No Heroes on Day 2 of Candidates Tournament

After the dramatic opening day of the 2026 FIDE Candidates tournament, a respite was much needed. In one sense, this was attained — all eight games ended in draws — but in all other senses the drama was only heightened.

This round had time scrambles and blunders aplenty. The more peaceful games, too, turned out to have quite subtle and interesting moments when viewed under the microscope. So the outwardly dry nature of the round turned out — as is usual — to be a mirage.

For American fans, there was quite a bit to worry about in the opening hours of the round. Top seed GM Hikaru Nakamura, taking the black pieces for the second game in a row, seemed to be strategically worse against Russian GM Andrey Esipenko with few chances of counterplay.

However, Nakamura’s defensive effort and fortitude was extremely impressive. After a certain point, he found every single key move and gave his opponent no hint of winning chances.

Nakamura is an expert in rook endgames (well, not just in rook endgames!) and this was on fine display today. Take special note of how he handled the endgame after move 40. Such rook endings (with equal pawns on the kingside and an outside passed pawn on the a-file) are very tricky, yet Hikaru defended this one absolutely perfectly.

The other American in the field, GM Fabiano Caruana, showed ambition even as Black by choosing the unusual 3. … Nd7!? in the Queen’s Gambit Declined. His opponent, Dutch GM Anish Giri, did not seem surprised but nevertheless failed to gain much of an edge, and Caruana was never in objective trouble.

The other two games — Chinese GM Wei Yi against Indian GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Uzbek GM Javokhir Sindarov against German GM Matthias Bluebaum — followed the same pattern: One player gained a positional advantage, but failed to make the correct structural decision at the key moment, and could not break though his opponent’s stern resistance.

The games in the Women’s section had a completely different character. The shorter time control in the first phase of the game meant that time trouble played a decisive factor, and, as Korchnoi used to say, there are no heroes in time trouble.

A certain FIDE representative with an interest in both players makes the ceremonial first move. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

Indian GM Divya Deshmukh’s game against her countrywoman GM Vaishali Rameshbabu started off as a quiet but well-played Queen’s Gambit Declined. Until the final moments of the time control, the position remained nearly level. Then, a surprising blunder by Vaishali totally upset the balance.

Photo courtesy FIDE/Yoav Nis.

The rest is best explained in chess notation, not in words:

A similar fate befell Chinese GM Zhu Jiner, who accepted an early pawn sacrifice against Russian GM Kateryna Lagno and went on to outplay her experienced opponent.

Photo courtesy FIDE/Yoav Nis.

Just when victory seemed in reach, a move played with only three seconds left on the clock ruined all of Zhu’s efforts…

Stubborn defense from Lagno saved the day. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Yoav Nis)

The remaining two games were, thankfully, calmer. The Petroff Defense’s reputation for solidity did not fail Chinese GM Tan Zhongyi, who drew without any trouble against Ukrainian GM Anna Muzychuk:

Lastly, Kazakh GM Bibisara Assaubayeva’s game against Russian GM Aleksandra Goryachkina was well-played by both sides, and also of some theoretical interest:

Round 3 is currently underway, with Round 4 scheduled for tomorrow at 8:45 a.m. EDT. A rest day follows on Thursday.

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