Anil Kumar Anand
Men’s World Chess Candidates 2020

The 2020 Men's World Chess Candidates Tournament was an 8-player double round-robin tournament, originally scheduled to be played in Yekaterinburg, Russia, from 15 March to 5 April 2020.

The winner of the Candidates would have earned the right to challenge the defending world champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, in the World Chess Championship match in Nov 2020, which was to take place either in Dubai or in Buenos Aires.

The eight qualifiers from five countries were as follows (Name, ELO rating, Nationality):

NoNameELONation
1Fabiano Caruana2842USA
2Ding Liren2805CHN
3Wang Hao2758CHN
4Alexander Grischuk2777RUS
5Ian Nepomniachtchi2774RUS
6Kirill Alekseenko2704RUS
7Anish Giri2763NED
8Maxime Vachier-Lagrave2767FRA

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave replaced Teimour Radjabov, the World Cup 2019 winner, as the highest-rated reserve player after the latter withdrew in protest against holding the Candidates in the backdrop of Covid-19 outbreak.

On Mar 27, 2020, the Russian government suspended all flights to and from the country on account of Covid-19 pandemic situation, so the International Chess Federation (FIDE) decided to halt the 2020 Candidates Tournament which was taking place in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

By that point, half of the tournament had been played (seven out of 14 rounds) and the chess community witnessed some spectacular games, a welcome distraction from the gloomy news about the Covid-19 pandemic. At the half-way mark, the underdogs Ian Nepomniachtchi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are sharing the lead with 4.5/7 points. Four players, Caruana, Giri, Wang and Grischuk are just one point behind at 3.5/7. The biggest disappointment has been for the no. 2 seed Ding Liren, one of the pre-tournament favourites, who started the tournament badly with two consecutive losses to Wang and MVL, and currently shares last place with Alekseenko on 2.5/7. The probable reason for a poor start for the Chinese super GM could be that Ding Liren had a tough time before starting the competition as he was in lockdown in China and had to spend 14 days in quarantine near Moscow before travelling to Yekaterinburg. Ding has some consolation for beating the no. 1 seed Carauna in round 3 and drawn the remaining games, so he is still a force to contend with. However, whether he can make up the 2-point gap against the leader board is to be seen. On the other hand, any one of the quartet Caruana, Giri, Wang and Grischuk could be the next candidate.

In the current scenario, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has made the most of the smallest of chances Lady Luck has offered him. MVL’s failure to qualify for the Candidates Tournament was becoming the stuff of legend. He had been in the Top-10 at the start of the 2014, 2016, 2018 and now 2020 Candidates, but in each case failed to qualify narrowly. In 2017, he was an Armageddon game away from beating Levon Aronian to get to the World Cup final and the Candidates, while also just missing out in the Grand Prix and by rating as well. 2019 was almost a carbon copy – again World Cup semifinal heartbreak, again a game away in the Grand Prix, again next in line by rating.It seemed the universe was against him until the Covid-19 (or was it Providence?) intervened.

He has won two games and drawn five games so far, a flawless record. In round four, he missed a chance versus Grischuk to tighten the noose when he played 30.Ba3+ instead of 30.Re4 and allowed the latter to not just escape the trap but also easily split points in the four-rook ending. However, he beat tournament co-leader Nepomniachtchi in round seven.

Can MVL be like Denmark, who won the Euro 1992 football championship after getting in as late replacements for war-torn Yugoslavia? Only time will tell.

The Tournament was not without controversy and rightly so since Radjabov decided not to participate on Mar 6. The tournament took place under difficult, even unprecedented, circumstances. However, we are witnessing the creation of a new normal, where not just playing chess, but life, in general, has become completely different. How we do things in the future, in whichever field that may be, is very likely going to be significantly different from what it was before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. As Vishy Anand put it, "we are on the uncharted territory". Following the postponement of the tournament, Radjabov called for his reinstatement in the tournament, as well as considering legal action if he is not reinstated. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich indicated that Radjabov will be given wildcard for the next cycle in 2022, subject to approval from the FIDE Council.

The World Championship match, originally scheduled in Nov 2020 has been postponed, based on FIDE announcement on 29 Jun 2020, to 2021. For the very first time, it will be a best-of-14 games match, with tie breaks. The number of games 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 between Carlsen and Caruana.

Three of the best games played (source: ChessBase) are given here for readers to enjoy.