Chess Candidates Weekend is Here — Play a Rated Game!
It’s Chess Candidates Weekend!
The 2026 FIDE Candidates and Women’s Candidates tournaments in Cypress begin on Sunday, March 29. Eight players will compete in each event, with the winners earning rights to challenge the reigning Men’s World Champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju and Women’s World Champion GM Ju Wenjun, respectively.
The Candidates Format
Rounds: 14 rounds total.
Time Control (Open): 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 30 minutes for the remaining 30 moves, plus 30-second increment starting from move 41.
Time Control (Women's): 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, 30 minutes for the rest, with a 30-second increment.
Draw Restriction: No draw agreements before move 40 by black.
Tie-breaks: If players are tied for first after 14 rounds, rapid and potentially blitz playoffs will determine the winner.
Who are the Favorites?
American GMs Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura enter as the highest-rated players. For the Women’s, Chinese GMs Zhu Jiner and Tan Zhongyi are the ratings favorites.
Nakamura and Caruana have to be considered the two favorites. Both have been consistent and dominant over the past few years, and it’s hard to bet against experience. Some are calling GM Anish Giri the third favorite!
Naka qualified via the FIDE ratings spot, holding the highest average classical rating among eligible players during the qualification period. He enters the tournament as the world’s highest-rated player not named Magnus, with a 2810 live rating.
Hikaru is a consistent player who can definitely score enough points to finish atop the standings. In the 2024 Candidates, Nakamura tied for second with 8½/14, only a half-point behind Gukesh.
The last six decisive classical games between Nakamura and Caruana have all ended in Nakamura’s favor, including a game from the 2024 Candidates, while Caruana hasn’t beaten Nakamura in Classical since the 2022 Candidates. Nakamura’s 2024 victory follows:
Nakamura vs Caruana
| FIDE Candidates 2024 | |
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 Bc5 6.O-O d6 7.c3 O-O 8.Re1 Ne7 9.Nbd2 Ng6 10.Nf1 d5 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Bb3 c6 13.d4 exd4 14.Nxd4 Nf6 15.h3 Bxd4 16.cxd4 Nd5 17.Bc2 Be6 18.Ng3 Ndf4 19.Re4 Nd5 20.a3 Re8 21.Bd2 Nf6 22.Bg5 h6 23.Bxf6 Qxf6 24.Qd2 Qg5 25.Re3 Nf4 26.h4 Qd5 27.Re4 Ng6 28.Rae1 Nf8 29.Re5 Qd8 30.h5 Bd7 31.Rxe8 Bxe8 32.Nf5 Qf6 33.Qb4 b5 34.Ne7+ Kh8 35.Nd5 1-0
GM Fabiano Caruana is primed and ready!
Women’s Candidates: The Favorite
In the Women’s field, Russian GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and Chinese GM Tan Zhongyi have each won a previous edition of the Candidates, but neither enter this tournament playing their best chess. Instead, Chinese GM Zhu Jiner enters this tournament in a class of her own.
What a year for Zhu. After spending most of 2023 and 2024 in the 2400s, Zhu broke into the Women’s top 10 in November of 2024 (at age 21). Now 23 years old, she sits at number four in the world, peaking as high as second (with a 2579 rating) in November of last year. A lot of her rating gains came during the 2024-2025 FIDE Women’s Grand Prix cycle, which she won handily — finishing first or second in all three events she played in — to secure her spot in this tournament.
She’s still young, but she already shows signs of being a universal player who is equally comfortable grinding an endgame and conducting an attack. She has also had no problem playing a lot of decisive games, and has consistently bounced back from the occasional loss by delivering multiple victories.
