GM Fabiano Caruana ended his curse towards GM Hikaru Nakamura when it mattered most by battling to a six-hour win in spherical one of many 2026 FIDE Candidates Event. There have been two extra wins, with GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu stunning GM Anish Giri within the opening and following up flawlessly, whereas GM Javokhir Sindarov entered the highest 10 after tricking GM Andrey Esipenko to win a place he anticipated to lose. The one draw was between Candidates debutants GMs Matthias Bluebaum and Wei Yi.
In the meantime the 2026 FIDE Girls’s Candidates started with 4 attracts however was something however quiet. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina missed a knockout blow towards GM Kateryna Lagno, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu held on regardless of big time hassle towards GM Bibisara Assaubayeva, and GM Zhu Jiner misplayed a sport she began brilliantly towards GM Tan Zhongyi. Even the calmest sport noticed GM Anna Muzychuk fearful after being stunned early on by GM Divya Deshmukh.
Spherical two is on Monday, March 30, beginning at 8:45 a.m. ET / 14:45 CEST / 6:15 p.m. IST.
FIDE Candidates: Caruana Defeats The Prime Seed
We had an explosive begin to the FIDE Candidates Event, with just one draw.
Candidates Spherical 1 Outcomes
That meant the sphere was already cut up, with three early leaders.
Candidates Standings After Spherical 1
The current pattern in top-level classical chess has been for unimaginable combating spirit and a exceptional variety of decisive video games—virtually gone are the fast GM attracts that was a significant factor in any elite occasion. Any suspicion which may change when stakes have been highest was quickly dispelled because the FIDE Candidates started in Pegeia, Cyprus with eight combating video games. Even the primary to complete had been sharp.
Bluebaum ½-½ Wei Yi
German number-two Bluebaum’s standing as underdog has led to his reaching meme standing, with the web cheering him on to a 14/14 triumph referred to as the #GreatBluebaumSweep.
Matthias Bluebaum has secured a +0.45 benefit in sport one of many Candidates and is on tempo for 14/14.#GreatBluebaumSweep pic.twitter.com/NIGdC5inhh
— gregory conway (@gregorymconway) March 28, 2026
Alas, it did not survive spherical one, with Bluebaum telling FM Mike Klein: “It looks like I already ruined the #GreatBluebaumSweep, so now the one sweep I can do is 14 attracts as a substitute of 14 wins, however let’s see!”
“I already ruined the #GreatBluebaumSweep!”#FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/yCElRZtXLS
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 29, 2026
Bluebaum unveiled a novelty on transfer 10 and had over a one-hour lead on the clock by transfer 16, however any possibilities for a small edge slipped away, and 21…Qd7! from Wei supplied a rook sacrifice to pressure a draw. Bluebaum had nothing higher than to just accept.
That was the one draw within the Open occasion.
Sindarov 1-0 Esipenko
Earlier than this sport started, Sindarov, at 20 the youngest participant within the occasion, posted a four-leaf clover.
🍀
— Javokhir Sindarov (@GMJSindarov) March 29, 2026
That image of luck would later show apt, as after taking part in 27.Bd1 he discovered himself with six minutes to Esipenko’s 30. He later commented, “At that second I used to be pondering, OK, most likely that is my final probability. If I don’t get some possibilities, he’ll simply outplay me with none probability!”
The luck turned for Sindarov as Esipenko performed what he thought was a profitable transfer, taking up f3, solely to run into some devilish methods. Because the Uzbek World Cup winner put it: “As we speak I don’t play very nicely however after he provides me possibilities, I feel I performed actually very nicely. One way or the other I get up in the present day within the sport, as a result of earlier than I feel I’m simply sleeping and taking part in very badly!”
One way or the other I get up in the present day within the sport, as a result of earlier than I feel I am simply sleeping and taking part in very badly.
—Javokhir Sindarov
Sindarov’s play was very convincing on the finish, though there was some brinkmanship on the clock, with each gamers getting all the way down to their remaining seconds—there is not any 30 seconds added per transfer till transfer 41.
Sindarov survives a wild mutual time scramble vs. Esipenko and emerges with a totally received place! https://t.co/2NYtcyxAsl pic.twitter.com/FsyaRkG6Sl
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 29, 2026
It is solely been a 12 months and a half since Sindarov was exterior the highest 50, however he is now climbed into the highest 10 on the dwell ranking listing.
The cleanest win of the day, in the meantime, was for Praggnanandhaa.
Praggnanandhaa 1-0 Giri
It takes quite a bit to shock Giri within the opening, however that is simply what Praggnanandhaa managed to do by taking part in the Grand Prix Assault, a gap favored by membership gamers for its very simple plan of pushing the f-pawn and giving checkmate. Caveman techniques are usually unlikely to work towards a theoretician as famend because the Dutch number-one, however Giri determined to not play what he’d really helpful in his Chessable course on the Sicilian.
Pragg simply testing Giri if he is aware of his personal Chessable course. However Anish deviated from his course going …exf5 as a substitute of chateau now. Good prep by Pragg! #candidates2026 #chessable pic.twitter.com/p8a0iP998k
— Niclas Huschenbeth (@GM_Huschenbeth) March 29, 2026
It wasn’t that Praggnanandhaa was profitable out of the opening, however Giri discovered himself compelled to citadel on the alternative wing to his opponent. His place was shaky, although tantalizingly near equality for a lot of the sport till issues fell aside within the run-up to the time management. Praggnanandhaa did not put a foot flawed and brilliantly transformed his benefit when given the prospect.
Probably the most anticipated sport of the day, in the meantime, did not disappoint.
Caruana 1-0 Nakamura
This all-U.S. conflict had been traumatic for Caruana within the final couple of years, as he’d misplaced 5 of their final 12 classical video games. He tried one thing new, going for 1.Nf3, and though Nakamura mentioned he wasn’t caught off-guard, he did initially drop behind on the clock. When Caruana started to deplete time, nonetheless, it felt like this may be one other day when the “curse” of Nakamura strikes once more.
Nakamura felt he was affected by the actual fact it was the primary sport of the occasion, commenting in his recap: “As a result of it’s the primary spherical, I actually needed to attempt to steer the sport towards one thing that I felt was quite a bit calmer. On reflection, this was a mistake. I ought to have tried to maintain the sport as sharp as doable.”
I ought to have tried to maintain the sport as sharp as doable.
—Hikaru Nakamura
As a substitute Nakamura stumbled right into a troublesome endgame the place, as within the Praggnanandhaa sport, it was an advancing h-pawn that was a thorn in his aspect.
The sport end result wasn’t inevitable, nonetheless, as Caruana additionally erred simply because the end line was approaching, which was why he described his feelings afterward as, “Principally drained, a bit of embarrassed as nicely, however pleased, general!” 80…Kc7! would doubtless have saved the day for Nakamura, however as a substitute he made what he known as the “horrible, horrible mistake” of 80…Ke7?. As quickly as 81.Kc6! appeared on the board, he realized what he’d carried out, however it was too late.
Hikaru appears to comprehend he missed an enormous probability to play 80…Kc7! as a substitute of 80…Ke7? #FIDECandidates pic.twitter.com/gGkSItOBiM
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 29, 2026
Caruana had seen the saving transfer however mirrored, “I didn’t actually have time to sweat it—he performed it instantly!”
That epic conflict is our Sport of the Day, which GM Dejan Bojkov has analyzed beneath.
Nakamura will get Black in a second sport in a row, this time towards Esipenko, whereas Sindarov would be the solely profitable participant to get White once more in spherical two, when he faces Bluebaum.
FIDE Candidates Spherical 2 Pairings
FIDE Girls’s Candidates: Preventing Attracts
On the floor, spherical one of many FIDE Girls’s Candidates regarded quiet, however the 4 attracts have been something however.
Girls’s Candidates Spherical 1 Outcomes
There was one very clear profitable probability within the ladies’s occasion, and it got here for 2019 Girls’s Candidates winner Goryachkina. If she’d performed 24.Rxe5! she would have received on the spot towards her countrywoman Lagno.
The following clearest probability, at the least on the board, was for prime seed Zhu, whose 15.f4!! was a superb piece sacrifice, with the purpose that if the knight is captured, the g4-bishop will get trapped.
That truly occurred within the sport, however Zhu missed the best second to seize, and Tan even got here near taking on earlier than the sport led to a draw.
A curious distinction with the Girls’s Candidates is that there is a 30-second increment earlier than transfer 40, so that point hassle needs to be a lot much less extreme, however in reality it was Vaishali who obtained into probably the most hassle of anybody all day. In a really troublesome place towards Assaubayeva, she obtained all the way down to eight seconds earlier than taking part in the necessary transfer 28.Nc4!.
Assaubayeva, whose hopes have been linked extra to her opponent’s clock than the “very onerous to guage place,” took that as a sign to steer an enchanting sport towards a draw.
The remaining draw by no means actually caught hearth, however Anna Muzychuk, a late alternative for GM Koneru Humpy, was content material after being stunned by Divya’s 12.Bh3!? in a Scotch. “I’m glad with the outcome as a result of I didn’t have possibilities for extra and it could possibly be worse!” reasoned Muzychuk.
That left all eight gamers on half a degree within the Girls’s Candidates as they go right into a spherical two that features the all-Indian Divya vs. Vaishali conflict.
FIDE Girls’s Candidates: Spherical 2 Pairings
Who will strike first within the event?
You may watch the 2026 FIDE Candidates Event on Chess24’s YouTube and Twitch channels. The video games will also be adopted from our Occasions Web page.
The FIDE Candidates Event is crucial FIDE event of the 12 months. Within the Open and Girls’s occasions, eight gamers play one another twice for the best to problem the FIDE World Champions Gukesh Dommaraju and Ju Wenjun to a match for the title.
Earlier protection:
