FIDE has published the results of the draw for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026. The draw took place in Cyprus at the Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort on February 19 for both the Open and Women’s tournaments.

Each participant received a unique number from 1 to 8, which determines the order in which they will play the Double Round-Robin System. Pairs of the 1st out of 14 round are:

FIDE Candidates:

• Javokhir Sindarov vs Andrey Esipenko
• Matthias Bluebaum vs Wei Yi
• Praggnanandhaa R vs Anish Giri
• Fabiano Caruana vs Hikaru Nakamura

FIDE Women’s Candidates:

• Divya Deshmukh vs Humpy Koneru
• Vaishali Rameshbabu vs Bibisara Assaubayeva
• Aleksandra Goryachkina vs Kateryna Lagno
• Zhu Jiner vs Tan Zhongyi

The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 will decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The event runs from March 28 to April 16, 2026, at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus.

Credit: FIDE