Kasparov on the Candidates 2026, “The history of classical chess was over with Magnus”

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. Live games start with round 1 on March 29th. The final round is April 16th. The winner of the Candidates will play with Gukesh at the World Chess Championship 2026.

Asked about the Candidates, Garry Kasparov replied, “With all due respect, the Candidates and the challenger do not really matter. […] The history of classical chess was over with Magnus . For me the World Champion should be the best player in the world.”