The FIDE Candidates Tournament for the current round has been set. The location was announced previously, and now the players are known.
As for the location, they usually play in nice places at level. (Or as Murray Head said, "Don't you know when you play at this level, there's no ordinary venue.") Mediterranean Stage Set for Chess History: The 2026 FIDE Candidates Come to Cyprus
FIDE stands for Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or in English, The International Chess Federation. It is the governing body for chess.
The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 is an eight-player double round-robin chess tournament scheduled to take place between March 25 and May 1, 2026, to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2026 against reigning champion D. Gukesh. Organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the tournament follows a revamped qualification system introduced in 2024, that follows a merit-based qualification pathways through major events, ratings, and the FIDE Circuit.
A double round-robin tournament is one in which each player will play every other player twice. That means there are 14 rounds.
The regulations are a bit complicated, but the time constraints are as follows.
The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move 41. Players get 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 points for a loss.
Tie breakers are handled via rapid chess with each player getting 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the number of players tied, plus a time increment. If more rounds are required then the move to blitz chess with 3 minutes, and a shorter increment.
That is only ties for first place, other ties will be settled by more esoteric considerations of scores from the main tournament.
And it appears that the field is complete: Esipenko Grabs Last Candidates Spot, Final Goes To Tiebreaks
Player Country Rating (Nov 2025) Qualification Path Fabiano Caruana United States 2795 Winner – 2024 FIDE Circuit Anish Giri Netherlands 2769 Winner – 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss Matthias Blübaum Germany 2680 Runner-up – 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss Wei Yi China 2752 Top 3 – 2025 FIDE World Cup Javokhir Sindarov Uzbekistan 2721 Top 3 – 2025 FIDE World Cup Andrey Esipenko FIDE 2681 Third place – 2025 FIDE World Cup Hikaru Nakamura United States ~2810 avg Likely Rating Qualifier (99%) R. Praggnanandhaa India ~2775 avg Likely Rating Qualifier (99%)
Whoever wins the Candidates Tournament will go on to face Gukesh Dommaraju, the reigning champion, in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2026. The dates and location of that match have not been announced.
Among the notable absences is Magnus Carlsen. He was world champion for a number of years (2013-2023), but he has said he has no intention of participating in that championship in any way. He is still competing, just not for the FIDE Championship.
For those of you who don't know Murray Head, I refer you to "One Night In Bangkok."
... when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venueIt's Iceland or the Philippines or Hastings or
or this place!
That song came from the musical Chess, which is apparently somewhat about chess. (I still haven't seen it.)
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