The 2024 Chess Candidates Tournaments

April 3, 2024 2:30 PM

April 4th at 2:30 Eastern time is the start of the FIDE Candidates (Open) and Women's Candidates Tournaments in Toronto Canada. You can follow the games live on Chess.com and Lichess (open, women's). The month long events will determine which players will get to challenge current World Champion Ding Liren, and Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun. Last year players around the world competed in a series of events to qualify for an invitation to a Candidates tournament. The winners will get a chance to play in a World Championship match (open or women's). There are two events. The Women's Candidates and the Open. Chess holds women only events as a means to encourage more women to participate in the game. Chess does not hold men's only events; although in many cases only male players have qualified in recent years.

A quick rundown of the players

The Candidates (Open)

• Ian Nepomniachtchi - the lone Russian in the tournament. He won the last two Canididates tournaments but failed to in the Championship. As Russia's hope he has financial backing from a number of sponsors to ensure he has a strong team.
• Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa -- Pragg as he is sometimes called is one of 4 Indian predigies who have become among the worlds top players. Having only recently turned 18 he is also one of the youngest players n the tournaments.
• Fabiano Caruana -- Fabi as he is know is the highest rated player not named Magnus Carlsen. He is considered America's best hope to win the World Championship since Bobby Fischer. A previous World Champion challenger who lost a tough WC match to Magnus Carlsen, Fabi is currently the favorite to win the Candidates. He also hosts a popular chess podcast C-Squareed
• Nijat Abasov. -- Abasov is the wild card in this tournament. He qualified by being the top alternate when Magnus Carlsen refused to play. He is considered the weakest player in the tournament but because he's a bit of an unknown he has some chances to surprise his opponents.
• Vidit Santosh Gujrathi ( (YouTube)) (chess.com) -- Vidit is one of two players who have been able to establish a substantial presence in live streaming on the internet. He is also one of the three Indian players in the tournament.
• Hikaru Nakamura (YouTube) (chess.com) -- Naka is the other player in the tournament who has been able to build a huge presence in streaming on both Twitch and Kick. He is also the other American in the tournament.
• Alireza Firouzja -- the oldest of the young guns in the tournament. Firouzja is an occasional twitch streamer, part time fashion designer who has been seen as less focused on chess than necessary to become World Champion. Even though many considered him the next Magnus Carlsen, including Magnus
• Dommaraju Gukesh -- Gukesh, or Gukesh D as he is sometimes known is another promising young Indian player. GM Ben Finegold described him as a Great Player of the Present

The Women's Candidates

• Lei Tingjie the winner of the last Candidates who lost to her fellow countrywoman Ju Wenjun. She has previously won the Chinese National Championship and will be looking for another shot at the World Championship.
• Kateryna Lagno -- Ukrainian by birth but residing in Russia. A strong player for the last 20 years she has previously played for the World Championship. As one of the older players this may be her last decent shot at getting back to the World Championship match.
• Aleksandra Goryachkina --a favorite and a strong player. She was the first woman to qualify for the Open section of the Russian Championship.
• Nurgyul Salimova -- despite only being an International Master and not yet a Grandmaster from Bulgaria she has some impressive results and is seen as a player on the rise.
• Anna Muzychuk -- as the lone player in the candidates playing under the Ukrainian expect drama when she plays the Russian players (who will be playing under the FIDE flag due to international sanctions).
• Vaishali Rameshbabu -- Vaishali is Praggnanandhaa's older sister. There is a possibility that brother and sister could both become World Champions.

On the sidelines

Magnus Carlsen -- the retired world Champion qualified for the Candidates but decided not to play as he has no interest in the title any longer. Magnus remains the highest rated active player.

Hou Yifan -- the highest rated female player has elected to focus on things other than chess in recent years.

Honorable Mentions

Judit Polgár is the only woman to play in the Open Candidates Tournament and is still considered the strongest female player ever.


Vishy Anand the former World Champion from India is responsible for the enormous popularity of modern Chess in India. The generation of children he inspired are now playing in the Candidates.

Stories to know
If you are more into the drama around sports than the game here are a few of the human interest stories to follow:

• Ding Liren has struggled as a champion and hasn't been playing much. Unlike his predecessor, Magnus Carlsen, he is considered very beatable. The winner of the open will have a much bigger than normal shot to win the World Championship.
• HIikaru Nakarmura and Fabiano Caurana have been among the strongest players not named Magnus for a decade now, but with so many young players qualifying for the event this year, this might be the last chance for either of them to play for the World Championship.
• While many may not think of Chess as an authentic sport, these top level matches are often not just tests of mental prowess, but of physical stamina and endurance. In 2021 Ian Neponatchi and Magnus Carlson famously played a 7 hour and 45 minute game that ended with Magnus winning. Nepo never physically recovered from the game and went on to lose the match as a result.
• There may be some drama when the lone Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk faces off against Aleksandra Goryachkina. Goryachkina is seen as the more Russian of the two players from Russia in the event.
• If Pragg and Vaishali get off to a strong start people will start speculating about a brother sister becoming World Champions.
• Some see this as an endangered event. In recent years fans have been more interested in Chess played under shorter time controls. Online chess and the faster, more exciting pace of these events has lead to a decline in interest in the longer time controls of classical chess where games take hours.
• FIDE remains a corrupt organization and a complete mess. Chess.com as the dominant chess site with a huge revenue stream was rebuffed by its efforts to play a bigger role in the World Championship. It is unclear what this means for the future of FIDE as it struggles to attract large commercial sponsors. Of course an American or Indian champion might change those fortunes.

posted by interogative mood (26 comments total)

Fantastic post!

Related: FIDE updated their rules last year to definitively ban trans women from taking part in the women's chess tournaments.
posted by fight or flight at 2:39 PM on April 3 [11 favorites]

Everybody is predicting that the winner of the candidates will steamroll Ding, but I'm waiting for the Ding-Rapport bromance to reignite and result in multiple unlikely future World Championship wins.
posted by clawsoon at 2:53 PM on April 3

I've recently become the ED of the Chess Institute of Canada, and it's been tremendously exciting to see this shaping up (although it's only been a few weeks for me, so effectively too late to get meaningfully involved).

Lots of our instructors are volunteers for the event, and it's amazing for them to see this level of play coming to Toronto. I've joined the organization based more on my strengths with community organizations and management -- I'm not a chess whiz myself -- but I'm feeling all the excitement as it nears.

If anyone is planning on attending on April 18, I've got tickets for Balcony B, maybe an ad hoc meetup?
posted by Shepherd at 2:57 PM on April 3 [12 favorites]

i don't even like chess (except for watching Anya Joy Taylor's in Queens Gambit) and i love this post... thank you for a dramatic introduction worthy of Shakespeare
posted by kokaku at 4:02 PM on April 3

Vaishali is Praggnanandhaa's younger sister.

Older sister, fwiw. According to the links, she is 22 and her brother is 18.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 4:04 PM on April 3

Some see this as an endangered event. In recent years fans have been more interested in Chess played under shorter time controls. Online chess and the faster, more exciting pace of these events has lead to a decline in interest in the longer time controls of classical chess where games take hours.

Notably, Magnus has cited this as at least part of the reason he decided to step aside.
posted by juv3nal at 6:03 PM on April 3

Okay but how do you pronounce lichess?

I've been trying their daily puzzles and getting quickly beaten by every human I've ever matched with. It's been fun, but I still don't know how to say the name!
posted by Acari at 6:48 PM on April 3

Magnus has ascended to a level where he doesn’t need the FIDE blessing to be considered the best in the world. If one of the younger guys wins Candidates and goes on to become World Champion then I think we’ll see a private match with Magnus and the new World Champion.
posted by interogative mood at 12:50 AM on April 4

You say it like "lee chess"
posted by rossmeissl at 1:29 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]

Acari: Lichess is short for "Libre chess" (lichess.org is a free/libre, open-source chess server powered by volunteers and donations.)
posted by techSupp0rt at 1:38 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]

Mod note: Vaishali is Praggnanandhaa's younger sister.

Older sister, fwiw. According to the links, she is 22 and her brother is 18.

'Younger' has been changed to 'older' in the post.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:35 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Until the day when Magnus is no longer winning back-to-back top-tier tournaments every year, nobody will consider the new World Champion to the be "best player in the world" regardless. Even Hikaru and Fabiano would probably say the same, if one of them wins the title.
posted by TreeHugger at 10:02 AM on April 4 [1 favorite]

Three broadcasts worth watching today to follow it live:

• Chess24/Chess.com who has the camera rights so they can show the players not just the games. GM Robert Hess, GM David Howell, & GM Judit Polgár. They have a separate commentary team for the Women's Candidates today it is IM Jovanka Houska, IM Kassa Korley.
• Lichess.org with IM Eric Rosen, GM Matthew Sadler and IM Irene Sukandar.
• ChessDojo IM David Pruess, IM Kotya Kavutskiy and GM Jesse Kraai
• Hikaru Nakamura also has a stream for his fans on Kick. His commentators are GM Hammer and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni.

posted by interogative mood at 1:13 PM on April 4 [1 favorite]

I tend to follow chess through Agadmator recaps.

He helpfully offers an "everything you need to know about the 2024 candidates" video here (there's also a 2012 blitz game between Nakamura & Caruana tacked on at the end which should give you an idea of his analysis style but he goes into more depth on potential unplayed lines when analyzing longer time formats).
posted by juv3nal at 2:15 PM on April 4 [1 favorite]

The Fabi/Hikaru match is much more exciting than predicted. The computer evaluation says draw it is basically a draw, but the position where white (Fabi) has two passed pawns gives him winning chances and people often can't defend like the computer can, even at this level.
posted by interogative mood at 3:19 PM on April 4

is

was
posted by clawsoon at 3:44 PM on April 4

And as soon as I wrote that Hikaru found an amazing solution to the problem after Fabi got too ambitious with his a pawn.
posted by interogative mood at 3:45 PM on April 4

One thing people should know about Agadmator if they're not familiar with him is if he stresses the pivotal importance/effectiveness of the move b4, it's partially tongue in cheek because it's a key move in his favourite opening, the Evans Gambit (which featured in the Evergreen Game).
posted by juv3nal at 4:10 PM on April 4

Hikaru sacrificed a rook for a draw just so he could headline the next GothamChess recap. /hot take
posted by clawsoon at 5:16 PM on April 4

It only looked like a sacrifice, it is really just a rook trade. See move 32…Ra8!! In the game here. If the white queen captures the black rook (Qxa8). Black plays Qe2+ and then takes white’s rook Qxd1. That’s why Fabi didn’t bite.
posted by interogative mood at 4:15 AM on April 5

There are eight players in the Women's Candidates, not six. Missing from OP are:

• Zhongyi Tan - Former Women's World Champion - she'll be wanting to get the title back. At 2/2 after the second round, so far so good.
• Koneru Humpy - One time holder of the record for youngest woman ever to become Grandmaster and ex Women's World Rapid Champion, she is the oldest Women's Candidate at 37.

posted by motty at 4:50 PM on April 5

Thank you for the correction. I thought I had all eight in my post.
posted by interogative mood at 11:39 PM on April 5

No games today as they've made it to the first rest day with 4/14 rounds finished. Nepo got 3/4 and is a half point ahead of Fabi and Gukesh. Pragg is at 2 while everyone else is at 1.5. Meanwhile in the Women's event pre tournament favorite Tan Zhongyi is a 3/4 with Goryachkina trailing by half a point. Crowd favorites Vaishali and Salimova are on 2. Humpy, Lei Tingjie, and Anna Muzychuk are at 1.5. A reddit user "ElectionsModeling" has provided regular updates to current odds of each player winning hte event based on Elos ratings of the players and game results.

Hikaru has done daily recaps of his games every day on YouTube (game 1, game 2, game 3, game 4).

Here are a few Chess YouTubers that are doing daily recaps. They have different styles and all have lots of other educational chess content. If you like a creator's recap, you might want to take a gander at their other videos. My personal notes added for some guidance.

• GothamChess -- currently one of the biggest Chess YouTubers, if not the biggest. IM Levy Rozman is very YouTube in his video style, clickbait titles and thumbnails. If you like your YouTube basic, you'll like Levy.
• Agadmator -- has done Chess YouTube forever and follows a rigorous production schedule. Critics will point to the fact that his analysis is very much just telling you what stockfish or other computer evaluation tools thought about the positions. Lots of people swear by his videos and educational content.
• Andras Toth -- a popular chess coach and educator. He's got a number of courses on Chessable targeted at club level players. Chessable is a site that provides interactive chess books with an emphasis on training players in specific move combinations.
• The Saint Louis Chess Club -- the club was founded by a billionaire and they have poured tons of money into US Chess. They have incredible facilities and bring in lots of top talent from around the world to put content on their channel. If you want a recap that was shot in a real studio and professional edited/produced then this is your channel.
• GM Benjamin Bok. -- He's a GM based in the Netherlands. If you want a no-nonsense recap by a Grandmaster he's a good choice.
• You and Me and Chess -- a newer channel by a woman who is an International Master and chess teacher.

posted by interogative mood at 9:35 AM on April 8 [1 favorite]

One round to go, and four winners are still possible in the Open section.

People have been thinking up wild possibilities, but I think I've thought of the wildest: Whoever comes in second looks back to the last world championship, notes that Ding seems emotionally unstable, and starts a pressure campaign to get him to give up the title. FIDE finds out and bans the second-place player from the championship, but Ding decides he has had enough and drops out anyway. The championship is played between the first and third place players from the Candidates.
posted by clawsoon at 6:17 PM on April 20

Yeah it’s going to be an exciting day. Gukesh has a strong chance to become the youngest ever to win the candidates. The key games are Gukesh vs Hikaru and Nepo vs Fabi. Gukesh is a half point ahead of the other three so with a win, he clinches it. The other three need to win for the hopes of a playoff. Hikaru can win it outright by winning if Nepo and Fabi draw. Nepo and Fabi have to hope Hikaru wins and then win their game to get a playoff. There will be a playoff for second place because the second place finisher will play the championship match of the current champion doesn’t defend.
posted by interogative mood at 9:42 AM on April 21

ChessBase India has set the final moments to music. "I'm very sorry." "No, it's my fault."
posted by clawsoon at 6:07 AM on April 22