FIDE Candidates 2026 prize money: How much will the winner get?

The FIDE Candidates Tournament will take place between March 28 and April 15 in Pegeia, Cyprus with eight players participating in it.

Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Fabiano Caruana (USA), Wei Yi (China), Anish Giri (The Netherlands), Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan), R. Praggnanandhaa (India), Matthias Bluebaum (Germany), and Andrey Esipenko (FIDE) will play in a double round-robin format consisting of 14 rounds.

The winner of the tournament will come up against reigning world champion D. Gukesh of India to stake a claim for the World Chess Championship title.

Here’s a look at the prize pool for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026:

As per the Regulations for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 handbook, the minimum prize fund of the tournament will amount to 700000 euros (approximately Rs. 7.60 crore).

1st place: 70,000 euros (approximately Rs. 76 lakh)

2nd place: 45,000 euros (approximately Rs. 48.8 lakh)

3rd place: 25,000 euros (approximately Rs. 27 lakh)

“All prize money shall be divided equally among the players with the equal score after 14 rounds regardless tie-break results,” the handbook says.

Moreover, each player will get 5000 euros (Rs. 5.4 lakh) for every half point scored.

Published on Mar 28, 2026