The drawing of lots for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 took place a few days ago in Toronto’s Madison Pub in Canada, and the pairings of all rounds have been announced today!
Fabiano Caruana will have a starting number 1, which means that Hikaru Nakamura takes number 8. Gukesh D starts the tournament with a number 4, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is 5, and Praggnananda is number 6. Nijat Abasov will compete with the starting number 2, Alireza Firouzja is 3, and Ian Nepomniachtchi starts with the number 7.
Pairings for the Women’s tournament can be found here.
Round 1 pairings are:
Fabiano Caruana – Hikaru Nakamura
Nijat Abasov – Ian Nepomniachtchi
Alireza Firouzja – Praggnanandhaa
Gukesh D – Vidit Santosh Gujrathi
Round 2 pairings:
Hikaru Nakamura – Vidit Santosh Gujrathi
Praggnanandhaa – Gukesh D
Ian Nepomniachtchi – Alireza Firouzja
Fabiano Caruana – Nijat Abasov
Round 3 pairings:
Nijat Abasov – Hikaru Nakamura
Alireza Firouzja – Fabiano Caruana
Gukesh D – Ian Nepomniachtchi
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi – Praggnanandhaa
Round 4 pairings:
Hikaru Nakamura – Praggnanandhaa
Ian Nepomniachtchi – Vidit Santosh Gujrathi
Fabiano Caruana – Gukesh D
Nijat Abasov – Alireza Firouzja
Round 5 pairings:
Alireza Firouzja – Hikaru Nakamura
Gukesh D – Nijat Abasov
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi – Fabiano Caruana
Praggnanandhaa – Ian Nepomniachtchi
Round 6 pairings:
Hikaru Nakamura – Ian Nepomniachtchi
Fabiano Caruana – Praggnanandhaa
Alireza Firouzja – Gukesh D
Nijat Abasov – Vidit Santosh Gujrathi
Round 7 pairings:
Gukesh D – Hikaru Nakamura
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi – Alireza Firouzja
Praggnanandhaa – Alireza Firouzja
Ian Nepomniachtchi – Fabiano Caruana
Pairings for rounds 8-14 repeat with reversed colours of players.
The tournament is an eight-player, double round-robin tournament, with 14 rounds where each player is facing the others twice: once with the black pieces and once with the white pieces. The tournament winner will qualify to play Ding Liren for the World Championship in 2024.
