This article will be updated shortly
About the Candidates and What’s at Stake?
The Candidates tournament is an eight-player double round robin whose winner earns the right to challenge the reigning world champion in a world championship match. Historically, the Candidates was an elimination knockout tournament, but since 2013, it has been conducted as a double round robin with eight players.
Lichess Coverage
Lichess will produce in-depth blog posts with annotations for each round of the 2026 FIDE Candidates. GM Axel Bachmann (@ABachmann) will annotate R1–7 and GM Maksim Chigaev (@Fandorine96) R8–14 + potential tiebreaks from the Open Candidates, while WGM Petra Papp (@cukus) will annotate R1–4, IM / WGM Lilit Mkrtchian (@Lilit-Mkrtchian) R5–7, and IM / WGM Ekaterina Atalik (@EkaterinaAtalik) R8–14 + potential tiebreaks from the Women’s Candidates. Lichess will also create videos for each round of the tournament, with interviews and other types of content. Keep an eye on our socials for the videos!
Tournament Schedule
Interviews
Make sure to check out all of our interviews from the Candidates on our YouTube channel! All our round 14 interviews are also embedded throughout this article.
Lichess Broadcast
The Lichess broadcast for the Candidates can be found here:
https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-candidates-2026/oe4JqS3R
Open Leaderboard
Open Overview
Coming soon
GM Matthias Blübaum vs. GM Anish Giri 0-1
Watch our interview with GM Anish Giri here:
https://lichess.org/study/oBkeHnpi/f07nrkYa#0
GM Andrey Esipenko vs. GM Fabiano Caruana 0-1
GM Andrey Esipenko vs. GM Fabiano Caruana; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Fabiano Caruana finished his tournament on a high note, defeating GM Andrey Esipenko in a model Sicilian Najdorf game. Esipenko’s rare 6. Qd3 was met with the uncommon 6…g6 response, and soon the players were out of book. Esipenko seemed out of his element in the resulting position, while Caruana was playing the typical plans with flare, sacrificing the exchange on e3 in classic Sicilian fashion. Esipenko was not yet lost, but further inaccurate play on the kingside saw Caruana crash through on the queenside, sealing the deal exactly on the 40th move of the game.
https://lichess.org/study/oBkeHnpi/gi2VX6NQ#0
GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Wei Yi 1/2-1/2
GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Wei Yi; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
https://lichess.org/study/oBkeHnpi/9j4CNe46#0
GM R Praggnanandhaa vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura 1/2-1/2
Watch our interview with GM R Praggnanandhaa here:
https://lichess.org/study/oBkeHnpi/dNacvFdc#0
Women’s Leaderboard
Women’s Overview
Coming soon
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu vs. GM Kateryna Lagno 1-0
Watch our interview with GM Vaishali Rameshbabu here:
https://lichess.org/study/dllZX7eJ/L1SFicXZ#0
GM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva 1/2-1/2
GM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
https://lichess.org/study/dllZX7eJ/2iF6Hxjz#0
GM Anna Muzychuk vs. GM Zhu Jiner 1/2-1/2
GM Anna Muzychuk vs. GM Zhu Jiner; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
https://lichess.org/study/dllZX7eJ/14Nv81mX#0
GM Aleksandra Goryachkina vs. Tan Zhongyi 1-0
GM Aleksandra Goryachkina vs. Tan Zhongyi; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
https://lichess.org/study/dllZX7eJ/OpNpu2dw#0