Women's Candidates Tournament 2026

The FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2026 is an eight-player chess tournament that will determine the challenger for the Women's World Chess Championship 2026. The tournament is taking place at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus, between 28 March and 16 April 2026. It is held alongside the Candidates Tournament 2026.

It is a double round-robin tournament. The winner of the tournament will earn the right to play the Women's World Chess Championship 2026 against the reigning Women's World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun.

The eight players to qualify to the Women's Candidates Tournament were:

Humpy Koneru withdrew a week before the tournament began, citing safety concerns in Cyprus due to the 2026 Iran war. Anna Muzychuk, the next highest scoring player in the FIDE Women's Events Series, was brought on as a replacement.

In conjunction with the Open Candidates Tournament 2026, the runner-up of the previous championship match no longer automatically qualifies, unlike any previous Women's Candidates Tournament. Instead, the 2025 match is part of the FIDE Women's Events 2024–25, a new qualification path which is a circuit that includes the 2024 and 2025 World Rapid and Blitz Championships, the Grand Prix series, the World Cup and the Grand Swiss. A player's score is the sum of her highest scores in up to 5 qualifying events.

Ranking point system for the FIDE Women's Events 2024–25

• .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{} : Qualified for Women's Candidates Tournament 2026
• : Current World Champion – ineligible for Women's Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification
• : Player qualified for Women's Candidates Tournament 2026 via another path
• : Player ineligible for Women's Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification

The tournament is an eight-player, double round-robin tournament, meaning there will be 14 rounds with each player facing each of the others twice: once with the white pieces and once with the black pieces. The tournament winner will qualify to play Ju Wenjun for the World Championship in 2026.

The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move 1. Players will get 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 points for a loss.

Tiebreaks for the first place are addressed as follows:

• If two players are tied, they will play two rapid chess games at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. If a three- to six-way tie occurs, a single round-robin will be played. If seven or eight players are tied, a single round-robin will be played with a time limit of 10 minutes plus 5 seconds per move.
• If any players are tied for first after the rapid chess games, they will play two blitz chess games at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. In the case of more than two players being tied, a single round-robin will be played.
• If any players are still tied for first after these blitz chess games, the remaining players will play a knock-out blitz tournament at the same time control. In each mini-match of the proposed knock-out tournament, the first player to win a game will win the mini-match, or if there are two draws then an armageddon game will decide the match winner.

Ties for places other than first will be broken by, in order: (1) Sonneborn–Berger score; (2) total number of wins; (3) head-to-head score among tied players; (4) drawing of lots.

The minimum prize money will be €28,000 for first place, €17,000 for second place, and €8,600 for third place (with players on the same number of points sharing prize money, irrespective of tie-breaks), plus €2,200 per half-point for every player, for a minimum total prize pool of €300,000, according to the regulations.

The Chief Arbiter for the event is Takis Nikolopoulos (Greece) with Andrew Howie (Scotland) and Ana Srebrnic (Slovakia) both acting as Deputy Chief Arbiter and Fair Play Officer.

This table shows the total number of wins minus the total number of losses each player has after each round. The symbol '=' indicates the player had won and lost the same number of games after that round. Green backgrounds indicate the player(s) with the highest score after each round. Red backgrounds indicate players who could no longer win the tournament after each round.

In February 2026, FIDE announced pairings for the tournament.

• Candidates Tournament 2026

• Women's Candidates Tournament

• Official site, FIDE

• Regulations for the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2026, FIDE