The flight from India to Cyprus was meant to carry three. Instead, it carried two. When Koneru Humpy made the difficult choice to withdraw from the Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026, prioritising safety, the equation suddenly changed for Divya Deshmukh and R Vaishali, who boarded the flight to Cyprus regardless.

With a war raging in the Middle East, not too far from the Mediterranean Island, Humpy faced a choice that no athlete should have to make. For Humpy, who had found a second wind in her career and was pushing for the ultimate glory through another appearance in the Candidates, the decision came at a significant price. She has been replaced by Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk as FIDE is determined to continue with the tournament at the same venue in the same country.

While the Cyprus Chess Federation has defended the security of the country, pointing to its stability even amid regional tensions but the new reality is that Humpy’s absence shifts the weight of Indian hopes onto two young shoulders.

Divya Deshmukh arrives with momentum. Her breakout year in 2025 saw her storm through the FIDE Women’s World Cup as a 19-year-old, a triumph that also earned her the Grandmaster title. She became only the fourth female GM from India, and with that achievement came expectation. Hopes are high on Divya, and voices have already begun speculating that she could become India’s first women’s world champion. For a player still in her teens, the Candidates could feel like an intimidating leap.

What she can draw upon are the campaigns of Vaishali and her brother R Praggnanandhaa. Both played this World Championship challenger event early in their careers, and their maiden appearances came with equal measures of lows and highs. If the young woman from Nagpur can head into the tournament with a free mind, her game possesses the quality to take her very far.

For a momentum-heavy player like Vaishali, a great start would define everything. She had a tournament of two halves in 2024: after dropping four games by the ninth round, she mounted a resounding fightback, scoring five wins in the final five rounds to eventually tie for second place. But second place does not matter in the Candidates. All that matters is winning it all.

Winning it all is something Russian hope Aleksandra Goryachkina knows well. She won the 2019 Women’s Candidates with two rounds to spare, obliterating the field to earn the right to challenge Ju Wenjun. In the 2020 women’s world championship, Goryachkina pushed Ju to the limits, tying 6-6 after the classical rounds, but lost in the tiebreak.

With Goryachkina, you can associate consistency. She is world champion material who almost bagged the title, and she knows it. In a field as open as Cyprus, the Russian, who comes from the chess family, would fancy her chances of taking revenge on Ju by first winning Candidates for the second time.

The biggest roadblock for Goryachkina and the rest of the field will be defending champion China’s Tan Zhongyi. The Chinese grandmaster was an unstoppable force in Toronto but imploded in the world championship match against her compatriot Ju. Nonetheless, Tan remains one of the big favourites alongside Wenjun. Her repertoire is one of the most aggressive and varied in the field, which means no opponent can afford to settle into a comfortable rhythm against her. When she is on form, she can dismantle even the most solid defences with relentless attacking intent.

The last-minute addition in the event, Muzychuk, will be unprepared but her sheer quality and experience cannot be underestimated. A former women’s world championship contender, Muzychuk has the skill and composure to overcome a less-than-ideal build-up.