Vladimir Kramnik is making headlines once again and this time it’s got to do with the upcoming Candidates Tournament. The controversial Russian chess legend has questioned world No 2 Hikaru Nakamura’s qualification for the tournament and the pathway that he chose to secure his place in the elite tournament.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Kramnik argued that American Grandmaster Nakamura had failed to compete in 40 games during the qualification period from February 2025 to January 2026. The 50-year-old argued that the Maritime Open, which had taken place in October last year in Summerside, Canada and had Nakamura among its participants, was not an eligible tournament.

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“Any tournament with players 2700+ must be registered at least 30 days before start to be rated by FIDE. Based on open source information, Maritime open wasn’t,” Kramnik wrote in the post on X.

“That means the tournament shouldn’t be counted for rating, unless, in accordance with FIDE regulations, it wasn’t decided otherwise by FIDE President.

“This is the reason (Sergey) Karjakin was excluded from the list this month, exactly because of this regulation,” he added.

Important, I suddenly realised, there is an issue with forthcoming Candidates. According to FIDE regulations, seemingly Abdusattorov must replace Nakamura, based on following articles of FIDE official regulations:

1. Qualification place (rating) goes to a player with highest… pic.twitter.com/gBjBXWI3Kv

— Vladimir Kramnik (@VBkramnik) March 3, 2026

Kramnik further argued that since Nakamura was not eligible and Fabiano Caruana – the highest-ranked player behind him in the rating pathway – had already secured his qualification earlier, the spot should instead go to Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Kramnik added that the young Uzbekistani Grandmaster – currently ranked fifth in the world – as someone who “deserves ten times more anyways”, with regards to the ratings spot.

Why Kramnik’s argument against Nakamura doesn’t work

The reason why Kramnik’s argument doesn’t work in this case is due to the fact FIDE approval for a tournament can be secured after the tournament has already taken place, and doesn’t necessarily need to be secured before the action gets underway.

The Lausanne-based governing body for the sport, after all, explicitly allows tournaments to be counted for the ratings pathway if approved by the FIDE president – the post that is currently occupied by Arkady Dvorkovich.

Kramnik has been criticised for his statements in the past, particularly for his controversial anti-cheating crusade in which he had leveled cheating accusations against a number of players
including the late Daniel Naroditsky. And his argument against Nakamura could end up being viewed in similar light.

The Candidates Tournament, which will decide the challenger to D Gukesh for the FIDE World Championship, takes place in Cyprus from 28 March to 15 April.