2024 Candidates qualification revised process

[Mick Norris]

FIDE

The FIDE Council has approved today a major reform of the qualification paths to the Candidates Tournament – the event that decides the challenger for the World Championship match.

The main innovation is creating a new qualification path through different FIDE-rated tournaments. Tournaments that meet certain criteria, like being played under standard time control, supervised by International Arbiters, and where Fair Play measures are applied (among other criteria listed below in detail), will grant points towards the "FIDE Circuit". The player with more points at the end of 2023 will get the coveted spot in the most prestigious of all chess tournaments.

The second main change consists of increasing the number of qualification spots at the World Cup from 2 to 3. Already a flagship event, the popularity and importance of the World Cup keep increasing even further, and this extra spot would add more interest for the match for the 3rd-4th place.

chess24

FIDE, the World Chess Federation, today announced a new qualification system for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. The Grand Prix is gone and there’s no wildcard, with an extra 3rd spot for the World Cup and a new “FIDE Circuit” place for the best results in eligible tournaments in 2023. The biggest surprise is that the two announced spots for the Grand Chess Tour are gone.

Some things have stayed the same as for the 2022 Tournament. There are places for:

The loser of the World Championship match, which will be Ian Nepomniachtchi or Ding Liren
The top two players in the Grand Swiss: in 2022 that was Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana
The top-rated player (on January 1st, 2024) — that spot opened up for Ding Liren in 2022, after Sergey Karjakin was banned

The difference is that the Grand Prix series, which saw Hikaru Nakamura and Richard Rapport qualify for 2022, has gone completely. Who now takes those spots?

The FIDE World Cup, which is set to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, now provides 3 players rather than 2 — meaning a 3rd place match will potentially have more at stake than the final
The winner of the “FIDE circuit”
The final point is the most mysterious and takes up most of the space in FIDE’s announcement. It has echoes of both a proposal by the Association of Chess Professionals to give a spot to open tournaments and the apparently failed deal with the Grand Chess Tour — all the events on the tour should be eligible, but only among many others.

The circuit doesn’t envisage creating any new tournaments but instead keeping track of players’ performances in strong events, with their best five results summed up to find the winner for the year. Strong rapid and blitz events are included, but can only count for one of a player’s five events.

[David Sedgwick]

The biggest surprise is that the two announced spots for the Grand Chess Tour are gone.

A surprise to chess24, maybe.

[Mick Norris]

Giri takes an early lead in the FIDE circuit

[Mick Norris]

2024

Toronto will host the 2024 FIDE Candidates and Women's Candidates, scheduled for April 3-25, with a prize fund of EUR 750,000. It will be the first time in chess history that both events will be held at the same time and venue, and also the first time that the Candidates Tournament is held in North America.

The event will be sponsored by the Scheinberg family, as part of the long-term collaboration agreement that was announced in 2022. FIDE would like to thank the Scheinberg family, whose support for chess over the last nine years has made possible a number of top-level events and is going to be instrumental in staging the Candidates and Women's Candidates in 2024.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said: "FIDE is happy to award such an important competition to Canada, a country that has made significant chess progress in recent years, with more kids playing the game, more titled players, and more chess fans and chess streamers. The fact that it is going to be the first time that the Candidates and Women's Candidates will be played under one roof underlines FIDE's efforts to promote chess, providing more opportunities and proper financial conditions for top female players. Holding the events concurrently at the same venue with a single broadcast can only help bring the Women's Candidates to a wider audience, with a greater following."

"The Candidates Tournaments will start in just over a year's time, but I know many chess fans will already be counting down the days towards these exceptional events," added Dvorkovich.

Isai Scheinberg said: "My family and I are very happy that the Candidates Tournaments will be held in Canada, our home country. The Candidates has a long tradition of producing exciting and gruelling battles in pursuit of the biggest prize in chess, and I'm sure that the 2024 edition will be no exception. I look forward to seeing many of the world's top players in action, with Toronto at the center of the chess world for over three weeks in April 2024."

[Roger de Coverly]

also the first time that the Candidates Tournament is held in North America.

The last 16 of the Candidates Matches of 1988 was also in Canada

https://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/8890$cix.htm

[Mick Norris]

Looks like there were quarter-finals in Seattle and Quebec too

I think the emphasis is on Tournament rather than matches

[Kevin Thurlow]

And the matches earlier were also in Canada, in St John's, Newfoundland, running alongside the first World Amateur tournament. Later, an English event was claimed wrongly as the first World Amateur tournament.

[Jonathan Rogers]

It was a Canadian city which witnessed the first whitewash in a candidate's match (though another then came along soon enough ...)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Is it time yet to revisit this thread, or is a new one focused on the actual qualification (and those qualified so far) better? Nijat Abasov and Praggnanandhaa and Caruana are three (though not officially, as it depends on Carlsen following through with his stated intent to not take up the rating spot), along with Nepomniachtchi. Are those the only four so far?

[Mick Norris]

I think so, if Carlsen doesn't want to play, which he has said is true, then the rating spot is pretty open

[Mick Norris]

FIDE circuit at halfway, Gukesh leading from So and Giri

Fide circuit info has Giri ahead of Gukesh & So (with Carlsen 10th and Niemann 12th)

details on the cycle

We're assuming we currently have Nepo, Pragg, Caruana & Abasov qualified

[Mick Norris]

Vidit and Nakamura qualify from the Grand Swiss

Giri has overtaken Gukesh in the FIDE circuit

Firouzja currently in the lead for the rating spot (assuming he plays enough games, So is top of those who have)

[Paul Cooksey]

I think it is now four FIDE circuit events rather than games. Firouja has played two already so the Sinquefield Cup and St Louis Rapid and Blitz will make him eligible. His form not great though so Giri and So could conceivably pass him. I think those three plus Gukesh are now the serious contenders for the last two places.

Arguably Maghsoodloo is the most in-form player, but seems a very long short.

[Pete Morriss]

I think it is now four FIDE circuit events rather than games. Firouja has played two already so the Sinquefield Cup and St Louis Rapid and Blitz will make him eligible. His form not great though so Giri and So could conceivably pass him. I think those three plus Gukesh are now the serious contenders for the last two places.

If I've understood the FIDE rules correctly (which I may well not have) Firouzja cannot get the rating place, as things now stand. The rules say that to be eligible he must have played "at least 4 FIDE Circuit tournaments with standard time controls". Firouzja has only played two, and both the other eligible tournaments shown on the FIDE site clash with the Sinquefield Cup, so he cannot play in either of them. I suppose it is at least possible that some bright chess entrepreneur might arrange an extra supertournament in December for him? Maybe in London?!

[Paul Cooksey]

Ali Reza thinks he can qualify by rating in this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOdDPcnSNxA but I have to admit I cannot see the exception to the rule Pete quotes.