Candidates’ 2026 Statistics

Format

The 2026 Candidates’ Tournament was played at Cyprus from March 28 to April.16.
The 8 candidates played a double round robin tournament: 14 rounds, 56 games
Time control was 40 moves in 2 hours and then +30 minutes with +30 seconds per move increment.

Final Standings:

1 Sindarov 10
2 Giri 8.5
3 Caruana 7.5
4 Wei 7
5 Nakamura 6.5
6 Bluebaum 6
7 Praggnanandhaa 6
8 Esipenko 4.5

Results

There were 38 draws, 10 white wins, and 8 black wins.
The longest game lasted 91 moves, the shortest 19, average 45, standard deviation 16.
The earliest deviation from a previous game happened on move 6, the last on move 24, average 11, standard deviation 3.
Subtracting those, the longest effective game lasted 79 moves, the shortest 1, average 33, standard deviation 16.
Least men on the board at the end of a game was 2, most was 28, average 14, standard deviation 6.

Openings

Most played was the D37 Queen’s Gambit declined with 8 games, the Petrov Defense C42 with 5 games, the A13 English Opening with 4 games and the D31 Queens Gambit Declined with 4 games.
Less played were the E05 Catalan Opening with 3 games, the C24 Vienna Game, the B90 Sicilian Najdorf variation, and the D35 and D38 Queen’s Gambit declined with 2 games each.
Taking transpositions into account 1 d4 was played in 25 games, 1 e4 in 17 games and there were 9 flank openings 1 c4 or 1 Nf3 without transpositions to 1 d4.
With transitions included most played were 1 d4 d5 and then 1 e4 e5.

Castling

In 34 games both sides castled O-O. In 13 games one side castled O-O and the other side did not castle.
7 games saw opposite side castling O-O-O vs. O-O. In one game both sides castled O-O-O and in one game neither player castled.

Endgames

There were 21 endgames with at most 1 queen / rook / bishop / knight per side.
There were 10 rook endings, 9 bishop endings, 1 queen ending, and 1 rook vs. bishop ending.