The Candidates Chess Tournament 2014 to determine the challenger for the FIDE World Chess Championship Match will take place from 11th March to 1st April in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

Eight players participate in the Candidates Tournament and the winner qualifies for the World Chess Championship Match.

1. Viswanathan Anand (IND, former World Champion)
2. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS, World Cup 2013 winner)
3. Dmitry Andreikin (RUS, World Cup 2013 finalist)
4. Veselin Topalov (BUL, Grand-Prix 2012-13 winner)
5. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE, Grand-Prix 2012-13 runner-up)
6. Levon Aronian (ARM, rating list 2012-13)
7. Sergey Karjakin (RUS, rating list 2012-13)
8. Peter Svidler (RUS, host nominee)

The total prize fund is 600,000 EUR, which is well above the FIDE required minimum of 420,000 EUR.

The 8 players will play a double round robin tournament (14 rounds). The players who are from the same federation will play each other in rounds 1 and 8 (if only two) and if up to four players are from the same federation in rounds 1, 2, 3 and 8, 9, 10. The pairings will be announced by 13 February.

The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.

If the top two or more players score the same points, the tie will be decided by the following criteria, in order of priority:
a) The results of the games between the players involved in the tie.
If they are still tied:
b) The total number of wins in the tournament of every player involved in the tie.
If they are still tied:
c) Sonneborn – Berger System.
If there is no clear winner with the above 3 criteria, there will be a special competition between the players who still remain tied after using the 3rd criteria (Sonneborn – Berger)

The exact schedule of the event:

11 March: Arrivals
12 March: Opening Ceremony & Players Meeting
13-15 March: Rounds 1-3
16 March: Free day
17-19 March: Rounds 4-6
20 March: Free day
21-23 March: Rounds 7-9
24 March: Free day
25-27 March: Rounds 10-12
28 March: Free day
29-30 March: Rounds 13-14
31 March: Tiebreaks / Closing ceremony
1 April: Departures

Detailed technical regulations are published in the FIDE handbook

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