2026 FIDE Candidates Start With A Bang

The most important tournament of the year began on Sunday in Cyprus as 16 of the world’s top chess players compete in the 2026 FIDE Candidates and Women’s Candidates tournaments, with rights to matches against the reigning World Champion and Women’s World Champion on the line.

This year's field. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Each event is an eight-player double Round Robin consisting of a total of 14 games, so an early deficit after one round is hardly insurmountable. Still, some commentators were prepared for players to enter Sunday’s games cautiously, warming up rather than revealing their best prep or fighting their hardest for a win at all costs.

Plus, all intra-country pairings take place in Rounds 1 and 8, so perhaps we’d see some friendly draws between the two Americans in the Open or the two Chinese or two Russian players in the Women’s.*

Guess again.

The Open featured an impressive three decisive results out of four games, and there was fighting chess galore in the Women’s despite the round eventually settling with four draws. We saw opening surprises in both sections, a knight sac in the all-China Women’s match-up, and a heart-stopping endgame between the two Americans in the Open.

Graphic courtesy of FIDE

In our preview, I pointed out that GM Fabiano Caruana had not beaten GM Hikaru Nakamura in a classical game since the 2022 Candidates Tournament, while Nakamura had won six classical games against Caruana in that time-span. Well, that’s over.

A victorious Caruana after Round 1. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

In a fantastic battle, Caruana took down his countryman in the longest game of the round. Caruana began burning time in what appeared to be a calm position, only furthering suspicions that a draw was incoming.

The start of the battle between the two highest-rated players in the field. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

But Nakamura uncharacteristically relaxed a bit prematurely, allowing Caruana to develop a ferocious initiative, eventually winning a pawn. There was no forcing win, however, and Caruana then shocked the commentators by choosing to trade queens into an opposite-colored bishop ending.

Caruana game — Photos courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza.

While the position was still winning, there was very little margin for error. Just when Caruana appeared to have found a winning plan, he made a fatal error with only a minute on his clock. But Nakamura replied too quickly, only to immediately realize what he had done.

As soon as the game ended, Nakamura asked if he missed the draw when moving the king to e7 instead of c7. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

From there, Nakamura had no choice but to resign.

The youngest player in the tournament — Uzbekistan’s GM Javokhir Sindarov — won an even more back-and-forth game against Russia’s GM Andrey Esipenko.

Javokhir Sindarov bounced back from a slow start in the opening to score the first win of the round. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Sindarov got into some trouble out of the opening, going as far as to admit in a post-game interview that he thought he was losing. But Esipenko alleviated the pressure unnecessarily, and from there Sindarov was able to show his strength.

I owe an apology to Indian GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. I questioned whether he would be a serious contender in my preview, claiming he had not made much progress in his game since the 2024 Candidates.

Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu played the best game of the day, surprising Anish Giri in the opening and never taking his foot off the gas. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Praggnanandhaa replied by uncorking a rare Grand Prix Attack against Giri’s Sicilian and conducting it flawlessly, winning the smoothest game of the round.

Nakamura takes a look at the unusual opening on Giri's board. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

The internet is a weird place, and in the lead-up to the tournament, talk of German GM Matthias Bluebaum’s chances became something of a meme. The hashtag #GreatBluebaumSweep was even trending on Twitter, with users (mostly ironically) predicting that the event’s lowest-rated player would not only win the event, but that he would win with a perfect 14/14 score.

No pressure! Bluebaum disappointed online fans predicting a 14/14 result from the German, but played a solid game nevertheless. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Unfortunately for Bluebaum’s legion of fans, he began the event with a draw against Chinese GM Wei Yi. He did acknowledge the “sweep” in a post-game interview, jokingly apologizing to his fans while pointing out that he could still maybe deliver 14 straight draws.

Don’t be fooled by the final results. The Women’s event featured three sharp games, and it’s a bit shocking that they produced zero decisive results.

Graphic courtesy of FIDE

In fact, the two most fighting games were the intra-country match-ups. GM Zhu Jiner came out blazing against the 2024 Women’s Candidates winner GM Tan Zhongyi, going as far as essaying a (correct!) knight sac to gain a dangerous initiative.

Zhu Jiner (L) and Tan Zhongyi fought the toughest battle of the Women's event. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

But there was never a concrete win, and Tan was able to maintain her composure to hold the draw.

Russian GM Aleksandra Goryachkina was likewise pushing against GM Kateryna Lagno, except, in her game, there actually was a winning sequence at one point. But Goryachkina missed it, settling for a more modest advantage that she was never able to convert.

A disappointed Goryachkina finally relents, knowing she missed a win earlier. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Finally, GM Bibisara Assaubayeva had some chances against India’s GM Vaishali Rameshbabu but, likewise, was unable to convert.

Bibisara Assaubayeva had brief chances to make something happen as Black, but was unable to convert. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

One thing to keep in mind is the two tournaments do feature different time controls. According to the Open Regulations, players begin with 120 minutes a side and no increment until move 41. But the Women’s Regulations stipulate that players shall begin with 90 minutes apiece and a 30-second increment beginning on the first move. Both tournaments award 30 minutes of bonus time to each player after move 40.

Round 2 is currently underway, with games beginning daily at 8:45 a.m. EDT. Play continues with Round 3 on Tuesday and Round 4 on Wednesday before the event’s first rest day on Thursday.

Fear not! This is the only round of the event I am reporting on and annotating myself. We have a fantastic line-up of guest commentators ready to go, beginning with IM Robert Shlaykhtenko for the next two rounds.

*As a note: there are two Indian players in the Women’s event, but they were not paired against each other in Round 1. Why? Because pairings were decided before a third Indian player, GM Humpy Koneru, announced that she was withdrawing, so her replacement — Ukrainian GM Anna Muzychuk — was paired against India’s GM Divya Deshmukh.

Quick Links

Official Event Page

Round-by-Round Coverage on Chess Life Online

Annotated Games on Lichess

All Games on Chess.com and Lichess

Official FIDE Broadcast on Twitch and YouTube