I gather that the prize fund for the 2026 Candidates tournaments was 1,000,000 euros (700,000 for the Open, 300,000 for the Women's). Where did that money come from?
I searched this site, and the web, for Candidates sponsorship, using many different search terms, but came up empty-handed.
According to the FIDE budget FIDE received 2.7 million from sponsors and the total cost was 2.3 million. The financial reports do not give details of who provided that money.
However there are additional clues on the FIDE website on its Partners page. There are two obvious candidates there - Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort, which was the venue, and Korantina Homes, a real estate company which owns Cap St Georges. Then there is the not so obvious Freedom Holding Corp which I will come to.
To get hard names you have to check out this Chessbase India article, in which Sagar Shah interviews FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky on how the FIDE Candidates tournament was put together.
According to Sutovsky:
We had 2024 in Toronto and that was a successful event. As you remember, it was also sponsored by the Scheinberg family, and already back then Isai confirmed his willingness to support for the 2026 edition and that was a very good start
So, Isai Scheinberg, who also sponsors the FIDE Grand Prix when it is in his home federation of the Isle of Man, was the first sponsor.
Then:
We realized that Isai's commitment, although it is very important and I would say critical, would need to be also supported by another major sponsor. I think it was a very good decision to combine two of our main sponsors, Freedom and the Scheinberg family, to join forces to co-sponsor the event together. Both of them were receptive to the idea and obviously they knew about each other and I had to be a connecting point
So, the Scheinberg family and Freedom Holding Corp were the main sponsors along with the hotel venue and their holding company as secondary sponsors.
