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 5
Open:
| White | Black |
|---|---|
| GM Hikaru Nakamura | GM Javokhir Sindarov |
| GM Fabiano Caruana | GM Matthias Blübaum |
| GM Anish Giri | GM Wei Yi |
| GM R Praggnanandhaa | GM Andrey Esipenko |
Women’s:
| White | Black |
|---|---|
| GM Kateryna Lagno | GM Bibisara Assaubayeva |
| GM Aleksandra Goryachkina | GM Anna Muzychuk |
| GM Zhu Jiner | GM Vaishali Rameshbabu |
| GM Tan Zhongyi | GM Divya Deshmukh |
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 Leaderboard
Open Overview
GM Javokhir Sindarov defeated GM Fabiano Caruana in a very one-sided game, with GM Anish Giri also doing the same against GM Andrey Esipenko. GM Hikaru Nakamura missed a golden opportunity against GM Wei Yi in a tricky double rook endgame, while GM Matthias Blübaum and GM R Praggnanandhaa played a quiet and correct draw.
GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Fabiano Caruana 1-0
Watch our interview with GM Javokhir Sindarov here:
In the battle of the co-leaders, GM Javokhir Sindarov channeled his inner GM Ding Liren, surprising GM Fabiano Caruana in the opening after Caruana attempted to unsettle Sindarov with the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. Caruana was spending a lot of time early on, and by move 15, he was down an entire hour on the clock. Caruana was not yet significantly worse at that point; in fact, a move later, he found the engine’s top move, 16…Rg8, which, funnily enough, both Caruana and Sindarov evaluated in their press conference as being the first mistake of the game. Caruana’s first true mistake appeared on move 17 with 17…f5, whereafter he was still not completely lost. With a significant advantage for White and six minutes to make 20 moves in a complicated position, though, Caruana’s prospects looked hopeless, and Sindarov converted with impressive alacrity.
GM Axel Bachmann has annotated this game for you to learn from:
https://lichess.org/study/Y1yXP80U/b3AJaaUH#0
GM Andrey Esipenko vs. GM Anish Giri 0-1
Watch our interview with GM Anish Giri here:
The game between GM Andrey Esipenko and GM Anish Giri showed a remarkable piece of opening preparation, even though the position by move 8 was significantly uncommon, occurring only three times in master level play according to the Lichess Masters database. As the players continued to demonstrate their know-how, on move 11, Giri uncorked an intriguing novelty, 11…Kd7, which saw Giri’s king go on an adventure toward the queenside. The position remained highly complicated and both players were spending their time carefully. The first turning point of the game came on move 16, when Esipenko sacrificed a pawn with 16. b4!, which Giri perhaps too eagerly accepted. Esipenko had one recapture on move 18 that would have seen him emerge with a large advantage, but, instead, he took with the rook and was worse. The resulting position was perhaps tenable, but such a task would have been impossible because Esipenko needed to find countless engine only-moves. As it stood, Esipenko’s position quickly deteriorated, and Giri transformed his advantage with ease.
GM Axel Bachmann has annotated this game for you to learn from:
https://lichess.org/study/Y1yXP80U/09SE5yOs#0
GM Wei Yi vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura 1/2-1/2
GM Wei Yi vs. GM Hikaru Nakamura; photo: Yoav Nis (Eugene Nisenabum) / FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Hikaru Nakamura’s risky opening choice, the Dragondorf, which arose by transposition after creative opening play from both Nakamura and GM Wei Yi, almost paid off. After Nakamura had been worse in the early stages of the game, he stabilized and began applying pressure on Wei, avoiding some drawish options along the way. In a double rook endgame, one blunder by Wei on move 40 almost cost him the game, but Nakamura soon also blundered on move 45, allowing Wei to force liquidation and reach a drawn rook endgame.
https://lichess.org/study/97di6JjX/YLi0q7tr#0
GM Matthias Blübaum vs. GM R Praggnanandhaa 1/2-1/2
GM Matthias Blübaum vs. GM R Praggnanandhaa; photo: Michal Walusza FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Matthias Blübaum continued his safety-first approach with White, achieving a small positional edge against GM R Praggnanandhaa’s isolated pawn. Pieces were quickly traded, though, and as early as move 27, the emergence of an opposite-colored bishop endgame left little doubt over the result of the game.
https://lichess.org/study/97di6JjX/QH9KXWpV#0
Women’s Leaderboard
Women’s Overview
GM Anna Muzychuk refused the draw against GM Kateryna Lagno, instead playing on, and winning, after she had sacrificed a piece for some compensation. GM Zhu Jiner played well against GM Divya Deshmukh, making use of deep opening preparation. Meanwhile, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina was better against GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, but she couldn’t capitalize on her advantage and even let Vaishali gain a sizable advantage, so a draw was the fair result. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva also had a somewhat large opening advantage against GM Tan Zhongyi, but Tan had prepared the line well and held the position without too much of an issue.
GM Anna Muzychuk vs. GM Kateryna Lagno 1-0
GM Anna Muzychk vs. GM Kateryna Lagno; photo: Yoav Nis (Eugene Nisenabum) / FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Anna Muzychuk’s Delayed Exchange Ruy Lopez proved to be quite successful: GM Kateryna Lagno was spending a lot of time in the opening phase of the game and was objectively much worse as well. Lagno did find good defensive moves, however, and had at some point achieved equality. Nevertheless, Muzychuk was trying nearly everything to win, and despite being lower on time than Lagno, she kept the game going with the difficult-to-spot 28. d4!. Lagno reacted poorly, keeping the queens on the board when their exchange was called for. Muzychuk then finished the game in style with 32. Rxa8!, an aesthetically pleasing queen pseudo-sacrifice.
https://lichess.org/study/MDv2BlCp/oZ3sejUP#0
GM Divya Deshmukh vs. GM Zhu Jiner 0-1
Watch our interview with GM Zhu Jiner here:
GM Zhu Jiner has shown impressive opening preparation in all of her games so far; unluckily for her, however, the results have not gone her way. Her game against GM Divya Deshmukh today resulted in a turn of fortune, though, as her deep opening study netted her a slightly better position as early as move 12. Divya had some chances to get back into the game, but, ultimately, Zhu was in control and forced Divya to resign after just 36 moves.
https://lichess.org/study/MDv2BlCp/WLsut6Nv#0
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Tan Zhongyi 1/2-1/2
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Tan Zhongyi; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva had seemingly achieved all that one could dream of against the Tarrasch Defense, which GM Tan Zhongyi had clearly understood rather well. Indeed, Assaubayeva’s advantage started slipping away quite rapidly, and that was most definitely due to Tan’s deep knowledge of the Tarrasch rather than any significant errors on Assaubayeva’s part.
https://lichess.org/study/MDv2BlCp/dw1P5xjm#0
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina 1/2-1/2
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu’s early a-pawn push in the Italian Opening, which is reminiscent of one particular recent game, proved to be more of a weakness than a strength. The plan itself, while acceptable, resulted in a significantly worse position after Vaishali made some mistakes and allowed GM Aleksandra Goryachkina’s pieces to team up against her a-pawn. After one incorrect recapture on move 18, though, Vaishali was back in the game and had achieved equality. Vaishali even had a couple of chances to play for more, but she failed to capitalize on those opportunities, and the players eventually repeated moves.
https://lichess.org/study/MDv2BlCp/y2vtaAT1#0
Simulations
Lichess ran 1 million simulations of round results to determine the Candidates winner. Here are our results after round 4:
Open Candidates:
Women’s Candidates: