Candidates Tournament

Candidates Tournament? Candidates for what? Let’s find out all about the Candidates Tournament and its importance in the world championship cycle!

Here is what you need to know about the Candidates Tournament:

• What Is The Candidates Tournament?
• Why Is The Candidates Tournament Important?
• How To Qualify For The Candidates Tournament
• Candidates Tournament History
• Conclusion

What Is The Candidates Tournament?

The Candidates Tournament is the final event in the World Championship cycle before the World Championship match itself. It is the second most important tournament in the World Championship cycle, as the winner of the Candidates Tournament plays the reigning world champion in the championship match. FIDE has organized the World Championship cycle since 1948 and the Candidates Tournament since 1950. Since 2013, the Candidates Tournament has occurred every two years.

Why Is The Candidates Tournament Important?

The Candidates Tournament is important because it selects the challenger for the World Championship match. Multiple tournaments are part of the World Championship cycle, but the real point of all of them is to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss tournament is an excellent example of a celebrated top-level event whose main purpose is to award a spot in the Candidates Tournament.

How To Qualify For The Candidates Tournament

The Candidates Tournament is an eight-player, double round-robin event. The methods used to qualify each of the players for the Candidates Tournament most recently were:

• The runner-up in the previous World Championship match,
• the top three finishers of the FIDE World Cup,
• the top two finishers of the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament,
• the winner of the FIDE Circuit, which tracks tournament results from January to December of the year before the Candidates Tournament,
• and the player with the highest FIDE rating on January of the year of the Candidates Tournament.

Candidates Tournament History

FIDE first started overseeing the World Championship in 1948. The candidates process has changed many times throughout the years, with different time periods between World Championship cycles and different formats to select the challenger. Between 1950 and 1962 a round-robin tournament was used to select the challenger, and the championship cycle lasted three years.

The first Candidates Tournament was held in 1950 in Budapest where GMs David Bronstein and Isaac Boleslavsky tied for first place. Bronstein then won a match against Boleslavsky,and then drew the world championship match with GM Mikhail Botvinnik (who retained his title). Bronstein wrote a famous book on the 1953 Candidates tournament, which is still considered a classic today. GM Vassily Smyslov, who won the 1953 Candidates Tournament, also drew his world championship match with Botvinnik. Smyslov won the next Candidates Tournament in 1956 and then defeated Botvinnik in the 1957 World Championship (although Botvinnik won their 1958 rematch to regain his chess crown).

The next winner of the Candidates Tournament was GM Mikhail Tal, who defeated Botvinnik in the 1960 World Championship match. History repeated itself again when Botvinnik won the rematch against Tal in 1961. GM Tigran Petrosian was the victor in the 1962 Candidates Tournament. He defeated Botvinnik in the 1963 World Championship match, and Botvinnik stepped away from the championship cycle. 

After the 1962 Candidates Tournament, the challenger was selected by winning or placing high in Interzonal tournaments and then winning the knockout Candidates matches. 

Eight-player, double-round robin Candidates Tournaments were restored only in modern times. The 2013 Candidates Tournament in London was particularly dramatic and historic. In a two-horse race for first place between GMs Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, the two were tied when they both lost their final-round game. Carlsen was declared the winner on the second tiebreak (number of wins) and went on to defeat GM Viswanathan Anand later that year.

Carlsen successfully defended his title against Anand in 2014, against GM Sergey Karjakin in 2016, and against GM Fabiano Caruana in 2018.

The 2020 Candidates Tournament started in March 2020 with the following GMs playing: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana (the challenger in 2018), Anish Giri, Wang Hao, Alexander Grischuk, Ding Liren, and Kirill Alekseenko. The first seven rounds were played before the second half of the Candidates Tournament was postponed on March 26, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's travel restrictions. The tournament resumed on April 19, 2021, and concluded on April 27, 2021. Nepomniachtchi won the tournament.

2020/21 Candidates Tournament Final Standings

(Tiebreaks: 1. Mutual score, 2. Number of wins, 3. Sonneborn-Berger.)

Nepomniachtchi challenged Carlsen for the 2021 World Chess Championship in November-December 2021. Carlsen won the match. 

The 2022 Candidates Tournament in Madrid was also won by Nepomniachtchi.

2022 Candidates Tournament Final Standings 

In July 2022, Carlsen chose not to defend his title, ending his 10-year reign as world champion. In the 2023 World Championship, Nepomniachtchi played against GM Ding Liren, the 2022 Candidates Tournament runner-up. Ding won the match in a rapid playoff to become the 17th world champion.

Conclusion

You now know what the Candidates Tournament is, why it is important, how to qualify for the Candidates Tournament, and more! Head over to the top players page to find out more about the Candidates Tournament participants.