The opening round of the FIDE Candidates Tournament next month will feature several key clashes with the draw finalised yesterday in Cyprus.
The opening matches will see an intriguing the all-American encounter between Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, a matchup with deep Candidates history, and the two rating favourites of the event.
The matchup between the Indian duo of Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Anish Giri brings together two of the most theoretically prepared and solid players in the field.
The draw also sees Javokhir Sindarov and Andrey Esipenko squaring off, a match-up between two of the youngest participants in a direct generational contest.
Matthias Bluebaum and Wei Yi complete the Round 1 lineup in a meeting between two players making their Candidates debut.
The winner of the tournament will earn the right to play the World Chess Championship against the reigning World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju.
With colors reversed, the same pairings will be repeated in Round 8, and the Berger tables schedule several decisive encounters late in the event.
The FIDE Women’s Candidates draw will see three players from India, two from China, and two representing FIDE.
The first round will see Zhu Jiner facing former Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi while Aleksandra Goryachkina meets long-time rival Kateryna Lagno.
Vaishali Rameshbabu takes on Bibisara Assaubayeva in a matchup between two of the youngest players in the field.
The round is completed by the meeting between Humpy Koneru and Divya Deshmukh, pairing one of the most experienced players in the tournament with one of its newest participants.
The winner of the tournament will earn the right to play the Women’s World Chess Championship against the reigning Women’s World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun.
