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 14
Open:
| White | Black |
|---|---|
| GM Javokhir Sindarov | GM Wei Yi |
| GM Matthias Blübaum | GM Anish Giri |
| GM R Praggnanandhaa | GM Hikaru Nakamura |
| GM Andrey Esipenko | GM Fabiano Caruana |
Women’s:
| White | Black |
|---|---|
| GM Vaishali Rameshbabu | GM Kateryna Lagno |
| GM Anna Muzychuk | GM Zhu Jiner |
| GM Divya Deshmukh | GM Bibisara Assaubayeva |
| GM Aleksandra Gorychkina | GM Tan Zhongyi |
Interviews
Make sure to check out all of our interviews from the Candidates on our YouTube channel! All our round 13 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 comfortably drew GM Anish Giri, officially becoming the 2026 World Championship Challenger. GM Wei Yi played a strong defensive game against GM Andrey Esipenko, winning after the latter sacrificed a piece. GM Fabiano Caruana also sacrificed a piece against GM R Praggnanandhaa, achieving a winning position, but he was held to a draw after inaccurate play on his part, while GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Matthias Blübaum was a quiet draw.
GM Anish Giri vs. GM Javokhir Sindarov 1/2-1/2
Watch our interview with GM Javokhir Sindarov here:
GM Javokhir Sindarov was once again excellently prepared, confidently meeting GM Anish Giri’s exchange Queen’s Gambit Declined with a defense where Black gives up the bishop pair early on but gets a strong central pawn in return. Sindarov was under some minor pressure as Giri’s knight was well-placed, but Sindarov’s dark-squared bishop was doing a fine job of holding the position together. Sindarov continued defending solidly in the rook endgame, easily drawing the game and officially becoming the 2026 World Championship Challenger.
https://lichess.org/study/rFG1W5Tp/VQ8n3g1Y#0
GM Wei Yi vs. GM Andrey Esipenko 1-0
GM Wei Yi vs. GM Andrey Esipenko; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Wei Yi played with perhaps too much flare against GM Andrey Esipenko in the Petrov Defense, contorting his king from the outset to achieve a non-theoretical position. The line chosen was of course theoretically sound, but Wei played without much piece harmony, so he was already slightly worse. Nevertheless, the position soon returned to objective equality, and it was then Esipenko’s turn to set the board ablaze with a piece sacrifice. Wei’s defense looked incredibly difficult, and he was walking a very thin tightrope, but, in time trouble, Wei avoided two threefold repetitions and went on to win.
https://lichess.org/study/rFG1W5Tp/jIlkfHzg#0
GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM R Praggnanandhaa 1/2-1/2
GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM R Praggnanandhaa; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Fabiano Caruana and GM R Praggnanandhaa played a chaotic line of the Nimzo-Indian Defense, with Praggnanandhaa’s kingside pawns rushing down the board. In a highly complicated position, though, Praggnanandhaa pushed his pawns too far, playing 17…h5?, which allowed a stunning and difficult-to-spot piece sacrifice with 18. Nc4!. Caruana played the sacrifice and had a tremendous position, eventually converting his overwhelming attack into a material advantage: queen against rook and bishop. The position was highly complex, however, and Praggnanandhaa always had chances to create a fortress. Eventually, Caruana allowed too much counterplay from Praggnanandhaa, after which he was forced to go for a perpetual.
https://lichess.org/study/rFG1W5Tp/OoIq5ptK#0
GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Matthias Blübaum 1/2-1/2
GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Matthias Blübaum; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
Just as in the Giri vs. Sindarov game, this game between GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Matthias Blübaum saw an exchange Queen’s Gambit Declined, though with a different flavor. Nakamura had a symbolic advantage in the resulting Carlsbad pawn structure, but an early trade on c5 meant that the position was progressively getting closed. With the only pawn break for White being g4, which Black had under lock and key, there was not much left to play for, and the players agreed to a draw on move 41.
https://lichess.org/study/rFG1W5Tp/yAKbKBUi#0
Women’s Leaderboard
Women’s Overview
The Women’s Candidates remains wide open after GM Bibisara Assaubayeva defeated GM Anna Muzychuk in a one-sided game and GM Zhu Jiner lost against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina in a game where she was always pressing and nearly winning at some critical junctures. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu held a draw against GM Tan Zhongyi after having been much worse for a portion of the game, while GM Kateryna Lagno won a strong game against GM Divya Deshmukh.
GM Zhu Jiner vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina 0-1
GM Zhu Jiner vs. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
In the Two Knights Defense of the Italian Game, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina gambited a pawn against GM Zhu Jiner, gaining Marshall Gambit-like compensation. Zhu retained an advantage, and as the position became more simplified, she saw her advantage grow. Unfortunately for Zhu, though, her king was always in danger, so she needed to be very accurate to convert her advantage. Alas, her check against Goryachkina’s own unsafe king was ill-timed, and after the position turned objectively equal, Zhu played 51. Re5??, a game-losing blunder.
https://lichess.org/study/o7DgltDn/i3eo8xbZ#0
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Anna Muzychuk 1-0
GM Bibisara Assaubayeva vs. GM Anna Muzychuk; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
Just as in her game in round 1, GM Anna Muzychuk was facing difficulties early on in the Scotch Game. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva’s bishop pair advantage was quickly transformed into an extra pawn, but with the presence of opposite-colored bishops, Muzychuk always had drawing chances. Said drawing possibilities were close to being realized as Assaubayeva traded rooks, heading into a pure opposite-colored bishop endgame. That being said, the resulting position was tricky, and even though the remainder of the game saw many twists and turns, Assaubayeva was ultimately able to win and deliver a crushing blow to Muzychuk’s chances of winning the tournament.
https://lichess.org/study/o7DgltDn/MmjM3ias#0
GM Tan Zhongyi vs. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu 1/2-1/2
GM Tan Zhongyi vs. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026
GM Tan Zhongyi and GM Vaishali Rameshbabu were both playing very creatively in the opening as they reached a fresh position in the Queen’s Gambit Declined as early as move 8. The position seemed stable enough for Vaishali, but with Tan’s d-pawn rolling down the board, Vaishali was always on the back foot. Vaishali’s defenses soon began cracking, and it looked as if Tan would pick up Vaishali’s a-pawn and push hers to victory lane. Tan chose a different path instead, and after some accurate moves by Vaishali, it became clear that Tan’s decision was a mistake which allowed Vaishali to escape with a draw.
https://lichess.org/study/o7DgltDn/rqKYazlm#0
GM Kateryna Lagno vs. GM Divya Deshmukh 1-0
GM Kateryna Lagno once again played a very unique piece of preparation, employing a kingside fianchetto against GM Divya Deshmukh’s Tartakower Caro-Kann Defense. The position out of the opening was not so remarkable, but Lagno had a solid position where she could always gradually press her symbolic opening advantage. Lagno missed one opportunity to achieve a winning position on move 16, but after Divya’s mistake on move 19, she never let her advantage slip and duly converted her edge.
https://lichess.org/study/o7DgltDn/v9G62LM5#0
Simulations
Lichess ran 1 million simulations of round results to determine the Candidates winner. Here are our results after round 13:
Open Candidates:
Not coming soon
Women’s Candidates:
Coming soon