A visit to the Candidates 2026
Alister got a selfie with Fabiano Caruana
Alister flew over to Cyprus to follow the last games of the 2026 Candidates tournament. He tells us of his experience:
“I was very excited to visit rounds 13 and 14 of the FIDE Candidates Tournament. While Javokhir Sindarov’s excellent performance had taken away the suspense in the open section, everything was still to play for in the women’s section.
The venue itself was a fancy hotel alight with chess fever. It was cool to see a lot of chess players in and around the hotel, and exchange quick hellos / I’m a big fan / congratulations on your win etc. Admittedly, it did feel a bit odd being a fan on the outside of a chess tournament looking in and not participating.
Sitting in the playing hall was very cool, justifying the purchase of the VIP ticket (standard ticket holders had to stand…). Four hours of silence, following the games as best I could, and observing the mannerisms of the players.
During round 13, due to proximity, I focused on Sindarov’s draw against Anish Giri, Kateryna Lagno’s win against Divya Deshmukh, and Fabiano Caruana game against Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, which included Fabi winning Pragg’s queen - very exciting.
Small non-play related occurrences included players tripping over the carpet - triggering five FIDE officials into action; Sindarov pacing up and down – rapid and deliberate, with a sharp, quicky executed 180-degree turn after five metres. The men wore suits, mostly with trainers, while the women were very well dressed.
After the round it was very nice of Fabi to take the time for some photos with the fans, irrespective of whether this is a contractual commitment. I still feel a bit of an idiot for asking him if he’d won (there is a 15-minute delay outside of the playing hall).
From Round 14, I mainly recall the games Pragg against Hikaru Nakamura, Giri against Matthias Bluebaum, and Lagno against Vaishali Rameshbabu. In Vaishali’s game, I liked 11.Bc4! and 40.c4! The latter played with one minute or so remaining. It was difficult to experience Bluebaum’s reaction after Giri played 15.Nd4. In Pragg’s game, I naively thought that he had won Hikaru’s queen, only to watch Pragg forced to give up his and to learn later from Hikaru’s recap that it was all still preparation. Not bad. A lighthearted moment occurred when Divya, returning to her board, got boards mixed up and almost sat down in Sindarov’s chair.
A big shoutout to Hikaru, the man finishes his game, signs his player’s lanyard, and gives it to me – very kind. Naturally quite a surprise and a nice gesture. I remain shocked that such an idea would come to someone after playing 14 rounds. (And no, I wasn’t sitting there with a “football-style” piece of cardboard with the hand-written plea “Please – Hikaru – give me your shirt!”).
Sindarov’s last round five-minute draw resulted in his “meet and greet” – clearly stated within the FIDE agenda as occurring after 20:00 – taking place at 18:00; naturally, sitting in the playing hall, I was oblivious to this! Alas – a selfie with Sindarov will have to wait!
Overall, I had a good time. During the week I had a bit of time to reflect on what’s important, if the Candidates Tournament is anything to go by then it’s either 1.c4, 1.d4 or 1.Nf3.”
