The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 and the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026 are set to take place from 28 March to 16 April at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort, Peyia, Paphos, Cyprus.
Both events are played as eight-player double round-robin tournaments, with 14 rounds in each competition. The Winner of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 qualifies for the World Chess Championship match against the reigning champion Gukesh D, while the Winner of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026 qualifies for the Women’s World Chess Championship match against Ju Wenjun.
Participants of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 are:
- Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2810) – qualified by rating
- Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2795) – qualified from FIDE Circuit 2024
- Wei Yi (CHN, 2754) – qualified as runner-up at FIDE World Chess Cup 2025
- Anish Giri (NED, 2753) – qualified as FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 winner
- Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 2745) – qualified as FIDE World Chess Cup 2025 winner
- Praggnanandhaa R (IND, 2741) – qualified from FIDE Circuit 2025
- Matthias Bluebaum (GER, 2698) – qualified as silver medalist of FIDE Grand Swiss 2025
- Andrey Esipenko (FIDE, 2698) – qualified as bronze medalist of the FIDE World Cup 2025
Participants of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026 are:
- Zhu Jiner (CHN, 2578) – qualified as the Winner of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024/25
- Tan Zhongyi (CHN, 2535) – qualified as bronze medalist of the FIDE Women’s World Chess Cup 2025
- Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 2534) – qualified as second-ranked FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024/25 player
- Anna Muzychuk (UKR, 2522) – qualified from FIDE Women’s Events series 2024/25 after withdrawal of Koneru Humpy (IND, 2535)
- Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ, 2516) – qualified from FIDE Women’s Events 2024/25
- Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2508) – qualified as silver medalist of FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2025
- Divya Deshmukh (IND, 2497) – qualified as the Winner of FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025
- Vaishali Rameshbabu (IND, 2470) – qualified as the Winner of the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2025
The total prize fund of the events is 1M euros, with the minimum prize fund of 700,000 euros for the FIDE Candidates Tournament, and the minimum prize pool of 300,000 euros for the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament.
The Opening ceremony of the event is scheduled for Saturday, 28th of March, while the first round starts on Sunday, 29th of March, at 15:30 (local time). Full schedule of both tournaments can be found here.
Live broadcast of the event will be available through the Official website of the event.