India, March 18 -- Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen have picked their favourites to win the upcoming Candidates 2026 tournament, which is scheduled to begin on March 28 in Cyprus. The tournament winner will face D Gukesh for the World C'ship.

Speaking on FIDE's YouTube channel, Anand didn't pick a favourite, but felt that Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri had a better chance of winning the tournament.

"I think Fabi (Fabiano), Hikaru (Nakamura), Anish (Giri). you know this has got to be their time, so they will have that feeling going into it that this is a chance to grab. but for the life of me I can't get around predicting someone," he said.

Anand also feels that R Praggnanandhaa has a good chance of qualifying for t...