Levon Aroyan receives the "Man of the Year" award of the De Facto magazine and gives a press conference before the chess tournament in London in Peoplemeter press club

FIDE and Agon, its commercial partner, have announced that the Candidates Chess Tournament 2016 will be held in Moscow from March 10 to 30, 2016.

The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by FIDE since 1950, as a final tournament to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The winner of the Candidates earns the right to a match for the World Championship against the reigning World Champion, currently Magnus Carlsen. The match is supposed to be held in the United States.

Tashir Group, a large real estate developer in Russia, is one of the principal sponsors. The company is run by Samvel Karapetyan, an Armenian-born businessman whose net worth is about $4.8 billion according to Forbes magazine. That makes Levon Aronian the nominee of the organizers for Moscow Candidates 2016.

Read more about Aronian’s nomination by the organizers here.

Chessdom.com will provide wide coverage of the event with live Grandmaster commentary and computer analysis by the Top Chess Engine Competition with Komodo, Stockfish, and Houdini

Candidates Chess 2016 participants

1. Vishwanathan Anand (India) – The player who lost the 2014 World Championship Match
2. Sergey Karjakin (Russia) – as winner of the FIDE World Cup in Baku
3. Peter Svidler (Russia) – as the silver medalist of the FIDE World Cup in Baku
4. Fabiano Caruana (USA/Italy) – from FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15
5. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) – from FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15
6. Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) – By rating
7. Anish Giri (Netherlands) – By rating
8. Levon Aronian (Armenia) – organizers nominee of rating higher than 2725 ELO

Candidates 2016 details

Details of the Tournament:

Dates: March 8 – 29, 2016
Number of players: 8
Format: Double round robin tournament (14 rounds)
Length: 22 days including arrivals, departures, opening and closing ceremonies
Prize fund: EUR 561,000 including FIDE fees

Candidates Chess 2016 regulations

The players who qualify for the 2016 Candidates Tournament are determined according to the following, in order of priority:

2.1 World Championship Match 2014
– The player who lost the 2014 World Championship Match qualifies.

2.2 World Cup 2015

– The two (2) top winners of the World Cup 2015 qualify. In case one of the two top winners of the World Cup qualifies from 2.1 above, then the qualification spot goes to 3rd place of the World Cup.

2.3 FIDE Grand-Prix 2014/2015
– The two (2) top players from the FIDE Grand-Prix 2014/2015 qualify to participate. In case any of the two top winners of the FIDE Grand-Prix qualify from 2.1 or 2.2 above, then the qualification spot(s) are given to the next player(s) in the final standings of the Grand-Prix.

2.4 Average FIDE Rating List of the 12 monthly lists starting from 1st January 2015 to 1st December 2015
– Two (2) players qualify to participate by rating (excluding the players who qualify from articles 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 above). A player can qualify by rating only if he/she participates in the World Cup 2015 or the FIDE Grand Prix 2014-2015. For the purpose of deciding the 2 rated player qualifiers, the average from the following twelve FIDE rating lists will be used: the sum of all 12 monthly lists starting from 1st January 2015 to 1st December 2015 divided by 12. A minimum of thirty (30) rated games in total is required for each player in the 12 monthly rating periods. In case of equality, two decimals will be taken into consideration. If the numbers are still equal then the total number of games in all 12 rating periods shall be decisive. That means the player with the greater number of games shall qualify.

2.5 One nominated player by the Organiser
– A player, nominated by the organiser, with a rating of at least 2725 in the FIDE rating list of 1st July 2015.

2.6 Replacements
– If any replacement is needed due to withdrawal or refusal of participation, the first reserve player from the final standings of the FIDE Grand-Prix 2014/2015 will be invited. Any further replacement needed will be fulfilled from the average rating list described in article 2.4 above.

More about the regulations

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