{"id":353726,"date":"2026-03-29T13:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/353726\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T13:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:29:10","slug":"candidates-r1-head-to-head-stats-chessbase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/353726\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidates R1: Head-to-head stats | ChessBase"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

To compile these figures efficiently, the data has been sourced using Mega Database 2026<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Open – Round one
\n
\nNotably, Matthias Bluebaum and Wei Yi have no records of having faced each other, not even in blitz or rapid.
\nBy far, the contenders who have played each other the most are Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. In classical games, Nakamura has a 12-8 advantage in decisive games, while he has a much bigger advantage if we consider all games (including, of course, his speciality: online blitz), with a 112-63 score in his favour in decisive games.
\nAnish Giri has a small edge over Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu both in classical chess and in general.
\nJavokhir Sindarov and Andrey Esipenko have no record of having played a classical game before their round-one encounter in Cyprus.
\nFabiano Caruana v. Hikaru Nakamura<\/p>\n

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Classical chess confrontations<\/p>\n

Praggnanandhaa v. Anish Giri<\/p>\n

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Classical chess confrontations<\/p>\n

Javokhir Sindarov v. Andrey Esipenko<\/p>\n

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All confrontations<\/p>\n

Women’s – Round one
\n
\nVaishali Rameshbabu and Bibisara Assaubayeva have played each other much more often online, with the Kazakh representative having a small edge both in classical chess and in their confrontations overall.
\nOn the contrary, compatriots Zhu Jiner and Tan Zhongyi have mostly played classical chess and mostly in China. Tan has a major edge over her younger compatriot.
\nAleksandra Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno have quite an even record.
\nAnna Muzychuk has defeated Divya Deshmukh in their only classical encounter. They drew three times in other formats.
\nVaishali Rameshbabu v. Bibisara Assaubayeva<\/p>\n

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Classical chess confrontations<\/p>\n

Zhu Jiner v. Tan Zhongyi<\/p>\n

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Classical chess confrontations<\/p>\n

Aleksandra Goryachkina v. Kateryna Lagno<\/p>\n

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Classical chess confrontations<\/p>\n

Divya Deshmukh v. Anna Muzychuk<\/p>\n

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All confrontations<\/p>\n

EXPAND YOUR CHESS HORIZONS
Data, plans, practice \u2013 the new Opening Report In ChessBase there are always attempts to show the typical plans of an opening variation. In the age of engines, chess is much more concrete than previously thought. But amateurs in particular love openings with clear plans, see the London System. In ChessBase \u201926, three functions deal with the display of plans. The new opening report examines which piece moves or pawn advances are significant for each important variation. In the reference search you can now see on the board where the pieces usually go. If you start the new Monte Carlo analysis, the board also shows the most common figure paths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Candidates Tournaments occupy a central place in the chess calendar, as it determines the challengers for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-353726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}