2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament: Official Discussion Thread

The 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament takes place March 29 - April 15, featuring a €700,000 prize fund and the pass to challenge the reigning WCC.

Eight of the world's strongest players compete to earn the right to play in the next FIDE World Championship vs. reigning World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju.

Watch the live broadcast on our ChessTV, Twitch and YouTube channels.
Find all relevant links and event info below, and use the comments for discussion.

• Events Page - All official event info, standings, and games.

• Official Regulations - Full tournament rules and tiebreak system.

• Prediction Contest - Place your guesses and win up to 6 months diamond.

• Previous Edition - 2024 Candidates event reference and results.

• Survey - Vote on your favorite player to win the event.

• Prize Fund - €700,000

• Time Control - 120 min + 30 min (Move 41) + 30 sec increment (Move 41+)

• Format - 8-player double round-robin

• Dates - March 29 - April 15

• Players - GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Anish Giri, GM Matthias Bluebaum, GM Javokhir Sindarov, GM Wei Yi, GM Andrey Esipenko, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, GM Hikaru Nakamura

With caruana and hikaru being the heavy favorites, I have a good feeling about America finally being a world champion again since Fischer

I see Divya in the picture, but her name is not on the list.

Why is that?

That’s the Prediction Contest image, the contest has both Open and Women’s sections. :)

Yep! I have Yi 1st on mine. Women’s I have Zhongyi 1st. :)

Anish wins trust

I only know what other people know, she expressed some concerns on playing. There’s nothing confirmed though from what I’ve seen.

According to an update on this announcement about the prediction contest, "GM Humpy Koneru has withdrawn from the tournament, but don't worry, your predictions are still valid! The Women's section will simply be scored as a 7-player field, and any substitute for Koneru will not count toward standings. No action needed on your end. Thank you!"

Absolutely NOT going to be Giri.

Giri blunders too much in critical positions. In that one critical Rg1 Nc6 g4 g6 Najdorf in Tatasteel, Giri could have initiated an almost engine-like sacrifice which would have led to a wild material imbalance and a 2 result game (black slightly better, white fighting for the draw) but instead he chickened out and drew with a safe line.

In another game over there when he was black, he had a nice advantage if he had executed the proper move order, but instead he let white neutralize it, then Giri failed to find the only move to hold, and lost.

It's going to be Fabi, Hikaru or Sindarov, but Wei Yi and Pragg also have reasonable chances.

I thinks Fabi is going to win

We're probably going to witness the last Candidates Tournament in history. Carlsen has convinced FIDE to organize a mixed world championship that will replace the traditional one in a few years. The chess world seems very submissive to this decline in chess.

Hope Hikaru having a great journey in this spectacular tournament!🙂

hi

Hi

Hii

Okay, I'm leaning