The reigning World Chess Champion will be one of the participants in the upcoming FIDE World Cup, to be played in Sochi from July 10 to August 6, 2021.

For many players, the World Cup is the first and only opportunity to enter the race for the World Championship crown, since the two top finishers in the event will advance to the next stage: the super exclusive Candidates Tournament. This is even more true in the revamped 2021 edition, which will feature 206 participants (compared to 128 in previous editions), giving players from all over the globe an opportunity to prove their value.

However, for the World Champion, the motivations are probably slightly different. Even if he loses his title in the FIDE World Championship match later this year in Dubai, Magnus would have a spot secured in the next edition of the Candidates Tournament, so he doesn’t need to take part in the qualifiers. But Magnus has never won a FIDE World Cup, despite being a firm supporter of knock-out tournaments. The champion probably wants to prove to the world, and to himself, that he can also excel in this format. His last participation, in Tbilisi 2017, was a bit disappointing: he was knocked out in round 3 by the Chinese Grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi.

Besides, a record prize fund of $1,890,000 is incentive enough for the World Champion to be tempted and pick up the gauntlet to fight 206 grandmasters in this tough and highly-contested event. The World Cup is one of FIDE’s flagship competitions, and in recent editions, it has clearly become one of the most followed events in the chess calendar.

The reigning World Champion, Women’s World Champion, and Junior World Champion are directly invited to the World Cup, as well as the four semi-finalists from the 2019 edition. They are joined by 80 players qualified through Continental Championships, with every continent being guaranteed a minimum quota, and 100 players nominated by the top hundred federations by average rating. The field is completed with the 12 highest-rated players who did not qualify by any of the previous criteria, as well as the highest-placed player of the ACP Tour 2021 as of June 2021.

Magnus Carlsen will not cross paths in this event with his challenger for the 2021 FIDE World Chess Championship match, Ian Nepomniachtchi. The Russian star has declined to participate, in order to focus on his preparation for the match.

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Photo: David Llada

The Candidates Tournament, the biennial 8-player event that decides who will be the Challenger for the World Chess Championship title, will resume on the 19th of April in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

FIDE Candidates: Round 8 | Magnus Carlsen, David Howell & Tania Sachdev commentate

FIDE Candidates Tournament. Round 8

Шахматы ♕ Турнир претендентов понятно! ⚡ 8 тур ⏰ 19 апреля, 14.00 🎤 Дмитрий Филимонов, Рауф Мамедов

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e40Mzng6gXQ

Levitov chess

https://youtu.be/8ijWuVNYKYY

This double round-robin tournament kicked off on March 16, 2020. However, it had to be abruptly stopped 11 days later when the Russian government announced the closure of air traffic with other countries, amid a rapidly escalating coronavirus pandemic.

The sudden crisis left hanging this prestigious event, one of the oldest traditions in the world of sports. Since half the rounds had already been played, this interruption created an unprecedented situation, as the regulations stipulate that the results obtained until that point must stand — rather than having the tournament re-started from scratch. When the tournament was interrupted, the French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi were in the lead, with 4½ points after seven games. Fabiano Caruana (USA), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Wang Hao (China) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia) are in the chasing pack, all with 4½ points.

After a long wait, the challenger to Magnus Carlsen’s throne will be finally known by the 28th of April.

This is the detailed schedule for the second half of the tournament, to which all players have agreed on and expressed their readiness to take part in:

19th April 2021, Round 8
20th April 2021, Round 9
21st April 2021, Round 10
(22nd April 2021, rest day)
23rd April 2021, Round 11
24th April 2021, Round 12
(25th April 2021, rest day)
26th April 2021, Round 13
27th April 2021, Round 14
28th April 2021, tie-breaks (if required)

The eyes of the entire chess world will be on this tournament, which is expected to receive massive coverage. The recent surge of interest towards chess and the special circumstances around the event guarantees the biggest number of spectators for any Candidates Tournament in chess history.

Full info: fide.com

Kazan inaugurates a new stage in women’s chess

The race for the Women’s World Championship title will take off in
Kazan with a renewed Candidates Tournament, the strongest female
event ever held, which features a record prize fund of 200.000 euros.
From May 29th to June 19th, eight top Grandmasters will compete to
become Ju Wenjun’s challenger.

More than twenty years later, women’s chess will celebrate a Candidates Tournament
again. As FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich had announced right after his election,
reshaping and improving this competition was one of his priorities, and now, thanks
to the Ministry of Sports of Tatarstan and the Russian Chess Federation —
organisers of the event- the foundations for this reform have been laid. The Women’s
World Championship will now have a similar format to the absolute World
Championship.
Eight of the best players in the world will compete in a double round-robin
competition that spans along three weeks, with a substantial increase in prizes: the
Candidates will now have a prize fund of 200.000 €, while the finalists will play for
half a million euros. That means a 150% increase compared to the previous world
championship final and makes the event in Kazan the best paid all-female roundrobin in history.

The Ukranian Mariya Muzychuk will lead the field, with a 2560 rating. At 26, she
has the perfect balance between youth and experience, since she was the World
Champion in 2015-16, and reached semi-finals last year. On paper, her closest
opponent will be Kateryna Lagno, who was the challenger to Ju Wenjun’s throne
back in November; the Russian seems to be in excellent shape, and currently holds
the title of World Blitz Champion. But in a long tournament that includes two other
former World Champions —Alexandra Kosteniuk and Tan Zhongyi-, and where the
gap between the top and lowest seed is barely 50 points, the fight is expected to be
very close and exciting.

The following players have confirmed their participation:

1- Kateryna Lagno RUS, 2559 (KO World Ch. 2018 finalist)
2- Mariya Muzychuk UKR, 2560 (KO World Ch. 2018 semi-finalist)
3- Alexandra Kosteniuk RUS, 2545 (KO World Ch. 2018 semi-finalist)
4- Anna Muzychuk UKR, 2555 (qualified by rating)
5- Valentina Gunina RUS, 2515 (qualified by rating)
6- Nana Dzagnidze GEO, 2513 (qualified by rating)
7- Tan Zhongyi CHN, 2513 (qualified by rating)
8- Alexandra Goryachkina RUS, 2505 (1st replacement)

Hou Yifan was the only player to turn down the invitation to take part in this event.
Last year, the Chinese prodigy was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to
study at the University of Oxford, and since then she had to prioritize her studies
over her competitive activity.

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