The Candidates Chess Tournament is one of the strongest and most prestigious events in the Chess world. The winner gets a chance to play in the World Chess Championship match, so it is a very important opportunity for all the strongest Grandmasters of the world.

This year, 2022, it was held in Madrid, Spain, from 16 June to 5 July. Eight of the strongest Grandmasters participated in this even which was organized as a double round-robin format (all play all twice), with 14 rounds. The time control was 2 hours for the first 40 moves, followed by 1 hour for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.

Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia won the Tournament and will be playing in the World Championship Match in 2023 with Ding Liren of China who finished second.

The Tournament had a mix of experienced grandmasters who had already participated in earlier editions of the event and young grandmasters who were playing the candidates for the first time. Ian Nepomniachtchi (2766, Russia) qualified as the 2021 FIDE World Championship runner-up. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2750, Poland) qualified by winning the 2021 FIDE World Cup. Alireza Firouzja (2793, France) and Fabiano Caruana (2783, United States) qualified by finishing in the top two the 2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. Hikaru Nakamura (2760, United States) and Richard Rapport (2764, Hungary) qualified by finishing in the top two in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix. Teimour Radjabov (2753, Azerbaijan) was a Wild Card entry invited by FIDE; actually he had qualified for the previous edition of the event but had declined to participate due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ding Liren (2806, China) qualified as the replacement to Sergey Karjakin (who was banned by FIDE for supporting Russia over the Ukraine invastion) as the highest-rated player.

Halfway through the event, after 7 rounds, Ian Nepomniachtchi was the sole leader with 5.5/7. Fabiano Caruana was in second position, just half a point behind the leader. Radjabov and Firouzja were at the bottom with 2.5 points.

The second half of the event saw the resurgence of Nakamura who scored several important wins and by the end of the penultimate round was in clear second place with 7.5 points. The most interesting game of the event was in the final round between Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren (on 7 points). Hikaru Nakamura, needing only a draw to be the runner up in the Tournament, after several missed chances in the game, messed up the opportunity and lost. With this win, Ding Liren was clear second place with 8 points. Radjabov and Nakamura tied with 7.5 points and stood 3rd and 4th place.

Fabiano Caruana had a very disappointing event, in the second half of the event, he scored just 3 draws and some unfortunate losses. It was an exhausing Tournament for all the players, most of the games were hard fought and resulted in several interesting battles.

Nepomniachtchi took an early lead in the Tournament and won with a round to spare, without a single loss. He said he was very motivated to win the Tournament and get another chance at the World Championship. He was ably supported by very strong seconds and his preparation for the World championship match last year helped him in Opening Theory.

The Candidates Tournament results gained more significance as a few weeks later the reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen announced that he will not be defending his Title in year 2023. The reason given was lack of motivation to play another Match. Magnus said he didn't feel he had much to gain and didn't particularly like it.

FIDE discussed with Magnus and later accepted this decision. This meant that Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, the top 2 finishers of the event would not play in 2023 for the World Championship Title.

Nepomniachtchi took an early lead in the Tournament and carefully maintained his headstart throughout the event.
Position after White's 25^th move:

Nakamura playing White got a good position after some weak moves by Nepomniachtchi in the Petroff defense. In a critical position, Nakamura did not find the most forcing moves and allowed Nepomniachtchi to escape with a lucky but important draw.
Position after White's 27^th Move:

Caruana had been in second position behind Nepo half way through the event. This defeat to Nakamura after a marathon battle was the beginning of a major slump for Caruana and allowed Nakamura to catch up with the race for the top. Position after White's 22^nd move:

Alireza Firouzja was the youngest participant. One cannot blame him for being ambitious while playing White against the ultimate winner Ian Nepomniachtchi. Nepo played solid and precise moves, without taking any channces. In a Petroff Defence, Firouzja playing White, pushed his kingside pawns for attack. However, the attack proved to be immature and brought about his own disaster. The game is given below.

In the final round Nepomniachtchi drew with Duda and comfortably won the event. The fight for 2^nd place was this dramatic game; Hikaru Nakamura was leading Ding Liren by half a point, needing only a draw to clinch 2^nd place. The second place is important. If either Magnus Carlsen or Ian Nepomniachtchi opt out, the second player will play the World Championship. Nakamura appeared nervous and tentative with 18...h6 . He later said in an interview that exchanging rooks (18...Rxd1) would have been without any problem. Still, the game was even until about 34 moves and then 35...Bd8? was a definite mistake. Ding too made an error on the 38^th move which could have allowed black to recover, but Nakamura did not find 38...f3!

With this splendid victory, Ding Liren stood clear 2nd place, which later gave him the great opportunity to play in the World Championship when Magnus declined to defend his Title.

Player	Points
Ian Nepomniachtchi	9.5
Ding Liren	8
Teimour Radjabov	7.5
Hikaru Nakamura	7.5
Fabiano Caruana	6.5
Alireza Firouzja	6
Jan-Krzysztof Duda	5.5
Richard Rapport	5.5

(L to R) Alberto Tome (Spanish Government representative), Arkady Dvorkovich (FIDE President) Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Hikaru Nakamura, Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Richard Rapport