 "Hikaru Nakamura is among the favourites to win the Candidates 2026. X/FIDE")
Less than a week ahead of the beginning of the Candidates Tournament, Grandmaster and favourite Hikaru Nakamura’s latest post on X has added further concerns over the venue of the competition set to take place in Cyprus.
Candidates 2026 , which will decide who will challenge reigning world champions D Gukesh and Ju Wenjun for their titles, kicks off March 28 with the first round taking place on March 29. The prestigious event will take place in Paphos, Cyprus but there are growing concerns over the venue amid the war in West Asia between Iran and US-Israel.
In fact, a British air base in the island country was hit on March 1 raising serious question marks over whether it should be hosting the Candidates or not. FIDE has made it clear that there are no plans to shift the venue but the latest post from Nakamura has added further fuel to the concerns.
Nakamura sounds alarm over Candidates venue
Nakamura, the highest-ranked player in fray at the Candidates, posted late on Saturday (early Sunday IST) about a power outage in parts of Cyprus which went on for an “extended period of time.”
“It’s not a good sign when power goes out completely in parts of Cyprus and doesn’t come back for an extended period of time…,” the American Grandmaster wrote on X.
The warning from Nakamura carries weight as he is one of the favourites to win the open section of the event. Earlier, veteran Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy had said that she was considering withdrawing from the competition due to the security scenario in the region.
“I don’t think it makes sense to risk yourself to play one tournament,” the 38-year-old had said to Hindustan Times about her participation in the Candidates.
FIDE, however, remains confident that the situation is not dangerous and that the tournament will go ahead as planned.
“We firmly believe that the current situation provides no grounds or reasonable reasons to postpone the date or move the tournament from Cyprus. Could something happen? Possibly. But at the moment, we don’t see anything even remotely dangerous enough to consider moving it,” FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky had told ChessBase India.