Qualification for Candidates tournament 2016

[Matt Mackenzie]

Bad news for Vlad, but Levon will make a good Candidate

Agree on both counts.

VBK must have thought he had a chance with his recent results, alas for him Aronian made an abrupt return to form too.

[Mick Norris]

Makes his effort in playing the World Cup in Baku worthwhile too, plus Moscow usually organise very high class events

With Giri, the Candidates are on current live ratings numbers 2,3,5,6,7,8,11 & 17 so no arguments about the quality

[LawrenceCooper]

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... ment-.html

[Mick Norris]

It is being reported that Topalov has confirmed he will play which is much better for the event than Jakovenko who is first reserve

[Matt Mackenzie]

Depends rather on which Topa turns up.......

[Mick Norris]

From a competitive viewpoint, hopefully everyone will play well, and qualification won't rely on the back marker waking up and beating one of the contenders at the end - it would also be nice if it wasn't the foregone conclusion Anand seemed to make the last one (credit to him though) - and it would be good if Carlsen could have a new challenger

[Matt Mackenzie]

I doubt if Anand will have it all his own way this time round given the infusion of younger blood compared with 2014.

It will be at least mildly surprising if the winner isn't from the Naka/Cara/Giri trio.

[Mick Norris]

I wouldn't rule out Aronian, who has repaired most of his rating loss and appears to be back to form

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I was thinking about the line-up for the Candidates Tournament 2016 this evening, and realised that despite China being a rising chess superpower (someone else can list all the achievements by players and teams from China to date), there is no player from China in the Candidates Tournament. Can anyone suggest why this might be? (What is the furthest a player from China has got in WCC qualification?)

[To be fair, absent Anand, you could ask the same question of players from India as well.]

Also, does the absence of the world number 2, Kramnik, have any import? Is it a case of he knew what was needed to do to qualify and failed to do that, or was it a case of him being unlucky and various factors outside his control conspiring to mean he missed out?

[IM Jack Rudd]

Kramnik became world #2 off the back of some tremendous performances near the end of the year, which didn't help him much; his poor ratings earlier on in the year dragged his average-over-twelve-months down.

[NickFaulks]

Kramnik became world #2 off the back of some tremendous performances near the end of the year, which didn't help him much; his poor ratings earlier on in the year dragged his average-over-twelve-months down.

The rating definition used is strange and inexplicable - or at least unexplained. The World Cup route is a bit random, so if Kramnik had been really keen to have another crack at the title he would presumably not have ducked the Grand Prix.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

If that rating definition is kept, does anyone think a player from China might qualify for the Candidates next time? Or put another way, how easy/hard is it for those outside the established top players to break into the very top elite circle?

[Mick Norris]

If they keep the average rating over a year idea, then having a high rating to start with is a must - there is a minimum games played requirement too, which stop players sitting on their rating, but the ideal strategy can be not to play for the first half of the year - however they have to play either the GP or WC to be eligible

China - best plan is to hold the Candidates and use the wild card (although Armenia, Azerbaijan, USA & Russia may bid too for the same reasons)

GP - if China wants a Candidate, second best plan would be to hold 1 of the GPs and thus get a choice of who actually plays in the GP series, although they probably have enough high rated players now anyway to get a couple in the series

WC - seems random, but actually has always been won by very strong players (Svidler, Karjakin, Kramnik, Gelfand, Kamsky, Aronian, Anand) and I think the Chinese have identified they need to improve in the knock out format?

[Roger de Coverly]

Or put another way, how easy/hard is it for those outside the established top players to break into the very top elite circle?

There are three Chinese players in the top 20 and all 3 are within 50 points of the current number 3 (Caruana) on live ratings. But perhaps they don't get as many invitations to elite events as the top Russians, Americans and Europeans.

[Mick Norris]

Venue announced, according to Mark Crowther

FIDE Candidates to take place in the DI Telegraph space in the historic Central Telegraph building, the "digital hub" of Moscow. 11-29 March

chessdom.com

picture

Urban historic place