Openings › World Chess Championship 2026
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World Chess Championship 2026: Schedule and Player Openings
With club results by Lichess rating
72.5%
of Sindarov's White games opened 1.e4 · Lichess broadcasts, Jan 2024 to Sep 2026
182 of 251! Sindarov's 1.e4 habit. Gukesh: 106 of 229 (46.3%).
Announced The match is scheduled for 22 November to 12 December 2026 in Geneva. Game 1: Tuesday 24 November 2026, 3:00 pm. FIDE's regulations give this time without a time zone; we read it as Geneva time. Source: FIDE, checked 6 Oct 2026.
With White, Gukesh opened 1.e4 in 106 of 229 broadcast games and Sindarov in 182 of 251 (Lichess broadcast files, Jan 2024 to Sep 2026).
Game 1: Tuesday 24 November 2026, 3:00 pm in Geneva. FIDE's regulations give 3:00 pm without a time zone; we read it as Geneva time (14:00 UTC).
Scheduled to start in …
Follow the match
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The calendar entries carry no results and no player names. Result alerts are not offered: this site has no channel for them.
What they played
What they played in Lichess broadcast games (files Jan 2024 to Sep 2026). Each bar is the share of that player's games.
Game data: Lichess broadcasts · CC BY-SA 4.0
Their most-reached position, in club games
Of the openings that have a page here, the position their games reached most often is the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5): 138 of 954 games. How club players score from that position:
| Lichess rating | White's score | Black's score | Club games |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1200 | 48.5% | 51.5% | 2,885 |
| 1200–1499 | 49.8% | 50.2% | 7,048 |
| 1500–1799 | 51.0% | 49.0% | 12,780 |
| 1800–2099 | 50.7% | 49.3% | 13,061 |
| 2100+ | 50.4% | 49.6% | 6,723 |
Game data: Lichess broadcasts · CC BY-SA 4.0
The two players' openings
- Gukesh's openings with White and Black: 452 broadcast games. Most frequent family with White: Sicilian Defense (31 games). With Black: Ruy Lopez (31 games).
- Sindarov's openings with White and Black: 502 broadcast games. Most frequent family with White: Italian Game (64 games). With Black: Ruy Lopez (37 games).
Game data: Lichess broadcasts · CC BY-SA 4.0
Openings in the title matches since 2021
In the 43 games of the 2021, 2023 and 2024 title matches (4 of them tie-break games), the Ruy Lopez came up most often: 11 times, in 2 of the 3 matches. See every game and opening of the 2021, 2023 and 2024 matches.
Game data: Lichess broadcasts · CC BY-SA 4.0
Schedule
All dates come from FIDE's match regulations and FIDE's article of 14 September 2026. Every game starts at 3:00 pm. FIDE's regulations give 3:00 pm without a time zone; we read it as Geneva time (14:00 UTC).
| Date | What | Start | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Nov 2026 | Opening ceremony | time not announced | |
| 24 Nov 2026 | Game 1 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | |
| 25 Nov 2026 | Game 2 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | |
| 26 Nov 2026 | Game 3 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | |
| 27 Nov 2026 | Free day | — | |
| 28 Nov 2026 | Game 4 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | |
| 29 Nov 2026 | Game 5 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | |
| 30 Nov 2026 | Game 6 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | |
| 1 Dec 2026 | Free day | — | |
| 2 Dec 2026 | Game 7 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | |
| 3 Dec 2026 | Game 8 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | |
| 4 Dec 2026 | Game 9 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | only if the match is still open |
| 5 Dec 2026 | Free day | — | |
| 6 Dec 2026 | Game 10 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | only if the match is still open |
| 7 Dec 2026 | Game 11 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | only if the match is still open |
| 8 Dec 2026 | Game 12 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | only if the match is still open |
| 9 Dec 2026 | Free day | — | |
| 10 Dec 2026 | Game 13 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | only if the match is still open |
| 11 Dec 2026 | Game 14 | 3:00 pm (14:00 UTC) | only if the match is still open |
| 12 Dec 2026 | Tie-breaks | time not announced | only if the score is level after 14 games |
No game may be postponed. The schedule may change only with the approval of the FIDE President. A player who reaches 7.5 points takes the match, and no further games are played. The earliest this can happen is after game 8 (our own arithmetic).
Format
- Games: at most 14 classical games.
- Time control: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds added per move from move 41.
- Tie-breaks: if the score is level after 14 games, on Saturday 12 December 2026, time not announced. Four games at 15 minutes + 10 seconds per move; if still level, two games at 10 minutes + 5 seconds; then two games at 3 minutes + 2 seconds; then single games at 3 minutes + 2 seconds until one has a decisive result.
- Place: Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cologny, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Official name: Salesforce FIDE World Championship Match 2026.
Sources: Regulations for the FIDE World Championship Match 2026 (PDF) and FIDE's article of 14 September 2026 on the schedule and format, checked 6 Oct 2026.
Games
No game has been played yet. This page shows finished games only: it never shows the moves of a game that is being played.
Where to follow the games
- Official match website (FIDE)
- FIDE's article of 14 September 2026 on the schedule and format
- Regulations for the FIDE World Championship Match 2026 (PDF)
FIDE holds the rights to live transmission of the games on the internet (regulations, article 7.3). Broadcast partners had not been announced when we checked on 6 Oct 2026.
Sources and credits
Game data: Lichess broadcast database, monthly files Jan 2024 to Sep 2026, licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes by Chess Opening Scores: we selected the two players' games by the FIDE id in the data, kept finished standard games, counted openings and first moves, and added opening names and ECO codes from the free Lichess opening list and club statistics. The sections marked "Game data: Lichess broadcasts" are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Opening names: lichess-org/chess-openings (CC0), matched by position. Club statistics: Lichess open database (CC0), 456,087 rated games from the Sep 2026 sample; they belong to the opening position named above each table.
Player data: names and game results as published in the Lichess broadcast. To ask for a correction or removal, write to contact@chessopeningscores.com.