The 2026 Candidates Tournament is an eight-player chess tournament that will determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2026. The tournament is taking place at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus, between 28 March and 16 April 2026, alongside the Women's Candidates Tournament.
As with every Candidates Tournament since 2013, it is a double round-robin tournament. The winner of the tournament will earn the right to play the World Chess Championship 2026 against the reigning World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju.
The eight players to qualify to the Candidates Tournament were:
Unlike any other Candidates Tournaments, and any FIDE World Championship cycle (except 1999âÂÂ2004 during the split-title period), there is no automatic spot for the runner-up of the previous Championship (Ding Liren). To compensate, the 2024 championship will be considered an eligible tournament for the FIDE Circuit, with the runner-up obtaining special bonus points for the 2025 FIDE Circuit based on the score.
Despite reforms to the rating qualifier ahead of the 2024 Candidates Tournament, controversy arose over the allocation of a spot to the Candidates by rating. As stated in the regulations, a non-qualified player is able to qualify "provided the player has played at least 40 games rated for the February 2025 through January 2026 standard rating lists, including at least 15 in any of the six consecutive lists from August 2025 to January 2026." Hikaru Nakamura, who ultimately secured the spot to the Candidates, opted to play in local U.S. and Canada tournaments: Louisiana State Championship, Iowa Open, Maritime Open, and Dulles Open. In these four events he played 22 games meeting the regulations criteria (plus one game not applying) in order to reach the 40-game threshold, having played 18 games beforehand. He scored 20 wins and 2 draws against an opposition with an average Elo rating of 2090.
This garnered criticism from some grandmasters, notably Hans Niemann and Jacob Aagaard. However, Magnus Carlsen (who has not met the 40-game requirement and has publicly stated his lack of interest in qualifying for the Candidates) and Susan Polgar defended Nakamura, with the latter highlighting the openness that Nakamura showed by "discussing it publicly in advance and streaming his games". In response to the criticism, Nakamura noted earlier that "he is in the later stage of his playing life and wants to ensure he makes the most of his remaining chances to compete in Candidates cycles."
Starting on 1 October 2025, FIDE announced partial changes to the rating system in response to Nakamura's rating gain from playing lower-level opponents. For players rated above 2650, winning against opponents with a 400 point difference no longer gained 0.8 Elo points, instead only gaining 0.1 Elo points for a win and no rating gain when playing opponents with a difference of 735 points. Grandmaster David Howell called the reform "short-sighted and flawed", saying that FIDE could simply have required "a minimum average of opponents' ratings" for qualification to the Candidates, and arguing the change "will least impact the top players" and "negatively affect those who are dependent on open tournaments to make a living". The updated rules did not change Nakamura's approach, who continued to play in small tournaments to reach the 40-game threshold. He achieved this after winning the 1st Annual Washington Dulles Open on tiebreak in early November, guaranteeing that he would get the rating spot.
The following table shows the ratings of the players with the top average ratings from August 2025 to January 2026.
The tournament is an eight-player, double round-robin tournament, meaning there are 14 rounds with each player facing the others twice: once with the black pieces and once with the white pieces. The tournament winner will qualify to play Gukesh Dommaraju for the World Championship in 2026.
The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move 41. Players get 1 point for a win, ý point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. The pairings and colours for each round shall be decided via a draw, which shall be conducted not later than four weeks before the tournament.
Tiebreaks for the first place are addressed as follows:
Ties for places other than first will be broken by, in order: (1) SonnebornâÂÂBerger score; (2) total number of wins; (3) head-to-head score among tied players; (4) drawing of lots.
The minimum prize money will be â¬70,000 for first place, â¬45,000 for second place, and â¬25,000 for third place (with players on the same number of points sharing prize money, irrespective of tie-breaks), plus â¬5,000 per half-point for every player, for a minimum total prize pool of â¬700,000, according to the regulations.
The Chief arbiter for the event is Takis Nikolopoulos of Greece with Andrew Howie (Scotland) and Ana Srebrnicv (Slovakia) acting as both Deputy Chief Arbiter and Fair Play Officer
On 10 November 2025, FIDE announced the following schedule. Matches begin daily at 15:30 EEST (UTC +3).
<onlyinclude>
<small>Tie-breakers for first place: results in tie-break games.
Tie-breakers for subsequent spots: (1) results in tie-break games for first place, if any; (2) SonnebornâÂÂBerger score (SB); (3) total number of wins; (4) head-to-head score among tied players; (5) drawing of lots.
Note: Numbers in the crosstable in a white background indicate the result playing the respective opponent with the white pieces (black pieces if on a black background). This does not give information which of the two games was played in the First half of the tournament, and which in the second.</small></onlyinclude>
This table shows the total number of wins minus the total number of losses each player has after each round. '=' indicates the player has won and lost the same number of games after that round. Green backgrounds indicate the players with the highest score after each round. Red backgrounds indicate players who could no longer win the tournament after each round.
Caruana, Sindarov and Praggnanandhaa all won in round 1. Caruana outplayed Nakamura after the latter drifted in a deceptively complicated midgame. Caruana's conversion was not flawless, but Nakamura missed a crucial saving resource (80...Kc7!) and had to resign. Sindarov got a poor position against Esipenko, but Esipenko miscalculated a crucial line and wound up losing instead. Praggnanandhaa played the Grand Prix Attack against Giri, a rare line at top level, but one that surprised Giri. Pragg achieved an opening advantage and converted flawlessly.
In February 2026, FIDE announced pairings for the tournament.