Candidates Tournament

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The Candidates Tournament was a triennial chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The winner of the Candidates earned the right to a match for the World Championship against the incumbent World Champion.

The numbers in the tournament varied over the years, between eight and fifteen players. Most of these qualified from Interzonal tournaments, though some gained direct entry without having to play the Interzonal.

The first Interzonal/Candidates World Championship cycle began in 1948. Before 1965, the tournament was organized in a round-robin format. From 1965 on, the tournament was played as knockout matches, often spread over several months. In 1995-6, the defending champion also entered the Candidates, so the winner was the FIDE world champion.

FIDE discontinued the Candidates tournaments after 1996, though they have returned in a different form for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007.

During its 1993 to 2006 split from FIDE, the "Classical" World Championship also held three candidates tournaments, under a different sponsor each time. In one of these cases (Alexei Shirov in 1998) no title match eventuated, under disputed circumstances (see Classical World Chess Championship 2000).

[edit] Results of Interzonal and Candidates Tournaments

The table below shows the qualifiers and results for all Candidates tournaments. Players shown in bracketed in italics (like this) qualified for the Candidates, but did not play. Players shown bracketed in italics with an asterisk (like this*) were excluded from the Candidates by a rule limiting the number of players from one country. Players listed after bracketed players only qualified due to the non-participation of the bracketed players.

The "Seeded into Championship" column usually refers to the incumbent champion, but this has a different meaning for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007, in which four players were seeded into the final championship tournament.

Year Interzonal Format Interzonal Qualifiers Seeded into Candidates Candidates Format Candidates Winner Seeded into Championship Championship Result
1948–51 Saltsjöbaden 1948
20 players, single round Robin, 8 qualified		 Bronstein, Szabo, Boleslavsky, Kotov, Lilienthal, Najdorf, Ståhlberg, Flohr, (Bondarevsky) Smyslov, Keres (Euwe, Reshevsky, Fine) Budapest 1950
10 players, double round robin		 Bronstein (after playoff match against Boleslavsky) Botvinnik Moscow 1950
Drawn 12–12, Botvinnik retained title
1951–54 Stockholm 1952
21 players, single round robin, 8 qualified		 Kotov, Taimanov, Petrosian, Geller, Averbakh, Ståhlberg, Szabo, Gligoric Bronstein, Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Keres, Najdorf (from previous Candidates), Reshevsky, Euwe (from 1948 Championship) Zurich 1953
15 players, double round robin		 Smyslov Botvinnik Moscow 1954
Drawn 12–12, Botvinnik retained title
1954–57 Göteborg 1955
21 players, single round robin, 9 qualified		 Bronstein, Keres, Panno, Petrosian, Geller, Szabo, Filip, Pilnik, Spassky Smyslov Amsterdam 1956
10 players, double round robin		 Smyslov Botvinnik Moscow 1957
Smyslov won 12.5–9.5
1958 rematch Botvinnik Smyslov Moscow 1958
Botvinnik won 12.5–10.5
1958–60 Portoroz 1958
21 players, single round robin, 6 qualified		 Tal, Gligorić, Petrosian, Benko, Olafsson, Fischer Smyslov, Keres Yugoslavia 1959
8 players, quadruple round robin		 Tal Botvinnik Moscow 1960
Tal won 12.5–8.5
1961 rematch Botvinnik Tal Moscow 1961
Botvinnik won 13–8
1961–63 Stockholm 1962
23 players, single round robin, 6 qualified		 Fischer, Geller, Petrosian, Korchnoi, Filip, (Stein*), Benko Tal, Keres Curaçao 1962
8 players, quadruple round robin		 Petrosian Botvinnik Moscow 1963
Petrosian won 12.5–9.5
1964–66 Amsterdam 1964
24 players, single round robin, 6 qualified		 Smyslov, Larsen, Spassky, Tal, (Stein*), (Bronstein*), Ivkov, Portisch Keres, (Botvinnik), Geller 8 players, matches Spassky Petrosian Moscow 1966
Petrosian won 12.5–11.5
1967–69 Sousse 1967
23 players, single round robin, 6 qualified		 Larsen, Korchnoi, Geller, Gligorić, Portisch, Reshevsky Spassky, Tal 8 players, matches Spassky Petrosian Moscow 1969
Spassky won 12.5–10.5
1970–72 Palma de Mallorca 1970
24 players, single round robin, 6 qualified		 Fischer, Larsen, Geller, Hübner, Taimanov, Uhlmann Petrosian, Korchnoi 8 players, matches Fischer Spassky Reykjavík 1972
Fischer won 12.5–8.5
1973–75 Leningrad 1973
Petropolis 1973
Two 18 player, single round robin Interzonals; 3 qualified from each		 Korchnoi, Karpov, Byrne; Mecking, Portisch, Polugaevsky Spassky, Petrosian 8 players, matches Karpov Fischer Karpov won on forfeit
1976–78 Biel 1976
Manila 1976
Two 20 player, single round robin Interzonals; 3 qualified from each		 Larsen, Petrosian, Portisch; Mecking, Polugaevsky, Hort Korchnoi, (Fischer), Spassky 8 players, matches Korchnoi Karpov Baguio City 1978
Karpov won 6–5 (draws not counting)
1979–81 Riga 1979
Rio de Janeiro 1979
Two 18 player, single round robin Interzonals; 3 qualified from each		 Tal, Polugaevsky, Adorján; Portisch, Petrosian, Hübner Korchnoi, Spassky 8 players, matches Korchnoi Karpov Merano 1981
Karpov won 6–2 (draws not counting)
1982–85 Las Palmas 1982
Moscow 1982
Toluca 1982
Three 14 player, single round robin Interzonals; 2 qualified from each		 Ribli, Smyslov; Kasparov, Beliavsky; Portisch, Torre Korchnoi, Hübner 8 players, matches Kasparov Karpov Moscow 1984
Unlimited match abandoned after 48 games with Karpov leading 5–3;
Moscow 1985
Kasparov won replay 13–11
1986 rematch Karpov Kasparov London/Leningrad 1986
Kasparov won 12.5–11.5
1985–87 Biel 1985
Taxco 1985
Tunis 1985
Three 16–18 player, single round robin Interzonals; 4 qualified from each		 Vaganian, Seirawan, Sokolov, Short; Timman, Nogueiras, Tal, Spraggett; Yusupov, Beliavsky, Portisch, Chernin Karpov, Korchnoi, Ribli, Smyslov, Spassky Montpellier 1985 16 player tournament; top 4 (Yusupov, Vaganian, Sokolov, Timman) played matches; matches winner (Sokolov) played Karpov Karpov Kasparov Seville 1987
Drawn 12–12, Kasparov retained title
1988–90 Subotica 1988
Szirák 1988
Zagreb 1988
Three 17–18 player, single round robin Interzonals; 3 qualified from each		 Sax, Short, Speelman; Salov, Hjartarson, Portisch; Korchnoi, Seirawan, Ehlvest Karpov, Sokolov, Timman, Vaganian, Yusupov, Spraggett 15 players, matches, (Karpov seeded into second round) Karpov Kasparov New York/Lyon 1990
Kasparov won 12.5–11.5
1991–93 Manila 1990
64 player Swiss, 11 qualified		 Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Anand, Sax, Short, Korchnoi, Hübner, Nikolić, Yudasin, Dolmatov, Dreev Karpov, Timman, Yusupov, Speelman 15 players, matches, (Karpov seeded into second round) Short Kasparov Kasparov defeated Short 13–8 under the auspices of the PCA; Karpov defeated Timman 12.5–8.5 under the auspices of FIDE
1993–95 (PCA) Groningen
54 player Swiss, 7 qualified		 Adams, Anand, Kamsky, Kramnik, Tiviakov, Gulko, Romanishin Short 8 players, matches Anand Kasparov New York 1995
Kasparov won 10.5–7.5
1993–96 (FIDE) Biel 1993
73 player Swiss, 10 qualified		 Gelfand, Van der Sterren, Kamsky, Khalifman, Adams, Yudasin, Salov, Lautier, Kramnik, Anand Timman, Yusupov 12 players played two rounds of matches; then Karpov joined the final 3 (Gelfand, Kamsky, Salov) for matches Karpov, Kamsky (finalists) Elista 1996
Karpov won 10.5–7.5
1997–98 (FIDE) Groningen 1997
7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament		 Anand Karpov Lausanne 1998
Drawn 3–3; Karpov won rapid playoff 2–0
1998 (Classical) None Kramnik, Shirov Cazorla 1998
match		 Shirov won 5.5–3.5 Kasparov match never took place
1999 (FIDE) Las Vegas 1999
7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament		 Khalifman, Akopian (finalists) Las Vegas 1999
Khalifman won 3.5–2.5
2000 (Classical) None Kramnik None Kasparov London 2000
Kramnik won 8.5–6.5
2000 (FIDE) New Delhi 2000
7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament		 Anand, Shirov (finalists) Tehran 2000
Anand won 3.5–0.5
2001–2002 (FIDE) Moscow 2001
7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament		 Ponomariov, Ivanchuk (finalists) Moscow 2002
Ponomariov won 4.5–2.5
2002–2004 (Classical) None Bareev, Adams, Leko, Morozevich, Topalov, Shirov, Gelfand, Lutz Dortmund 2002
Two 4 player double round robins; top 2 from each formed a final 4, who played 2 rounds of mini-matches		 Leko Kramnik Brissago 2004
drawn 7–7, Kramnik retained title
2004 (FIDE) Tripoli 2004
7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament		 Adams, Kasimdzhanov (finalists) Tripoli 2004
drawn 3–3; Kasimdzhanov won rapid playoff 1.5–0.5
2005 (FIDE) None Adams, Kasimdzhanov (as FIDE 2004 finalists); Leko, (Kramnik) (as Classical 2004 finalists); Anand, Topalov, Morozevich, (Kasparov), Svidler, Polgar (on rating) San Luis 2005
8 player, double round robin		 Topalov
2006 Reunification match between FIDE champion (Topalov) and Classical Champion (Kramnik) Elista 2006
drawn 6–6, Kramnik won rapid playoff 2.5–1.5
2007 Khanty-Mansiysk 2005
7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament; top 10 qualify		 Aronian, Bareev, Carlsen, Gelfand, Gurevich, Grischuk, Kamsky, Malakhov, Ponomariov, Rublevsky Kasimdzhanov (2004 FIDE Champion); Leko, Adams, Polgar, Shirov, Bacrot (on rating) Elista 2007
16 players, two rounds of matches, 4 qualify for championship tournament		 Aronian, Gelfand, Grischuk, Leko Kramnik (2006 Champion), Anand, Svidler, Morozevich (for placing 2nd–4th in 2005) Mexico City 2007
1. Anand 9.0/14.0
2008 rematch Kramnik Anand
2009 Chess World Cup 2007
7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament		 Kamsky Topalov 8 game match Winner of 2008 Anand-Kramnik match

[edit] References