The Candidate chess tournament draws closer than we expect. It is one tournament I will be looking forward to because of how the few will be tough for both the male and female sections. This is the tournament that every chess grandmaster dreams of playing because it qualifies to become the challenger who would challenge the current world chess champion to a 12-round match for who would become the new champion. The event will take place from March 28 to April 16, at Cap St Georges Hotel & Resort near Paphos, Cyprus.

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Here is the list of the players that will be participating in the event for both the male and female sections, and how they qualified to participate in the tournament:

Male Section

No	Player	Qualification Path
1	Fabiano Caruana	2024 FIDE Circuit Winner
2	Anish Giri	2025 FIDE Grand Swiss Winner
3	Matthias Blübaum	2025 FIDE Grand Swiss Runner-up
4	Javokhir Sindarov	2025 FIDE World Cup Winner
5	Wei Yi	2025 FIDE World Cup Runner-up
6	Andrey Esipenko	2025 FIDE World Cup - 3rd place
7	R Praggnanandhaa	2025 FIDE Circuit - Winner
8	Hikaru Nakamura	Highest Average Rating (Aug 2025 – Jan 2026)

Female Section

No	Player	Qualification Path
1	Zhu Jiner	2024–25 Women’s Grand Prix - Winner
2	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2024–25 Women’s Grand Prix - Runner-up
3	Divya Deshmukh	Women’s World Cup - Winner
4	Koneru Humpy	2025 Women’s World Cup - Runner-up
5	Tan Zhongyi	2025 Women’s World Cup - 3rd place
6	Vaishali Rameshbabu	2025 Women’s Grand Swiss - Winner
7	Kateryna Lagno	2025 Women’s Grand Swiss - Runner-up
8	Bibisara Assaubayeva	Women’s Events Series / Circuit Spot

The event is a round robin with a time control of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves a player makes, then there is also 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, and the icing on the cake, a 30-second increment on each move made right from the get-go. To me, this is the strongest classical chess tournament because you do not have anything like pairing gets to favour you because you are going to play everybody, and there is no escaping that. It is also intriguing to me how every player on the list will be preparing for the event. Will they have to study every player's game and playing style? That is a lot of work, given that there are 7 other players each player has to prepare for.

Also, time would not be a problem with all the time given and the increments added. You will have to sit down on that chair and play your best chess ever if you want to stand a chance. A shoutout to Fabiano Caruana for being consistent in qualifying for the candidate most of the times and I can tell you he should be one of the players with the most qualifications. I would love to root for him but this year my favourite, Hikaru Nakamura, a will be playing so that is the player that has my full support. All the best to all the players in both the male and female section. I cannot wait!

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_{I am @samostically, a chess player and writer. I love to share the experience I have gained from different battles over the 64 squares and the knowledgeable insights from books I have read. But most importantly, I am a Midnight Owl and I founded the community Midnight Letters.}

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Thanks For Reading!