The 7th day and the first half of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 in Cyprus has concluded. After 7 rounds, Javokhir Sindarov leads with 6 points, while Fabiano Caruana is in second place with 4.5 points.

🇺🇿 Javokhir Sindarov has lost no games in the first half of the tournament. 🇩🇪 Matthias Bluebaum, 🇺🇸 Hikaru Nakamura, and 🇷🇺 Andrey Esipenko have won no games. Javokhir Sindarov became the first player to score 6/7 points at the halfway point in the 8-player double Round-Robin Candidates format.

The current standings are:

Place Player Score
1. 🇺🇿 GM Javokhir Sindarov 6
2. 🇺🇸 GM Fabiano Caruana 4.5
3. 🇳🇱 GM Anish Giri 3.5
4. 🇮🇳 GM Praggnanandhaa R 3.5
5. 🇨🇳 GM Wei Yi 3
6. 🇩🇪 GM Matthias Bluebaum 3
7. 🇺🇸 GM Hikaru Nakamura 2.5
8. 🇷🇺 GM Andrey Esipenko 2

The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 takes place from March 28 to April 16, at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus. The event features a 120+0 time control for the first 40 moves and 30+30 for the rest of the game over double Round-Robin between 8 players.

Credit: Yoav Nisenbaum / FIDE