The 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament is set to take place from 3-25th April at The Great Hall in Toronto, Canada.
For the first time in chess history, the Candidates and Women’s Candidates will be held concurrently and at the same venue. This is also the first time that the Candidates Tournament is held in North America. Another first, that two siblings – Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali Rameshbabu – are Candidates for the chess world crown.
The winner of the Candidates Chess Tournament 2024 will challenge the current world champion GM Ding Liren in the next World Championship Match.
Participants:
GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2023 FIDE World Championship runner-up)
GM Vidit Gujrathi (Grand Swiss winner)
GM Hikaru Nakamura (Grand Swiss runner-up)
GM Gukesh Dommaraju (FIDE Circuit winner)
GM Praggnanandhaa R. (World Cup runner-up)
GM Fabiano Caruana (World Cup third place)
GM Nijat Abasov (World Cup fourth place), replacing FIDE World Cup winner GM Magnus Carlsen, who refused to participate.
GM Alireza Firouzja (rating)
The tournament format is a double round-robin with the time control of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by additional 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment starting on move 41.
Players cannot make draw by agreement before move 41.
The total prize fund is โฌ500,000:
โฌ48,000 for first place,
โฌ36,000 for second place,
โฌ24,000 for third place,
and โฌ3,500 for every half-point each player scores.
In case of a tie, the prize money is divided equally among the players.
The earlier agreement between FIDE and Grand Chess Tour stating that “the two top finishers of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour Series will qualify for the Candidates 2024” was silently abolished without any official statements.