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 six
- Wei Yi and Javokhir Sindarov drew the two classical games they played against each other. Both of them were played in the final of the 2025 FIDE World Cup. Sindarov went on to win the event by defeating Wei in tiebreaks.
- Fabiano Caruana and Andrey Esipenko have yet to play a decisive game in classical chess. They signed draws in their three confrontations.
- Hikaru Nakamura and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu have mostly played in formats other than classical chess. Nakamura has an edge over his Indian colleague both in classical chess and across all formats.
- Though Anish Giri leads the head-to-head scoreboard against Matthias Bluebaum across all formats, Bluebaum defeated the Dutch GM in their one decisive classical encounter, played at this year's Tata Steel Masters.
Wei Yi v. Javokhir Sindarov
All confrontations
Fabiano Caruana v. Andrey Esipenko
All confrontations
Hikaru Nakamura v. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
Classical chess confrontations
Anish Giri v. Matthias Bluebaum
All confrontations
Women's - Round six
- All recorded games between Zhu Jiner and Anna Muzychuk were played in the classical format, with one win per side.
- Kateryna Lagno has a historic advantage over Vaishali Rameshbabu both in classical games and in the remaining formats.
- There is no record of Divya Deshmukh ever obtaining a win over Bibisara Assaubayeva.
- Tan Zhongyi and Aleksandra Goryachkina have each won 4 of their 19 classical chess confrontations.
Zhu Jiner v. Anna Muzychuk
Classical chess confrontations
Kateryna Lagno v. Vaishali Rameshbabu
Classical chess confrontations
Bibisara Assaubayeva v. Divya Deshmukh
All confrontations
Tan Zhongyi 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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