English Chess Forum

Pool A:

1. Alexander Grischuk (Russia), 2764
2. Hikaru Nakamura, (USA), 2736
3. Dmitry Andreikin (Russia), 2724
4. Etienne Bacrot (France), 2642

Pool B:

1. Ding Liren (China), 2799
2. Richard Rapport (Hungary), 2763
3. Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), 2704
4. Grigoriy Oparin (Russia), 2681

Pool C:

1. Levon Aronian (USA), 2772
2. Vidit Gujrathi (India), 2727
3. Daniil Dubov (Russia), 2720
4. Vincent Keymer (Germany), 2664

Pool D:

1. Wesley So (USA), 2772
2. Leinier Dominguez (USA), 2752
3. Pentala Harikrishna (India), 2717
4. Alexei Shirov (Spain), 2704

Peter Heine Nielsen on Twitter wrote:Ding Liren so obviously belongs in the candidates tournament. That he does not even get a chance to qualify, is saddening.

Top seed Ding Liren is out of the Berlin FIDE Grand Prix after failing to get a visa for travel to Berlin, leaving his Candidates Tournament qualification hopes in ruins. He’ll be replaced by Polish star Radoslaw Wojtaszek, while Dmitry Andreikin tested positive and has been replaced by the man who originally just missed out, Andrey Esipenko. Players are still due to arrive in Berlin in the next day or two, so that there are no guarantees those are the final changes.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:35 pm

Will Dubov be in the clear by then?

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 01, 2022 8:50 pm

According to FIDE Ding still down to play in the 2nd leg in Belgrade and Andreikin the 3rd leg back in Berlin

chess24

Top seed Ding Liren is out of the Berlin FIDE Grand Prix after failing to get a visa for travel to Berlin, leaving his Candidates Tournament qualification hopes in ruins. He’ll be replaced by Polish star Radoslaw Wojtaszek, while Dmitry Andreikin tested positive and has been replaced by the man who originally just missed out, Andrey Esipenko. Players are still due to arrive in Berlin in the next day or two, so that there are no guarantees those are the final changes.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 03, 2022 11:24 pm

Mick Norris wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 01, 2022 8:50 pm

According to FIDE Ding still down to play in the 2nd leg in Belgrade and Andreikin the 3rd leg back in Berlin

chess24

Top seed Ding Liren is out of the Berlin FIDE Grand Prix after failing to get a visa for travel to Berlin, leaving his Candidates Tournament qualification hopes in ruins. He’ll be replaced by Polish star Radoslaw Wojtaszek, while Dmitry Andreikin tested positive and has been replaced by the man who originally just missed out, Andrey Esipenko. Players are still due to arrive in Berlin in the next day or two, so that there are no guarantees those are the final changes.

And it appears that if somebody withdraws from the third leg, all hope may not be lost for Ding.

(this will also apply to a couple of other players)

Ding, who was supposed to play in the first two legs of the Grand Prix, told Chess.com that he was unable to get his visa in time because a return flight after the second leg was not available yet. This is likely to be related to Covid restrictions affecting air travel schedules.

"FIDE and World Chess have done their best to help me," Ding added.

FIDE's Chief Marketing and Communications Officer David Llada: "Ding only applied for a visa on January 26, which has proved to be too late. Despite the efforts of FIDE and the German Chess Federation, we were unable to speed up the process."

It's safe to say that Ding's absence from the World Cup and the Grand Swiss was also because of the pandemic and China's strict measures regarding traveling abroad. Asked if he failed to obtain a visa for those events as well, he responded: "I didn't even try."