--- title: "Candidates Tournament in chess" url: "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/candidates-tournament.md" canonical_url: "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/candidates-tournament" last_updated: "2026-11-07" type: "reference" summary: "The Candidates Tournament is the FIDE event, played by eight qualifiers. Think of the Candidates as the last gate before the championship match." related: ["https://georgelichess.com/glossary/world-chess-championship.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/double-round-robin.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/tiebreak.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/round-robin.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/invitational-tournament.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary/category/tournaments-ratings-titles.md", "https://georgelichess.com/glossary.md"] --- # Candidates Tournament in chess > **For AI agents:** the complete index of GeorgeLiChess pages is [llms.txt](https://georgelichess.com/llms.txt). Every page is also served as markdown at its URL plus .md. The Candidates Tournament is the FIDE event, played by eight qualifiers. Think of the Candidates as the last gate before the championship match. The Candidates Tournament is the FIDE event, played by eight qualifiers, whose winner becomes the challenger in the next World Championship match against the reigning champion. Think of the Candidates as the last gate before the championship match. Eight players arrive and only the winner goes on to face the champion. FIDE's cycle chart shows the feeders: the World Cup, the Grand Prix series and the Grand Swiss lead into this event, and how many places each one sends is set in the regulations for that edition. A parallel Women's Candidates Tournament exists for the women's title. The 2026 regulations use a [double round robin](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/double-round-robin.md) of 14 rounds, so each player meets every rival twice, once with each color. A win scores a point and a draw half a point. The long format rewards stamina and preparation against seven specific opponents, and a bad round can be repaired later. If players finish level on first place, the winner is found by a play-off of faster games in up to three stages, not by a [calculation](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/calculation.md). Ties for other places are separated by the criteria listed in the regulations, which include the results between the tied players. Compare double round robin, [world chess championship](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/world-chess-championship.md) and [tiebreak](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/tiebreak.md). Also called: Candidates. It sits close to [Invitational tournament](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/invitational-tournament.md). An invitational tournament is an event where the organizer chooses the participants, so entry depends on an invitation instead of a registration form and an entry fee. Rating and title terms like "Candidates Tournament" matter once you know your next step, and the [improvement plans by rating band](https://georgelichess.com/improve.md) set out a weekly routine for each rating range. ## Related terms - [World Chess Championship](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/world-chess-championship.md) - [Double round robin](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/double-round-robin.md) - [Tiebreak](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/tiebreak.md) - [Round robin](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/round-robin.md) - [Invitational tournament](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/invitational-tournament.md) ## Guides that go further - [Chess ratings explained](https://georgelichess.com/chess-ratings-explained.md): What a rating measures, how FIDE, Lichess, US Chess and chess.com compute theirs, and why the numbers differ. - [FIDE chess titles](https://georgelichess.com/titles.md): How the Candidate Master, FIDE Master, International Master and Grandmaster titles are earned, with every Handbook clause. - [How to get a FIDE rating](https://georgelichess.com/how-to-get-a-fide-rating.md): The Handbook rules for a first FIDE rating: five rated games, the 1400 floor, the two 1800 draws and a worked example. ## Sources - FIDE Handbook D.01.01 FIDE Individual World Championship Cycles (World Championship Cycle Structure), read 2026-10-21: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/D0101 - FIDE Handbook D.01.06 Regulations for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 (Articles 2.1, 4.1 and 4.4), read 2026-10-21: https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/Regulations_for_the_FIDE_Candidates_Tournament_2026.pdf [Book your first lesson](https://georgelichess.com/book.md) and George Li reviews your games and builds a study plan around them. Questions about lessons: write to hello@georgelichess.com. ## Related - [World Chess Championship](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/world-chess-championship.md) - [Double round robin in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/double-round-robin.md) - [Tiebreak in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/tiebreak.md) - [Round robin in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/round-robin.md) - [Invitational tournament in chess](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/invitational-tournament.md) - [Chess terms: Tournaments, ratings and titles](https://georgelichess.com/glossary/category/tournaments-ratings-titles.md) - [Chess terms glossary: plain definitions](https://georgelichess.com/glossary.md)