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

The FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament will take place between March 28 and April 16 in Pegeia, Cyprus with eight players participating in it.

Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), Tan Zhongyi (China), Kateryna Lagno (FIDE), Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE), Zhu Jiner (China), Divya Deshmukh (India), R. Vaishali (India), and Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) will play in a double round-robin format .

The winner of the tournament will go up against reigning world champion Ju Wenjun of China to stake a claim for the World Chess Championship title.

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

As per the Regulations for the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026 handbook, the minimum prize fund of the tournament will amount to 300000 euros (approximately Rs. 3.20 crore).

1st place: 28,000 euros (approximately Rs. 30 lakh)

2nd place: 17,000 euros (approximately Rs. 18 lakh)

3rd place: 8,600 euros (approximately Rs. 9.3 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 2200 euros (Rs. 2.39 lakh) for every half point scored.

Published on Mar 28, 2026