Candidates Chess Tournament 2014

Candidates Tournament

The Candidates Tournament will take place tomorrow 11th of March, 2014 (arrivals) and ends 1st of April, 2014 (departures) at the Ugra Chess Academy, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The candidates tourney is an 8-player double round robin which is to be played over 14 rounds. The participants for the tournament are:

Viswanathan Anand of India (former world champion), Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (world cup 2013 winner), Dmitry Andreikin (Russia, world cup 2013 finalist), Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria (Fide Grand-Prix 2012-13 winner), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan (Fide Grand-Prix 2012-13 runner-up), Levon Aronian (Armenia, rating-list 2012-13), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, rating list 2012-13) and the host nominee, Peter Svidler of Russia. The two World Cup 2013 finalists: Dmitry Andreikin and Vladimir Kramnik will play against each other in the first round of the tournament.

The allocated time control for the participants is 120 minutes for the first forty (40) moves, 60 minutes for the next twenty (20) moves followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game with a 30 seconds increment from move 61. The Russians are expected to play against each other in rounds 1, 2, 3 and 8, 9, 10.

The event is scheduled to take place at 3 PM local time, which is  10A.M. Nigeria Time, 5A.M. EST New York and the first three games are expected to start on 13 to 15th of March. Player with the highest points will be the winner of the tournament and automatically qualifies for the World Championship Match which is expected to take place later this year and against the World Champion, Magnus Carlsen. The 8 participants will be competing for a prize fund of 600,000 Euro with 135,000 Euro for the winner while the last place player go home with 25,000 Euro.