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
Pairings for Round 3
Open:
| White | Black |
|---|---|
| GM Matthias Blübaum | GM Andrey Esipenko |
| GM R Praggnanandhaa | GM Javokhir Sindarov |
| GM Fabiano Caruana | GM Wei Yi |
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | GM Anish Giri |
Women’s:
| White | Black |
|---|---|
| GM Vaishali Rameshbabu | GM Anna Muzychuk |
| GM Aleksandra Goryachkina | GM Divya Deshmuk |
| GM Zhu Jiner | GM Bibisara Assaubayeva |
| GM Tan Zhongyi | GM Kateryna Lagno |
Interviews
Make sure to check out all of our interviews from the Candidates on our YouTube channel! All our round 2 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 Overview
The Open saw four draws, with the biggest advantage in engine terms being a +1.1 advantage (Stockfish 18, depth 42) in the game GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Matthias Blübaum. GM Andrey Esipenko, GM R Praggnanandhaa, and GM Anish Giri were also marginally better against their opponents, GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Wei Yi, and GM Fabiano Caruana, respectively, but all the players were playing very correct chess.
GM Wei Yi vs. GM R Praggnanandhaa 1/2-1/2
GM Wei Yi vs. GM R Praggnanandhaa; photo: Michal Walusza, FIDE Candidates 2026
GM R Praggnanandhaa is no stranger to the French Defense, having employed it twice in his last Candidates appearance, once against GM Fabiano Caruana and another against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, drawing both games. In today’s round, Praggnanandhaa’s choice worked out well as GM Wei Yi, in trying to avoid Praggnanandhaa’s preparation, chose the inferior 10. O-O, ceding any hopes of an advantage to Black. Praggnanandhaa was soon marginally better, but it turned out that his very sensible and aesthetically pleasing plan of activating his a-rook by shifting it to the f-file was an inaccuracy. Wei found a clever sequence to liquidate pieces, and, eventually, there was not much left to play for for either side.
GM Axel Bachmann has annotated this game for you to learn from:
https://lichess.org/study/Y1yXP80U/FCVwZask#0
GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Matthias Blübaum 1/2-1/2
Watch our interview with GM Matthias Blübaum here:
GM Javokhir Sindarov’s rare 4. Nd3 against GM Matthias Blübaum’s Petrov Defense did not come as such a surprise for Blübaum, who, as a result of his time usage, seemed well-prepared enough. However, matters got out of hand after Sindarov’s inventive maneuvers yielded a +1 advantage at one point. 16. d5 was given the engine’s seal of approval, but said positional pawn sacrifice was definitely difficult to evaluate. After failing to find 16. d5, Sindarov still had chances to press for more; ultimately, though, he could not find the more testing moves and agreed to a draw on move 42.
https://lichess.org/study/FRTlzP2X/CcAexOtH#0
GM Anish Giri vs. GM Fabiano Caruana 1/2-1/2
Watch our interview with GM Fabiano Caruana here:
Similar to the previous game, GM Fabiano Caruana’s rare 3…Nd7 against the Catalan Opening did not rattle GM Anish Giri, who showed deep preparation even in this sideline. White was a bit better, but it seemed that on move 13, Giri forced his own hand, trading pieces and liquidating into an equal endgame.
https://lichess.org/study/FRTlzP2X/AtOYVAjA#0
GM Anish Giri vs. GM Fabiano Caruana; photo: Michal Walusza, FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Andrey Esipenko vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura 1/2-1/2
Watch our interview with GM Hikaru Nakamura here:
GM Andrey Esipenko’s game against GM Hikaru Nakamura was somewhat of a mystery. Esipenko played all the correct moves, making use of small, accurate positional ideas to increase his advantage. However, after many more moves, Esipenko’s advantage vanished into thin air. Indeed, whether there had been a better, narrower path to solidify Esipenko’s gains or if Nakamura’s defensive play was truly superbly accurate remains an open question.
GM Axel Bachmann has annotated this game for you to learn from:
https://lichess.org/study/Y1yXP80U/tH5p1ZIa#0
Women’s Overview
Not all games of the Women’s Candidates were as calm as those of the Open. While GM Anna Muzychuk vs. GM Tan Zhongyi and GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina were staid draws, GM Kateryna Lagno vs. GM Zhu Jiner and GM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu were anything but as Lagno and Vaishali were both completely lost at some point.
GM Kateryna Lagno vs. GM Zhu Jiner 1/2-1/2
GM Kateryna Lagno vs. GM Zhu Jiner; photo: Yoav Nis
GM Kateryna Lagno’s opening gambit in the Tarrasch French backfired not once, but twice. First, it was Lagno, and not her opponent, GM Zhu Jiner, who used up more time in the opening as she tried to navigate the complications she created. Zhu soon found herself staring down a better position for Black, where Lagno kept committing errors, allowing Zhu to gain an even bigger advantage. Lagno was simply two pawns down, and after two consecutive blunders from both sides, Zhu made the final blunder of the game, handing Lagno a perpetual check and much relief.
WGM Petra Papp has annotated this game for you to learn from:
https://lichess.org/study/Y1yXP80U/CS8N9PAn#0
GM Anna Muzychuk vs. GM Tan Zhongyi 1/2-1/2
GM Anna Muzychuk and GM Tan Zhongyi played a well-tested line of the Petrov Defense. They did put their own spin on the line, but with heavy congestion along the e-file, pieces were traded left, right, and center, and a draw by perpetual check soon made its way on the board.
https://lichess.org/study/EMkf0c6e/y6tctIgJ#0
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina 1/2-1/2
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina; photo Michal Walusza, FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva’s game against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina was not as timid of a draw as the evaluation graph would indicate. Indeed, the line they played was recently played by GM Arjun Erigaisi, when he played a crushing game against GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov. Goryachkina was well-prepared, though, and played this variation of the Semi-Tarrasch Defense to perfection.
https://lichess.org/study/EMkf0c6e/HThmFMFX#0
GM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu 1/2-1/2
GM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu; photo: Yoav Nis
GM Divya Deshmukh’s round 2 encounter against her compatriot, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, was more intriguing than first meets the eye. Even though the silicon beast always gave (near) equality for the first 33 moves of the game, it was clear that Divya was the one who had the practical chances and the better position in terms of ease of play. As both players were in severe time trouble, though, the game ceased being theoretically equal as Vaishali played 34…Ne4??, allowing Divya a game-winning sequence of moves. Unfortunately for Divya, though, she soon blundered back, playing 37. Qg3?? instead of 37. Qg4, whereafter the game saw some dazzling tactics which forced a draw.
WGM Petra Papp has annotated this game for you to learn from:
https://lichess.org/study/Y1yXP80U/WQKVKH9T#0
Simulations
Lichess ran 1 million simulations of round results to determine the Candidates winner. Here are our results:
Open Candidates:
Women’s Candidates: