'. This is his first time in the Candidates.

Blübaum was a surprise qualifier. He then got invited to Wijk Ann Zee and did well scoring 7/14 in a world class field. He also reached a peak rating of 2698 showing that he is in prime form. Anand said that it was a 'wonder' to see Blübaum get constant winning positions against the worlds top players in the tournament. However, Blübaum didn't consistently convert those positions which stopped him from contesting the tournament. Blübaum could cause chaos in the Candidates.

Daily Candidates Coverage Will Start on March 28th.