The 2026 Candidates Tournament was held in Madrid from April 3 to 24, 2026, at the Palacio de Santoña. The eight participants — five qualified through the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in Samarkand and the 2025 World Cup in Goa, two by FIDE rating, and one as a wildcard — played a double round-robin to decide who would challenge Gukesh Dommaraju for the world title in 2027.
The classical format used was the same as previous Candidates: 14 rounds at classical time control (90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus 30 seconds increment per move from move one). No draws by agreement before move 30 — the rule introduced to discourage short pre-arranged draws and one of FIDE’s most consequential reforms of the post-2020 cycle.
The Candidates is the most prestigious non-championship event in chess. Every player who has held the world title since the FIDE era began has done so by winning a Candidates or its equivalent. Recent winners include Ian Nepomniachtchi (2020, 2022) and Gukesh Dommaraju (2024) — the latter at age seventeen, the youngest Candidates winner in history.
The winner of the 2026 edition will play Gukesh in the world championship match in 2027 (location and dates to be announced by FIDE). The format will be 14 classical games plus rapid and blitz tiebreaks if the match is tied 7–7.
For tournament results, FIDE-rated games database access, and round-by-round broadcast coverage, see the FIDE Candidates page linked in the right column.