FIDE Candidates 2024: Carlsen’s withdrawal official, focus on India at tournament

It was widely expected all along, but it has become official now – Magnus Carlsen will not play the Candidates tournament in April. The event that will determine who takes on the World chess champion Ding Liren is not going to feature the World No. 1 and five-time World champion from Norway.

Carlsen has officially withdrawn from the tournament to be held in Toronto, through a letter to the world chess governing body FIDE. His place – which he earned by winning the World Cup – has gone to Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan.

The top three from the World Cup, which was held in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, would have qualified, and Abasov had finished fourth, behind Carlsen, India’s R. Praggnanandhaa and American Fabiano Caruana.

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India will be represented by two more players – Vidit Gujrathi (the winner of the Grand Swiss tournament) and D. Gukesh (the FIDE Circuit winner). That makes India the country with the highest number of participants in the eight-player round-robin event. And India has had none since 2016.

Until Praggnanandhaa clinched the qualification spot with his superb performance at the World Cup in Baku, Anand – a five-time World champion – had been the only Indian to play in this prestigious event, the World championship’s semifinal for all practical purposes.

That India has claimed three out of the eight places available at the Candidates shows how much the game has moved ahead in the country.

The line-up in Toronto is completed by Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi (as the runner-up of the last World championship), Hikaru Nakamura of the United States (the runner-up at Grand Swiss) and Alireza Firouzja of France (the player with the best rating).

Moreover, two Indians will compete in the Women’s Candidates. R. Vaishali qualified by winning the Women’s Grand Swiss, while Koneru Humpy, a former World rapid champion, made it on account of having the best rating.

The others in the field are the Russians Kateryna Lagno and Aleksandra Goryachkina (the winner and the runner-up of the Women’s Grand Prix), China’s Lei Tingjie (the runner-up at the last World Championship), Nuryul Salimova of Bulgaria (the runner-up at the World Cup), Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine (third place at the Women’s World Cup) and Tan Zhongyi of China (third place at Women’s Grand Swiss).

The winner will take on the reigning World champion Ju Wenjun of China.