The FIDE Candidates Tournaments both open and women's events take place in the Cap St Georges resort, Cyprus, Sun 29th Mar to Thu 16th Apr 2026. I would argue that this is the highlight of the entire FIDE World Championship cycle. The poor form of the current champion Gukesh has to be a major motivating factor for anyone in the open event. The event is on the periphery of the current Iran conflict and Humpy Koneru decided that she would not participate in the women's event due to the perceived danger and was at the last minute replaced by Anna Muzychuk.
Players open: Hikaru Nakamura,
Fabiano Caruana,
Anish Giri,
R Praggnanandhaa,
Javokhir Sindarov,
Andrey Esipenko,
Matthias Bluebaum and
Wei Yi.
Players: women: Tan Zhongyi,
Anna Muzychuk,
Bibisara Assaubayeva,
Aleksandra Goryachkina,
Kateryna Lagno,
Deshmukh Divya,
Rameshbabu Vaishali and
Zhu Jiner.
