World Chess Championship 2021

The World Chess Championship 2021 will be a chess match between the reigning World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen, and a challenger to determine the World Chess Champion. It will be held under the auspices of FIDE, the world chess federation. The match was originally scheduled for the latter half of 2020, but has been postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]

Defending champion Challenger
Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen TBD
Born 30 November 1990
29 years old
Winner of the World Chess Championship 2018 Winner of the Candidates Tournament 2020
Rating: TBD Rating: TBD
← 2018 2022 →

Candidates Tournament
Main article: Candidates Tournament 2020

The challenger will be the winner of a Candidates Tournament, which is an eight-player double-round robin tournament played in Yekaterinburg, Russia.[2] Originally scheduled for 15 March to 5 April 2020, the second half of the tournament was postponed by FIDE on 26 March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] It is expected that the Candidates Tournament will be concluded in late 2020.

The qualifiers for the Candidates Tournament were:[4][5]

Qualification method Player
2018 World Championship runner-up Fabiano Caruana
The top two finishers at the Chess World Cup 2019 Teimour Radjabov (winner). Withdrew.[6][7]
Ding Liren (runner-up)
The top finisher in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019 (who does not qualify by one of the above methods, and is not Carlsen). Wang Hao (winner)
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2019 (who do not qualify by one of the above methods). Alexander Grischuk (winner)
Ian Nepomniachtchi (runner-up)
Highest average rating (who does not qualify by one of the above methods, and is not Carlsen). Anish Giri
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (replacement for Radjabov)[6][7]
Wild card chosen by organizer, subject to eligibility criteria Kirill Alekseenko[8] (highest non-qualifier in Grand Swiss)

If one or more players declined the invitation to play in the Candidates Tournament, the players with the next highest average ratings would qualify. On March 6, Teimour Radjabov withdrew because of concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic,[7] and this rule was used to select Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as his replacement.

Results
Standings of the 2020 Candidates Tournament
Rank Player Score H2H Wins SB MVL IN FC Giri Wang AG Ding KA
1–2  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 4.5 / 7 1 2 15.25 1    ½    ½ ½ ½    1    ½
1–2  Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS) 4.5 / 7 0 3 14.25 0 ½ 1 1    ½    1    ½
3–6  Fabiano Caruana (USA) 3.5 / 7 1.5 1 12.25 ½ ½    ½ ½    ½ 0 1   
3–6  Anish Giri (NED) 3.5 / 7 1.5 1 11.25 ½    0    ½    ½ ½    ½ 1
3–6  Wang Hao (CHN) 3.5 / 7 1.5 1 11.25 ½    0 ½ ½    ½ 1 ½   
3–6  Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 3.5 / 7 1.5 0 12.25 ½ ½ ½    ½ ½    ½    ½   
7–8  Ding Liren (CHN) 2.5 / 7 0.5 1 8.25 0 0 1    ½    0    ½ ½   
7–8  Kirill Alekseenko (RUS) 2.5 / 7 0.5 0 9.25 ½    ½    0 0    ½ ½ ½
Updated to match(es) played on 25 March 2020. Source: Official website Chess.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head score among tied players; 3) total number of wins; 4) Sonneborn–Berger score (SB); 5) tie-break games.[5]

Note: Numbers in the crosstable in a white background indicate the result playing the respective opponent with the white pieces (black pieces if on a black background).

Championship match

Organization

The organisation rights belonging to World Chess, the commercial partner of FIDE.[9]

The match will be a best-of-14 match, with tie breaks. This was increased from best-of-12 (in place for every world championship match since 2006), after all 12 regular games were drawn in the previous match in 2018.[10]

On 29 June 2020 the match was officially postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Candidates Tournament scheduled to finish in the latter half of 2020.[1]

Location

Bids were to be presented no later than on 1 March 2019 to World Chess, with an inspection at the proposed venues to be made between 1 July and 15 August 2019.[11]

In 2018, Monaco and Vienna expressed intention to bid for the event,[12] as has Saint Petersburg.

Stavanger, Norway announced a bid in March 2019, but withdrew its bid in June 2019, after Carlsen expressed reluctance to play the match in Norway.[13][14]

In November 2019, at the Hamburg Grand Prix Opening Ceremony, FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich announced that FIDE had received bids from UAE and Argentina to host the match.[15]

References
  1. Doggers, Peter (2020-06-29). "World Chess Championship Match Postponed To 2021". Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  2. Candidates Tournament to Take Place in Yekaterinburg from March 15 till April 5, 11 November 2019, Chess Federation of Russia
  3. Barden, Leonard (26 Mar 2020). "Chess: Candidates stopped at midway point after Russia suspends air traffic". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 Mar 2020.
  4. Bidding Procedure for the FIDE Candidates' Tournament 2020, FIDE, 8 March 2020
  5. Regulations for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2020, FIDE
  6. "Teimour Radjabov to be replaced by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the Candidates Tournament". FIDE. 6 March 2020.
  7. "MVL to play the Candidates instead of Radjabov". chess24.com. 6 March 2020.
  8. “Ruchess - Statement of the CFR President:"Andrey Filatov: Kirill Alekseenko to Get Wild Card from Organizer of FIDE Candidates Tournament (23 December, 2019)”
  9. "Bidding opens to Host the 2020 World Chess Candidates Tournament". FIDE. 4 June 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  10. FIDE updates and the World Championship cycle, Chessbase, April 26 2019
  11. "Championship Match 2020 - The Bidding Procedure" (PDF). WorldChess. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  12. "Vienna vies for 2020 World Championship". chessbase.com. 13 September 2018.
  13. Norway not to bid for the 2020 World Chess Championship, Norway Chess press release, June, 27 2019
  14. "Stavanger, Norway Withdraws 2020 World Champs Bid After Carlsen Pressure". chess.com. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  15. Hamburg GP starts as Candidates race heats up, chess24.com, 5 November 2019
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