MVL, “Caruana is the favorite for the Candidates, but anybody win”

Candidates Chess 2026 takes place in Paphos, Cyprus, from 28 March to 16 April 2026. It is an eight-player double round-robin, meaning each participant plays every other player twice (14 rounds total). Participants include Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, R Praggnanandhaa, Anish Giri, Wei Yi, Andrey Esipenko, Javokhir Sindarov, and Matthias Blübaum. Candidates Chess 2026 start with round 1 on March 29th. The final round is April 16th.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave says, “It is one tournament where you have to overperform. Even if you are Magnus Carlsen. Fabiano Caruana is the favorite for the Candidates, but anybody can win, anybody can do well.”

MVL is also clear that only the first place matters and we can expect the players to come with their best preparation. See the full interview with MVL here.