The Candidates Tournament is the most prestigious event behind the World Championship itself. It is 8 player double round robin tournament that determines the World Championship challenger in the next cycle.
Current player rankings and Elo scores are:
Hikaru Nakamura (#2) - 2810
Fabiano Caruana (#3) - 2795
Praggnanandhaa R (#6-8) - 2760
Anish Giri (#6-8) - 2760
Wei Yi (#9) - 2754
Javokhir Sindarov (#22) - 2726
Andrey Esipenko (#35) - 2695
Matthias Blübaum (#44) - 2678
However Candidates tournaments are usually pretty chaotic and often the biggest favorites do not win.
* Hikaru Nakamura or other player who qualifies via the rating spot (~99% certain it will be Hikaru).
** Praggnanandhaa R or other player who qualifies via FIDE Circuit spot (~99% certain it will be Pragg).
Update 2025-12-02 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): If a player steps down before the tournament and is replaced, the market options will be updated to replace the old player with the new player.
1,000@bens I will replace the old player with the new player. But I think it is very unlikely in this edition when there are no covid issues or magnus not wanting to participate.