Hikaru Nakamura shared his thoughts on the participants of the 2026 Candidates Tournament in an interview with Chess.com. Nakamura stated that in his opinion, Andrey Esipenko should be replaced by Arjun Erigaisi, and Matthias Bluebaum by Vincent Keymer:

Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura

World's No. 2, streamer

“If I were to look at my perfect Candidates, I think I’d probably replace Esipenko with Arjun and Bluebaum with Vincent Keymer. I think both of these players deserve to qualify.

Vincent, especially — it’s just really, really insane that he’s not playing. In some ways, I’d even say he’s probably been the best player in the last 12 months, other than Magnus.”

The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 will take place from March 28 to April 16, at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus. Magnus Carlsen voluntarily declined participation in the Candidates, which allowed Hikaru Nakamura (2810) to qualify for the event via second-place position on the FIDE rating list. Matthias Bluebaum (2698) qualified by finishing 2nd at the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025, and Andrey Esipenko (2698) by finishing 3rd at the FIDE World Chess Cup 2025.

Credit: Lennart Ootes