2 min readUpdated: Apr 3, 2026 08:28 PM IST
It doesn’t matter a jot. Not an iota in chess of the classical format, though ambidextrous players might find the blitz or the Armageddon to be a good go. But there are only two players at the Candidates tournament in Cyprus who might play left handed.
Both Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura play it straight up right, though Hans Niemann is a southpaw. Another American Awonder Liang plays with his left, according to a list prepared by Fuettli on Reddit. Andrey Esipenko scrambled with right, and the only Russian leftie in the Top 50 might be Daniil Dubov. Gawain Jones of England and Kirill Shevchenko of Romania, Dmitrij Kollars of Germany are the other southpaw.
The highest rated male chess player, who would have made an exciting addition to the Candidates, but didn’t, is Indian Arjun Erigasi.
Arbiters at FIDE tend to choose which side the clock would be while pacing up and down the floor. The other activities needing non clumsiness are writing with the pen.
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Some like Levon Aronian and MVL, who won the blitz world titles, is a piece-pusher with left too, as per Chess.com. Aronian however writes with right.
From the past, Boris Gelfand,Vassily Ivanchuk were lefties too, while Richard Rapport is sighted playing left handed.
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All three Indians at the Candidates play with right, as do all 4 Russians and the Ukrainian. Matthias Blübaum, Javokhir Sindarov and Anish Giri play right. In the women, Tan Zhongyi and Zhu Jiner are both right handed, as well.
It is also observed that when the elbows get planted on the table, when the players go into deep think-mode, they rest their heads on the same hand they move pieces with.
So who are the only two lefties at Cyprus Candidates?
Chinese GM Wei Yi in the men’s event and Kazakhstan Bibisara Assaubayeva in the women’s.
