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.
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 two
- Anish Giri has a small edge over Fabiano Caruana both in classical games and in all their encounters (including rapid and blitz). Moreover, Caruana has never defeated Giri with black in a classical game.
- Andrey Esipenko has never beat Hikaru Nakamura in a classical game, though they have only faced each other five times in this format.
- Wei Yi has a clear edge over Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu in their games across all formats. However, their three classical encounters have ended drawn.
- Javokhir Sindarov recently defeated Matthias Bluebaum (with black) at their first-ever classical encounter in Wjik aan Zee.
Anish Giri v. Fabiano Caruana
Classical chess confrontations
Andrey Esipenko v. Hikaru Nakamura
Classical chess confrontations
Wei Yi v. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
Classical chess confrontations
Sindarov v. Bluebaum
All confrontations
Women's - Round two
- Anna Muzychuk and Tan Zhongyi have a long record of classical encounters in important tournaments, starting with games at the under-10 and under-12 World Championships. Notably, Tan beat Muzychuk in the final match of the 2017 Women's World Championship knockout. They faced each other twice in the Women's FIDE World Cup as well -Muzychuk won their 2023 match.
- There is no record of Kateryna Lagno and Zhu Jiner playing a draw, with five confrontations found in the database.
- Despite having a plus in games across all formats, Vaishali Rameshbabu has never defeated Divya Deshmukh in a classical game. Deshmukh twice beat her compatriot in classical games.
- Aleksandra Goryachkina defeated Bibisara Assaubayeva with black in their last classical encounter, played in Monaco in 2025.
Anna Muzychuk v. Tan Zhongyi
Classical chess confrontations
Kateryna Lagno v. Zhu Jiner
All confrontations
Divya Deshmukh v. Vaishali Rameshbabu
All confrontations
Bibisara Assaubayeva v. Aleksandra Goryachkina
Classical chess confrontations
EXPAND YOUR CHESS HORIZONS
Data, plans, practice – 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 ’26, 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.
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