Along with everyone else: FIDE has deprived the vice-champion of the privilege of automatically qualifying for the Candidates Tournament

The International Chess Federation this week carried out another reform, changing the selection for the Candidates Tournament, which will come into force in 2026. As FIDE head Arkady Dvorkovich noted, the organization carefully thought through everything, taking into account a number of important factors.

“The goal is to make the qualification process more interesting and fair. This reflects FIDE’s desire to develop and improve selection, creating a dynamic and competitive chess environment,” the official website of the organization quotes the president as saying.

Perhaps the most important innovation concerns the vice-world champion. Starting from 2026, he will not automatically qualify for the next Candidates Tournament. Now he will need to qualify along with the rest. However, as compensation, FIDE will begin to award rating points for participation in the match for the chess crown, which will be calculated depending on the result. Thus, if the match is lost in a tiebreaker, the runner-up will receive more points than if they lost in the standard part of the match.

The privileges of the vice-champion were sacrificed in order to increase the importance of the FIDE Circuit - the qualification system that previously replaced the Grand Prix series. Its essence lies in the fact that throughout the entire calendar year, the international federation calculates the points scored by grandmasters in tournaments recognized by the organization.

To receive a preference, each chess player must take part in at least five, including at least four with standard time control. In 2023, Fabiano Caruana fulfilled the “candidate minimum” in this way, but due to his successful performance at the World Cup, the American’s ticket went to the Indian Gukesh Dommaraj.

From the next cycle, the FIDE Circuit will receive a second quota for the Candidates Tournament and will not be inferior in importance to the Grand Swiss, whose finalists automatically receive two places in the competition.

The second innovation concerns tickets obtained according to the FIDE rating. This time it went to the chess player who had the maximum number of points for January 2024. Now the grandmaster must have the highest average score over the previous six months.

FIDE's move was most likely prompted by recent events. According to the rating, Alireza Firouzja qualified for the Candidates Tournament in Toronto. However, everything turned out quite strange. Back in December, the Frenchman was behind his only competitor, Wesley So. And in order to score more points, instead of the World Championships in Samarkand, he went to more modest competitions in Chartres. There the grandmaster beat almost all opponents who were significantly inferior to him in level, and gained the required points.

At the same time, fortunately for Ian Nepomniachtchi, the next FIDE innovations will come into force only in 2026. The vice world champion, who lost to Ding Lejeune in a tiebreaker in the last match for the chess crown, and according to the new rules, might not have qualified for the Candidates Tournament.

The grandmaster, who failed to win the title two times in a row, did not have a very bright last season. He finished 19th in the FIDE Circuit rankings, lost in the 1/8 finals of the World Cup to Vidit Gujrati and did not take part in the big Swiss, but had a chance to remain top in the rankings. Only at the World Rapid Championships in Samarkand did Yan finally fight for the prizes, but a “fixed” draw with Daniil Dubov, which the judges later nullified, mixed up all the cards.

The chess player also performed averagely at the first prestigious tournament of the new season - Tata Steels Chess in Wijk aan Zee. Nepomniachtchi took only eighth place. The only thing that should have pleased the fans was the rematch over Liren. Moreover, the rivals played each other for the second time after the battle in Astana. For the first time in Bucharest, the opponents settled amicably, and in the Netherlands the Russian confidently won.

However, after the match for the world chess crown, the Chinese took a break from performing for seven months. And after that I clearly didn’t get into shape. In Wijk aan Zee, he suffered three defeats in 13 rounds and was placed behind the Russian, in ninth place. 

The three Indian representatives who qualified for the Candidates' Tournament looked much more impressive: Dommaraju, Vidit Gujrati and Rameshbabu Pragnanandha. The last two scored 7.5 points each and were one point behind the leading group, which included Gukesh, Anish Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Wei Yi. These four staged a real battle in the tiebreaker. The winner was the Chinese.

If we talk about Indian grandmasters, then at the Candidates Tournament they can also use team tactics to try to repeat the success of the 15th world champion Viswanathan Anand and again bring the title to their homeland, where the last few years have seen a real stir around chess.

Nepomniachtchi, in turn, did not play the best against the Indian representatives: two draws and a defeat. He also lost to Firouzja, who took seventh place in the tournament (7.5 points). And this looks like a wake-up call ahead of the main event of 2024. However, according to grandmaster Sergey Karyakin, the results of the Tata Steels Chess are still not worth paying close attention to.

“Ian, it seems to me, did not show his best game, it was felt that he was not in optimal shape. But he can count his victory over world champion Ding Liren in his treasury; he took a little revenge for the world championship match. And in general, thanks to this win, he will play more confidently in the Candidates Tournament. This was a training competition, the result of which means nothing from the point of view of participation in the Candidates Tournament. From the outside it seemed that by the end of the competition Ian sagged a little and played worse than at the beginning. Perhaps this is due to physical fitness or some psychological issues that only he can explain. In two months he can really get into good shape. One unsuccessful tournament means nothing at all. On the contrary, you can fail all competitions except the most important one - the Candidates Tournament,” RIA Novosti quotes the grandmaster as saying. 

In addition to Nepomniachtchi, the Frenchman and three Indian representatives, Americans Fabian Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, as well as Azerbaijani Nijat Abasov, who replaced Magnus Carlsen, also qualified for the Candidates Tournament. The Norwegian once again refused to fight for the title of world champion in classical chess.