The Candidates Tournaments occupy a central place in the chess calendar, as it determines the challengers for the next World Chess Championships – in the open and women’s circuits.
With only a small, elite field competing over a demanding round-robin format, every encounter carries considerable weight, and familiarity between players often plays a role. Examining head-to-head records offers a useful way to contextualise these rivalries ahead of such a decisive event.
The focus here is placed on the direct records between participants, highlighting how individual matchups have developed over time. These statistics can reveal patterns that are not immediately apparent from ratings or recent form alone.
To compile these figures efficiently, the data has been sourced using Mega Database 2026, the leading reference tool for players of all levels. With over 11.7 million games spanning from 1475 to 2026 and more than 114,000 annotated encounters, it offers a comprehensive and reliable foundation for statistical work of this kind.
In each pairing, stats have been separated in 1) classical encounters and 2) all encounters, which include rapid, blitz and chess960 games, played over the board or online.
These stats do not include the results from the games played during the first half of the Candidates Tournaments.
The premiere chess database with over 11.7 million games
The ChessBase Mega Database 2026 is the premiere chess database with over 11.7 million games from 1475 to 2025 in high quality.
Open – Round ten
Hikaru Nakamura has a major edge over Anish Giri in games across all formats, while most of their classical games ended drawn.
There is no record of Wei Yi ever obtaining a win over Fabiano Caruana. Furthermore, Caruana won three of the five games they played against each other. Caruana once again defeated in their round-three encounter in Cyprus.
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu has a slight edge over Javokhir Sindarov both in classical games and in their overall record. However, Sindarov defeated Pragg in their first confrontation at this event.
Matthias Bluebaum and Andrey Esipenko only played two classical games prior to their round-three encounter in Cyprus (draw). Bluebaum beat Esipenko with black at the 2016 Aeroflot Open.
Hikaru Nakamura v. Anish Giri
Classical chess confrontations
Fabiano Caruana v. Wei Yi
Classical chess confrontations
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu v. Javokhir Sindarov
Classical chess confrontations
Matthias Bluebaum v. Andrey Esipenko
Classical chess confrontations
Women’s – Round ten
Kateryna Lagno has a major edge over Tan Zhongyi in their contests across all formats. The Russian GM also defeated Tan in their first confrontation in Cyprus.
Vaishali Rameshbabu and Anna Muzychuk played 10 classical games, with Vaishali winning the one encounter that ended decisively – which was played at the 2024 Women’s Candidates in Toronto.
Divya Deshmukh has never defeated Aleksandra Goryachkina as per the Mega Database records.
Bibisara Assaubayeva defeated Zhu Jiner in round three, evening the overall score in their head-to-head record in classical chess.
Tan Zhongyi v. Kateryna Lagno
Classical chess confrontations
Vaishali Rameshbabu v. Anna Muzychuk
Classical chess confrontations
Aleksandra Goryachkina v. Divya Deshmukh
Classical chess confrontations
Zhu Jiner v. Bibisara Assaubayeva
Classical chess confrontations
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