Indian players at FIDE Candidates 2026: Pairings, schedule for Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali and Divya
The FIDE Candidates Tournament will take place between March 28 and April 16 in Pegeia, Cyprus, in both open and women’s category.
The competition is will determine the challengers for the World Championship and Women’s World Championship titles.
India will have three representatives at the tournament. R Praggnanandhaa will be the sole Indian in the open category, while Divya Deshmukh and R Vaishali will be the female representatives. Koneru Humpy withdrew from the tournament last week citing safety issues following the conflict in West Asia.
Pairings and schedule for all the Indian representatives at the FIDE Candidates 2026 tournament
OPEN
Round 1
R Praggnanandhaa – Anish Giri (March 29)
Round 2
Wei Yi – R Praggnanandhaa (March 30)
Round 3
R Praggnanandhaa – Javokhir Sindarov (March 31)
Round 4
Matthias Bluebaum – R Praggnanandhaa (April 1)
Round 5
R Praggnanandhaa – Andrey Esipenko (April 3)
Round 6
Hikaru Nakamura – R Praggnanandhaa (April 4)
Round 7
R Praggnanandhaa – Fabiano Caruana (April 5)
Round 8
Anish Giri – R Praggnanandhaa (April 7)
Round 9
R Praggnanandhaa – Wei Yi (April 8)
Round 10
Javokhir Sindarov – R Praggnanandhaa (April 9)
Round 11
R Praggnanandhaa – Matthias Bluebaum (April 11)
Round 12
Andrey Esipenko – R Praggnanandhaa (April 12)
Round 13
Fabiano Caruana – R Praggnanandhaa (April 14)
Round 14
R Praggnanandhaa – Hikaru Nakamura (April 15)
WOMEN’S
Round 1
Divya Deshmukh – Anna Muzychuk (March 29)
R Vaishali – Bibisara Assaubayeva (March 29)
Round 2
Divya Deshmukh – R Vaishali (March 30)
Round 3
R Vaishali – Anna Muzychuk (March 31)
Aleksandra Goryachkina – Divya Deshmukh (March 31)
Round 4
Divya Deshmukh – Zhu Jiner (April 1)
R Vaishali – Aleksandra Goryachkina (April 1)
Round 5
Zhu Jiner – R Vaishali (April 3)
Tan Zhongyi – Divya Deshmukh (April 3)
Round 6
Kateryna Lagno – Vaishali R (April 4)
Bibisara Assaubayeva – Divya Deshmukh (April 4)
Round 7
Divya Deshmukh – Kateryna Lagno (April 5)
R Vaishali – Tan Zhongyi (April 5)
Round 8
Anna Muzychuk – Divya Deshmukh (April 7)
Bibisara Assaubayeva – R Vaishali (April 7)
Round 9
R Vaishali – Divya Deshmukh (April 8)
Round 10
Anna Muzychuk – R Vaishali (April 9)
Divya Deshmukh – Aleksandra Goryachkina (April 9)
Round 11
Zhu Jiner – Divya Deshmukh (April 1)
Aleksandra Goryachkina – R Vaishali (April 11)
Round 12
R Vaishali – Zhu Jiner (April 12)
Divya Deshmukh – Tan Zhongyi (April 12)
Round 13
Kateryna Lagno – Divya Deshmukh (April 14)
Tan Zhongyi – R Vaishali (April 14)
Round 14
R Vaishali – Kateryna Lagno (April 15)
Divya Deshmukh – Bibisara Assaubayeva (April 15)
Published on Mar 29, 2026