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[shatranjlive]

The Candidates Tournament 2026 Starts TODAY — Here's Why Chess Fans Are Losing It

The most important chess tournament of the year just kicked off in Paphos, Cyprus and the lineup is absolutely stacked.

What's the Candidates Tournament?

It's basically the playoff bracket to decide who challenges Gukesh Dommaraju for the World Chess Championship title. Eight players in the Open section, eight in the Women's — round robin, 14 rounds, no mercy.

The Open field is ridiculous:

Fabiano Caruana (back again, always dangerous)

Praggnanandhaa R (19 years old, already a Candidates veteran)

Hikaru Nakamura (the content king meets serious chess)

Nodirbek Abdusattorov (rapid world champion, now gunning for classical)

Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan's rising star)

Wei Yi (China's prodigy finally hitting his peak)

Alexei Sarana (the dark horse nobody's counting out)

Volodar Murzin (youngest in the field at 18)

The Women's field is equally fire:

Tan Zhongyi, Nurgyul Salimova, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Lei Tingjie, Vaishali R, and Divya Deshmukh

India has THREE players across both sections. That's never happened before.

Where to follow: I've been using Shatranj Live for live standings — it pulls FIDE data in real time and the interface is clean. They also published a complete guide to the Candidates that breaks down every player, the format, tiebreaks, everything.

If you want the round-by-round pairings, this breakdown has the full schedule mapped out. For the Indian chess fans — there's a dedicated India at the Candidates piece covering Pragg, Gukesh's reign, Vaishali, and Divya's paths.

My prediction? Caruana or Pragg in the Open. Goryachkina in the Women's. But honestly this field is so deep that anyone calling it confidently is lying.

Buckle up, it's going to be a wild three weeks.

[shatranjlive]

okay so let me tell you about move 55.

it's December 12, 2024. Singapore. The World Chess Championship is tied 6.5 - 6.5. One game left. Whoever wins this game becomes World Champion.

The position is completely drawn. Every engine on earth says draw. Every grandmaster watching says draw. The game has been going for hours and it's going to end in a draw and everyone is exhausted.

Then Ding Liren — the reigning World Champion — plays Rf2.

It's a mistake. Not an obvious one. You wouldn't see it. I wouldn't see it. Most grandmasters watching didn't see it instantly.

Gukesh saw it.

He sat there for a moment. Then he started calculating. And somewhere in those calculations he realized: this is it. This is the winning move. This position that was a draw sixty seconds ago is now a win. Right now. For me.

He is 18 years old.

He finds the continuation. He trades into a king and pawn endgame and plays every move correctly for the next 30+ moves.

On move 58, Ding resigns.

Gukesh puts his face in his hands and cries.

He is the youngest World Chess Champion in history. He broke a record that stood for 39 years. And it happened because on one move, in a drawn position, he saw something and he stayed calm and he did not miss it.

In Chennai it was midnight. His father — who had quit his surgical career a decade earlier to support Gukesh full time — watched it happen.

I think about that a lot.

The next chapter starts March 29. The 2026 Candidates Tournament determines who challenges Gukesh for the title — including Praggnanandhaa, his childhood training partner from Chennai.

Follow every round live at shatranj.live