The Candidates showdown is upon the chess world, with the open and women's tournaments set to begin in Toronto, Canada from April 3 to April 22.
The top eight in the open and women's categories went through a long, tough qualification campaign to reach, with multiple Indians reaching this stage for the first time ever: Praggnanandhaa R, Gukesh D, Vidit Gujrathi in open; Vaishali R and Koneru Humpy in the women's.
Why do the Candidates matter?
The Candidates is the biggest classical chess competition organised by the FIDE outside the World Championship. The winner here then gets to compete in the World Championship match against the incumbent world champion in each category.
The current world champions are Ding Liren and Ju Wenjun, both from China.
So, who are the players in this year's Candidates and how did they qualify?
Open:
Ian Nepomniachtchi from Russia (rating 2758): qualified as the previous World Championship match runner-up.
Praggnanandhaa R from India (rating 2747): qualified as the 2023 World Cup runner-up.
Fabiano Caruana from USA (rating 2804): qualified as the third-place finisher at the 2023 World Cup.
Nijat Abasov from Azerbaijan (rating 2632): qualified as the fourth-place finisher at the 2023 World Cup after the winner Magnus Carlsen, refused to participate.
Vidit Gujrathi from India (rating 2727): qualified as the 2023 Grand Swiss winner.
Hikaru Nakamura from USA (rating 2789): qualified as the 2023 Grand Swiss runner-up.
Alireza Firouzja from France (rating 2760): qualified as the best by rating on January 1, 2024.
Gukesh D from India (rating 2743): qualified as the 2023 FIDE Circuit winner.
Women's:
Lei Tingjie from China (rating 2550): qualified as the previous World Championship match runner-up.
Kateryna Lagno from Russia (rating 2542): qualified as the 2022−23 Women's Grand Prix winner.
Aleksandra Goryachkina from Russia (rating 2553): qualified as the 2022−23 Women's Grand Prix runner-up.
Nurgyul Salimova from Bulgaria (rating 2426): qualified as the 2023 Women's World Cup runner-up.
Anna Muzychuk from Ukraine (rating 2520): qualified as the third-place finisher at the 2023 Women's World Cup.
Vaishali R from India (rating 2481): qualified as the 2023 Women's Grand Swiss winner.
Tan Zhongyi from China (rating 2521): qualified as the 2023 Women's Grand Swiss runner-up.
Humpy Koneru from India (rating 2546): qualified as the best by rating on January 1, 2024.
Note: The Russians players are not allowed to display their flags because FIDE banned Russian and Belarusian flags in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ok, but where's Magnus Carlsen?
Arguably the best chess player of all time, Carlsen has decided to skip the event despite qualifying.
Since he decided not to defend his world title in 2022, Carlsen has not been keen on playing classical chess tournaments. "I think under the current format with the time control that is, it's extremely unlikely that I will compete in the classical world championship again," he told chess.com back in January.
India's best on show but what are their chances?
Over the last few years, India have been consistently producing the Grandmasters and by qualifying for the Candidates, these young prodigies have gone a level up to compete with the best. Gone are the days where just one or two names (especially the great Viswanathan Anand) used to showcase the best of Indian chess at the global level. Qualification to the Candidates is by no means easy -- players had to win certain tournaments as well as perform at multiple others to improve their ratings over the course of many months. The fact that five Indians have made it this time shows the healthy state of Indian chess and how it has progressed leaps and bounds.
Among the five, only Humpy (aged 37) has played in the Candidates before. Gukesh (17), Praggnanandhaa (18) and his sister Vaishali (22), though still very young, have plenty of experience of playing in big tournaments against big players. Vidit, at 29, has a proven record of performing major events. Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali became the first brother-sister Grandmasters duo to feature in the respective Candidates tournaments.
However, the Candidates is an extremely difficult tournament to crack, and the task is even tougher for debutants. It's a gruelling 14-match affair against the best in the world -- where experience, concentration and innovative strategies play crucial roles.
If ratings are considered, Indians players are not favourites at all to win it. Praggnanandhaa is the best ranked Indian at 2747, and in the tournament, he's the fifth best followed by Gukesh at 2743 and Vidit at 2727. In the women's tournament, Humpy is world no. 5 with a current rating of 2546, which makes her third best in the field. Vaishali, who achieved the Grandmaster title last December, is currently rated 2475.
The favourites
Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura are worlds no. 2 and 3 respectively and Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi, last year's World Championship runner up is ranked seventh best in the world. Nepomniachtchi won the previous two Candidates tournaments while Caruana is only the second player after Magnus Carlsen to enter the event with a 2800 rating.
All three are strong favourites with a proven track record at the tournament. This is Caruana's fifth Candidates event and Nakamura is coming into the tournament with a 46-game unbeaten record in classical format (stat courtesy: chess.com).
In the women's event, the fourth-highest rated woman in chess history and the currently the highest rated player in this tournament is Goryachkina. The next best in ratings is Lei Tingjie, who had lost the world championship match last year against compatriot Ju Wenjun.
Format and rules
Both events are in double round-robin format, which means each player will face their seven other opponents twice, once with white and once with black pieces. There will be 14 rounds with four rest days.
Players will get a point for a win, half a point for a draw and zero for a loss. The one with maximum points after these 14 rounds will be declared the winner of the competition.
The time control for a match is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 30 minutes for the rest of the game. There will be a 30-second increment per move starting from move 41.
In case there are two players tied in first place, they will have to play two rapid chess games. If more than two players are tied at top, a single round-robin matches have to be played. If any players are still tied at the top, then they will have to play blitz matches.
Schedule
[The opening ceremony is scheduled for April 3]
OPEN CATEGORY
WOMEN'S CATEGORY