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2 min readFeb 17, 2026 06:26 PM IST
Chinese grandmaster Wei Yi at the FIDE World Cup in Goa. (Express photo by Amit Kamath)
China’s Wei Yi is certain that he is not one of the favourites to win the Candidates tournament that will be held at the Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort in Pegeia, Cyprus, between 28 March and 16 April. The winner of the eight-player Candidates will challenge Gukesh D at the World Championship later this year.
When asked about his chances of winning the Candidates tournament in a conversation with Greg Mustreader for the Chess with Mustreader channel on YouTube, China’s Wei Yi said: “To be honest, I don’t think I have great chances to win the Candidates because if you want to win the Candidates, you need extensive experience. So yeah, that’s why I think Fabi (Fabiano Caruana) and Hikaru (Nakamura), also Anigh Giri, have great chances to win the Candidates.”
Wei Yi also praised Praggnanandhaa, who will be the only Indian player at the upcoming Candidates. Pragg was also part of the last edition of the Candidates, where Gukesh won the event to earn a shot for the world champion’s crown against Ding Liren.
“Pragg has great chances to win Candidates because I think he’s an all-around chess player. He also has experience of playing in the Candidates from two years ago. That’s also very important,” Wei Yi said.
When asked to create a “tier list” for the upcoming Candidates tournament, he said: “Overall, I think Fabi and Hikaru, they’re in tier one, and Praggnanandhaa and Anish are in tier two. For the other players, I think they don’t have experience in Candidates, so that’s very important.”
INTERVIEW: Wei Yi in conversation about the Candidates
Wei Yi then put himself in tier 3 along with Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, Russia’s Andrey Esipenko and Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum.
“Players like Esipenko and Bluebaum have a lower rating (than the rest of us), but I don’t think they are weak because their performance in the previous year was quite good. So I think all of us are in tier three,” Wei Yi added.
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