Candidates Round 9: Giri 1.5 Points Behind Sindarov, Zhu and Vaishali Lead

About the Candidates and What's at Stake?

The Candidates tournament is an eight-player double round robin whose winner earns the right to challenge the reigning world champion in a world championship match. Historically, the Candidates was an elimination knockout tournament, but since 2013, it has been conducted as a double round robin with eight players.

Lichess Coverage

Lichess will produce in-depth blog posts with annotations for each round of the 2026 FIDE Candidates. GM Axel Bachmann (@ABachmann) will annotate R1–7 and GM Maksim Chigaev (@Fandorine96) R8–14 + potential tiebreaks from the Open Candidates, while WGM Petra Papp (@cukus) will annotate R1–4, IM / WGM Lilit Mkrtchian (@Lilit-Mkrtchian) R5–7, and IM / WGM Ekaterina Atalik (@EkaterinaAtalik) R8–14 + potential tiebreaks from the Women's Candidates. Lichess will also create videos for each round of the tournament, with interviews and other types of content. Keep an eye on our socials for the videos!

Tournament Schedule

Pairings for Round 10

Open:

Women's:

Interviews

Make sure to check out all of our interviews from the Candidates on our YouTube channel! All our round 9 interviews are also embedded throughout this article.

Lichess Broadcast

The Lichess broadcast for the Candidates can be found here:

https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-candidates-2026/oe4JqS3R

Open Leaderboard

Open Overview

GM Javokhir Sindarov's two-point lead has dwindled after his conservative draw against GM Matthias Blübaum, who was objectively lost at some points of the game, as well as GM Anish Giri's win over GM Fabiano Caruana. Meanwhile, GM R Praggnanandhaa drew after having been objectively winning against GM Wei Yi, while GM Hikaru Nakamura grinded a long game against GM Andrey Esipenko, ultimately drawing in the end.

GM Matthias Blübaum vs. GM Javokhir Sindarov 1/2-1/2

Watch our interview with GM Matthias Blübaum here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBCMq2SH2A

Watch our interview with GM Javokhir Sindarov here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUtEpPAkdpk

Despite the tournament situation and GM Javokhir Sindarov's hot streak, GM Matthias Blübaum commendably did not shy away from a fight today. In contrast to Blübaum's quieter approach early on in the tournament, Blübaum started off by playing a very sharp, gambit-style line of the Queen's Gambit Declined. The game proceeded to become even more exciting as Blübaum castled queenside, which was Stockfish 18's top recommendation at depth 44. After an inaccurate but rather enticing plan from Blübaum, Sindarov was better and in fact winning after further imprecision by Blübaum. However, perhaps due to the powerful specter of pragmatism, Sindarov did not go for a possible winning attempt, instead liquidating into a slightly better rook endgame. The rook endgame was not without its intrigue, but Blübaum was ultimately precise enough to hold the draw.

GM Maksim Chigaev has annotated this game for you to learn from:

GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Anish Giri 0-1

GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Anish Giri; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

GM Fabiano Caruana, who was still in contention for the first place spot at the start of today's round, is now nearly assuredly out of the race following his loss to GM Anish Giri. Caruana's preparation in the Italian Opening did not land well against Giri, who navigated the resulting position very well and had no issues out of the opening. Caruana proceeded to take several committal and anti-positional decisions, which Giri was able to exploit. However, on move 37, Giri allowed Caruana a chance to come back into the game; Caruana did not capitalize on said change, though, and he had to resign on move 43 after an aesthetically pleasing tactical find by Giri.

GM Maksim Chigaev has annotated this game for you to learn from:

GM R Praggnanandhaa vs. GM Wei Yi 1/2-1/2

GM R Praggnanandhaa vs. GM Wei Yi; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

GM R Praggnanandhaa found a good try against the ever solid and quite drawish Semi-Tarrasch Defense, achieving a playable position against GM Wei Yi. The position was equal for a while, but Praggnanandhaa increased the pressure with intimations of a kingside attack. Wei reacted poorly and was soon objectively lost, but the position remained complicated, and after one long think on move 42, Praggnanandhaa failed to find the best move and blundered into equality.

GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Andrey Esipenko 1/2-1/2

GM Hikaru Nakamura vs. GM Andrey Esipenko; photo: Niki Riga / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

GM Hikaru Nakamura, despite being the oldest participant in the field, remains highly energetic and ready to pursue any minute advantage to a maximum degree. In today's game against GM Andrey Esipenko, Nakamura had an early pull in the endgame, which quickly arose on the board after mass piece trades. Nakamura was never winning, but Esipenko's position was always unpleasant to handle, so while both players may feel ambivalent about the game, it was ultimately a very correct game of chess.

Women's Leaderboard

Women's Overview

GM Zhu Jiner and GM Vaishali Rameshbabu are now in the joint lead on 5.5/9 after winning two one-sided games against GM Kateryna Lagno and GM Divya Deshmukh, respectively. GM Anna Muzychuk was nearly winning against GM Tan Zhongyi, but failed to convert, while GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and GM Bibisara Assaubayeva played a quiet draw.

GM Zhu Jiner vs. GM Kateryna Lagno 1-0

GM Zhu Jiner vs. GM Kateryna Lagno; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

Just like in round 5, GM Zhu Jiner played another model White game, outplaying GM Kateryna Lagno in the Zukertort Opening. Lagno's issue for the entire game was her pawn structure, and with a good knight vs. bad bishop endgame on the board, her pawns were gradually picked off, and she had to resign in short order.

IM / WGM Ekaterina Atalik has annotated this game for you to learn from:

GM Vaishali Rameshbabu vs. GM Divya Deshmukh 1-0

Watch our interview with GM Vaishali Rameshbabu here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqJveO9tgas

The usually rather calm double fianchetto setup suddenly got heated in GM Vaishali Rameshbabu's game against GM Divya Deshmukh. Indeed, Vaishali's brilliant 15. Rf2! was the prelude to tremendous activity for White. Vaishali's pieces were simply optimally placed, and with her pawns rolling down the board, Divya had to resign on move 31.

IM / WGM Ekaterina Atalik has annotated this game for you to learn from:

GM Tan Zhongyi vs. GM Anna Muzychuk 1/2-1/2

GM Tan Zhongyi vs. GM Anna Muzychuk; photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE, FIDE Candidates 2026

GM Anna Muzychuk was really close to bouncing back from yesterday's game against Divya, nearly converting a winning endgame in the Grünfeld Defense. Luckily for GM Tan Zhongyi, the best path forward was not so simple to find, and after rooks were traded off, the appearance of an opposite-colored bishop endgame left little doubt about the result of the game.

GM Aleksandra Goryachkina vs. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva 1/2-1/2

The Sicilian Defense, Nyezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Attack played in GM Aleksandra Goryachkina's game against GM Bibisara Assaubayeva was much more complex than the computer analysis graph would indicate. However, it was clear that both players were not interested in taking too many risks, so a draw was the logical conclusion of the game.

Simulations

Lichess ran 1 million simulations of round results to determine the Candidates winner. Here are our results after round 9:

Open Candidates:

Women's Candidates: