The Battle to Reach the World Championship Begins Today: Candidates 2026 Officially Inaugurated

by Devansh Singh - 29/03/2026

Meeting various selection criteria, eight men and eight women players from around the world will begin their campaign in the FIDE Candidates 2026 this evening, putting forth their full effort to start with a win. This time, the FIDE Candidates Tournament is being organized in Cyprus, a beautiful island nation situated at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. The grand opening of Candidates 2026 took place on Saturday evening at the Cap St George's Hotel & Resort, Cyprus. Round 1 will start today at 15:30 Local Time/18:00 IST. Photo Credit: Michal Walusza / Fide, Sagar Shah / ChessBase India

The Game begins

Candidates 2026

The sixteen contenders in the 2026 FIDE Candidates and Women’s Candidates Tournaments were then invited onto the stage. FIDE host Angelika Valkova posed a light-hearted question to each of them, prompting responses that drew warm laughter from the audience and once again showcased the players’ sharp wit and sense of humour.

In particular, GM Mathias Bluebaum – also a mathematician – drew laughter when, asked whether every player had a 12.5% chance of winning, he replied: “I won’t argue against uniformly distributed winning chances. I’ll take it!” (Source FIDE)

Praggnanandhaa Signing the Chessboard

Before the opening ceremony, five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand was seen interacting with R. Praggnanandhaa and R. Vaishali.

That's the pairing of the first round!! It's Anish vs Pragganandhaa today

Vaishali with her mom

Divya signing the Chessboards

All Candidates signed the chessboard

The Winners will take this beautiful trophy home

ChessBase India's Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal have reached Cyprus to bring live updates. Their journey from Mumbai to Cyprus took approximately 20 hours, but they are now stationed at the venue to provide detailed coverage of every move.

Round 1 pairings

Open

Javokhir Sindarov — Andrey Esipenko
Matthias Bluebaum — Wei Yi
Praggnanandhaa R — Anish Giri
Fabiano Caruana — Hikaru Nakamura

Women

Divya Deshmukh — Anna Muzychuk
Vaishali Rameshbabu — Bibisara Assaubayeva
Aleksandra Goryachkina — Kateryna Lagno
Zhu Jiner — Tan Zhongyi

Photo Gallery: Here

FIDE Gallery: Here

He is a man of fewer words and more action! Meet China's no.1 Wei Yi, who is taking part in the FIDE Candidates 2026. In this video, Wei Yi speaks about how he prepared for the Candidates, his team members, who supported him financially, and much more. Truly an amazing personality in the world of chess! Video: ChessBase India

We bring you the opening ceremony of the FIDE Candidates 2026. Video: ChessBase India

Hikaru speaks about his preparation for the Candidates, thoughts on the people's favorites, and a whole lot more. Video: ChessBase India

Where is Divya???

Venue Tour

Schedule and Format

Each tournament features eight of the world’s strongest players competing in a double round-robin format over fourteen rounds of classical chess. All the games will start at 15:30 Local Time/18:00 IST

FIDE Candidates 2026 | Round 1 Live Stream

March 28, Opening Ceremony
March 29, Round 1
March 30, Round 2
March 31, Round 3
April 01, Round 4
April 02, Rest day
April 03, Round 5
April 04, Round 6
April 05, Round 7
April 06, Rest day
April 07, Round 8
April 08, Round 9
April 09, Round 10
April 10, Rest day
April 11, Round 11
April 12, Round 12
April 13, Rest day
April 14, Round 13
April 15, Round 14
April 16, Tie-breaks and Closing Ceremony

Key details and Information

Two tournaments will be held side by side – the (Open) FIDE Candidates Tournament and the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament.

Format: In both the Open and the Women’s, the eight qualified players will compete in a double round-robin tournament, consisting of 14 rounds.

Time control: The games will be played with a time control of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 41.

Prize fund: The minimum prize fund for the event stands at a record €1,000,000.

Tie-breaks: In the event of a tie for first place after 14 rounds, a playoff will be played to determine the winner who qualifies for the World Championship Match, due to take place in November 2026.