FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 starts in Toronto, Canada

The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 is set to kick off this Wednesday in Toronto, Canada! For the first time ever, the same venue will host the FIDE Candidates and the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournaments. The events will be played from 3-22 April at The Great Hall, located in the heart of Toronto’s West End.

Both events are held as 14-player round-robin tournaments. The total prize fund of the events is 750.000 euros (500.000 euros for the Open section, and 250.000 in the Women’s section), and the Winners of the event will qualify for the FIDE World Chess Championship matches.

The participants of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 are:

• Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE, 2758) – qualified as the previous World Championship match runner-up.
• Praggnanandhaa R (India, 2747) – qualified as the 2023 World Cup runner-up.
• Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2804) – qualified as the third-place finisher at the 2023 World Cup.
• Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan, 2632) – qualified as the fourth-place finisher at the 2023 World Cup after the winner, Magnus Carlsen, declined his right to participate.
• Vidit Gujrathi (India, 2747) – qualified as the 2023 Grand Swiss winner.
• Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2789) – qualified as the 2023 Grand Swiss runner-up.
• Alireza Firouzja (France, 2760) – qualified as the best by rating on January 1, 2024.
• Gukesh D (India, 2747) – qualified as the 2023 FIDE Circuit winner.

The participants of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2024 are:

• Lei Tingjie (China, 2550) – qualified as the previous World Championship match runner-up.
• Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2542) – qualified as the 2022−23 Women’s Grand Prix winner.
• Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 2553) – qualified as the 2022−23 Women’s Grand Prix runner-up.
• Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria, 2426) – qualified as the 2023 Women’s World Cup runner-up.
• Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine, 2520) – qualified as the third-place finisher at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
• Vaishali R (India, 2481) – qualified as the 2023 Women’s Grand Swiss winner.
• Tan Zhongyi (China, 2521) – qualified as the 2023 Women’s Grand Swiss runner-up.
• Humpy Koneru (India, 2546) – qualified as the best by rating on January 1, 2024. The rating spot became available as a replacement for the Women’s World Cup winner, since Goryachkina had already qualified through the WGP.

The Opening ceremony of the event is scheduled for Wednesday, 3rd of April, while the first rounds start on Thursday, 4th of April, at 14:30 (local time). Pairings of the first round are:

Round 1 pairings – Open section:
Fabiano Caruana vs. Hikaru Nakamura
Nijat Abasov vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi
Alireza Firouzja vs. Praggnanandhaa R
Gukesh D vs. Vidit Gujrathi

Round 1 pairings – Women’s section:
Aleksandra Goryachkina vs. Kateryna Lagno
Anna Muzychuk vs. Nurgyul Salimova
Lei Tingjie vs. Tan Zhongyi
Vaishali R vs. Humpy Koneru

The tournament schedule is shown in the photo below.

Live broadcast of the event will be available through all major broadcasting platforms, as well as through the official website of the event. Live broadcast with commentaries by Viswanathan Anand, Irina Krush, Aman Hambleton and Eric Hansen can be followed through the FIDE YouTube channel.

All information about the event can be found on the official website.